Help desk? Or actually provide services!
Posted on July 6, 2017 • 4 min read • 663 words
Is it my imagination or does a ‘service desk’ or ‘helpdesk’ feel less and less service-oriented and helpful? Unless you post something about it on the internet, in which case you will suddenly receive help quickly.
Almost every self-respecting company or government department nowadays has a help desk, service desk, telephone support, or whatever they want to call it. The idea is that people can get help solving their problem via a telephone number or email. This way you don’t have to go back to the store with your product to get help if you don’t understand it, or if it doesn’t work as it should.
If you can find a telephone number in documentation or on websites, you will usually be answered by a friendly computer voice. This asks you to choose from a maze of choices, where you are expected to classify your own problem. ‘Choose 1 for problems installing the product. Choose 2 for maintenance. Choose 3 for .. .. Unfortunately we were unable to register your choice. The connection is now broken."
There goes your first money. You were already a bit irritated when the product didn’t work/look like it should, but now the water is slowly starting to bubble.
Just one more try. Now you choose one of the choices in time. After listening to some vague rendition of Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’ for 45 minutes, you get someone on the phone. ‘No sir/madam, you made the wrong choice. I can’t help you. No, I cannot transfer you. Please try again, but then choose option 2 in the main menu. This is if you are lucky. The answer could also be ‘No, you called the wrong number. The correct number is in the monthly magazine that you receive from us. Try that. Goodbye’.
After another attempt and more pressing with the person who answers the phone, you are told that you have to go to another department.
It can only be that the water is already boiling in the meantime. At least, after waiting for 45 minutes and still no answer, the boiling point has been reached for me. I am then able to throw away the product and buy a new one.
If you then say something about this on the internet to the internet customer team via Twitter or Facebook, this can be arranged very quickly. But what should those (older) people do who do not have internet, or who do not know that ‘services’ are now better provided via the internet? Everything takes place in public, because public opinion is apparently more important than helping customers.
How beautiful can it be
… when the product works / does what it is intended to do in one go. And if by accident it doesn’t do that, or you can’t quite figure it out, you can choose your way with the store/supplier/producer. And that you will receive real and immediate help. That you don’t have to struggle through an impersonal, complicated menu of options first. That if you accidentally called the wrong number, you will be helped by the person who answers the phone, or you will be transferred if there is no other option. That they sincerely ask if this has helped you, and if not, continue until the problem is resolved. That over time they call or email you to sincerely inquire whether your problem has been solved, without immediately putting it into a survey form that is intended to ‘measure’ how satisfied you are. And that you not only treat your customer as a ‘customer’, but that you also consider whether you would like to be helped that way yourself.
Oh well, maybe I see it too black and white.
Of course, there are plenty of companies that do this, treating customers like real people, without sending you from pillar to post. As far as I’m concerned, these companies get a place of honor on the internet/telephone book/Eigen Huis/Consumer guide.
