It’s easy to forget that despite infuriating scripts and adherence to dogmatic corporate policies, CSRs are real people. A former call center worker wrote in to describe the extraordinary pressure CSRs feel from management to keep customers from canceling their accounts.
You’d think it was so easy: call to cancel service, and it’s cancelled. And yet, it never is. Here’s why.Most customer service is outsourced, but either way, customer service is a cost. Businesses dislike costs. It’s much easier to try to cut costs than to make more money; costs are to be minimized unless they can be directly quantified as creating more money. So customer service, which costs money, is generally done in a manner that costs the company the least amount.
Smart companies realize that good customer service does create more business. However, most companies either get the lowest possible costing customer service. This is done through, among other things, outsourcing to India. But one way to skirt this is to actually make money through customer service. This is generally done through two ways: upselling or retention.
I worked for a customer service outsourcer. It was part of our agreement with the client that we would retain a certain percentage of customers who wanted to cancel (25% to 30%). The client — our real customer — loved this. Through the magic of creating mandatory scripts for our CSRs to read, little actual personal interaction was a part of this process, in order to make it as predictable and regulated as possible.
In these scripts, if a customer wanted to cancel, you’d ask them why, then input the reason for a relevant retention script. There was often no option for “Prefers not to say” / “Doesn’t know”; the CSR was responsible for asking more follow-up questions for “resistant” customers. In the rare cases that “Prefers not to say” was even in the script, the response would be something along the lines of “I can certainly understand you might now want to discuss the matter right now … would you like to hold your subscription for three months [at which point we start billing you and you've probably forgotten] and be guaranteed the same rate?”
CSRs were tracked and rated based on their retention rates. It was also a part of their employee review. Reviews were done by the numbers: call length, attendance, customer retention. A small amount (generally 5%) was actually under the discretion of the supervisor for employees who, say, actually went out of their way to help customers out.
Failing to attempt customer retention was a serious offense; it was considered more serious than screwing up a customer’s account. After all, screw up an account and it’s probably an innocent mistake; fail to try to retain a customer, which was a huge part of employee training, could only be done by willful negligence. Not making at least two attempts to save the customer would also count against the “quality” of the call. Quality and retention percentages together generally comprised over half of the employee’s score, which was the general measure of their performance, and strongly affected their pay and work schedule.
Not surprisingly, such strong focus on customer retention created many situations where employees would not cancel accounts. Misleading wording, while not encouraged by the company, was common to offer alternatives to canceling. Outright lies were less common, but still occurred. Often, many “mistakes” in processing accounts were failing to cancel. Strangely, accidentally cancelled accounts were rare to the point of extinction. After all, making a mistake on an account was less of a black mark than failing to retain customers, and a few extra mistakes were unlikely to be caught. Failure to meet the retention goals meant trouble and eventual termination. What’s more, to decrease costs, management and any kind of oversight is minimal. Twenty, often thirty employees to one supervisor was the norm.
If you are a typical call center worker – unskilled, uneducated, living paycheck to paycheck off a generally low-pay and no-benefit job, being constantly driven by management to retain customers – what do you do when your numbers are low for the month: cancel Suzy Q.’s account and risk being fired, or sweep it under the table and be able to pay for your kids’ school clothes? After all, if you call back tomorrow to see if the account’s really cancelled, chances are this customer will reach a different CSR. Chances are, this call isn’t one of the three or four calls a month that is actually monitored by someone. Chances are indeed very good that there will be absolutely no consequence to not canceling this customer’s account, but there will definitely be a consequence if the account is actually cancelled.
You canceling your ISP’s internet service or your magazine subscription is a very small matter to you. But it is a critical matter of employment to the CSR. Under such pressures, created by greedy companies, who can be surprised that “mistakes” are made.
Corporations are ultimately responsible for creating and supporting ruthless retention practices, though that doesn’t absolve CSRs who lie about canceling accounts just to get customers off the phone.
Canceling an account is a battle of wills. Corporations are determined to keep your money; CSRs are determined to keep their job. Don’t be a pushover. If one call doesn’t work, call back. Keep calling until your account is cancelled; and then, call once more to verify.
(Photo: SpooSpa)
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I’m afraid I have to weigh in on the side of people who say “get another job”. If you dont’ like how your employer does business… dont’ work for him. I’m sorry you chose to have a shitty job but I have enough problems of my own without having to field yours as well. Handle it…
To those who think you can just get up and find another job. Many call centers are based in towns that have extremely low employment rates. Sometimes the call center is the only place that offers a decent wage and enough hours. It really comes down to business should treat their customers ethically. Employee performance should not be in direct contention with the customer satisfaction.
@mantari:
“I’m dying. I only have _x_ days to live.”
“Allrighty then, Mr. Mantari! So we’ve got your subscription extension set for _x_ days! Have a great afternoon and thank you for choosing [whatever business]!”
I’m glad that Consumerist is getting smart about putting up posts that show that it’s the corporations that are the fuckers in these situations, not the low level employees. Yes, it is wrong for a CSR to “mistakenly” leave an account open but for those of us who have once been in tough situations like that, there is a little bit of empathy.
However, on a blog that is dedicated to people consuming things, there will always be a large contigent of “Me! Me! Me!” people who will never be able to imagine walking in the shoes of anyone else less fortunate than themselves.
From Jeremyduffy: Companies that use policies and procedures to “encourage” workers to bend and break rules/laws are just as guilty as ones who promote the practices outright. Absolutely. Look at the archives in Consumerist about how AOL’s corporate policies created the monster of rampant retention queue sleaze with quotas and hellacious pressure on employees. (And, I ask again, why was there a retention queue in the first place?) These companies are also aware that some CSRs desperately need the money, and may not easily or readily be able to find a better job, and exploit the hell out of that situation.
From Beyond: These companies should realize that even if a customer cancels, leaving them with a positive note can still make them money. I will never do business with many companies ever again simply on principle because of their cancellation or other policies. But companies like Netflix, that has a cancel button right on the website and make it easy and painless. I was their customer again just a few months later! See, AOL! Respect for the customer matters; reputation matters; the long term matters. They = profit.
@WhatsMyNameAgain:
I in no way condone the actions of these call centers, but it needs to be noted that often times these call centers pop up in places where there isnt much of ANY employment. When your making $7ph, driving an hour to go work in a mall isnt really and option (esspecially with gas being so expensive).
Also, when you dont have much and your trying to feed a family, I’m pretty sure that risking what little job you have and then having to hope that a new job works out is less than appealing, people like you and I are young, we could leave our job and throw caution into the wind, it is only us who will suffer if we’re wrong, but I’d imagine that having kids makes you a little more risk adverse.
Just my two cents.
@TNT: So, it would seem that if companies didn’t treat cancellation calls as a bargaining tool and instead just cancelled the service, then consumers would no longer have this as a means of leverage and it might save the company money?
@backspinner: Theres plenty of jobs picking up trash, taking orders at McDonalds, or stocking shelves at KMart. Don’t whine that the only job for people who are ‘unfortunate’ is to sit in a chair in an air conditioned office for 8 hours taking calls from people. THAT is a cush job.
For all the people that seem to think that its somehow the only means of living, perhaps you’re not living in the best area for your means in that case? Perhaps maybe you should think about NOT having children in that area, or by all means have protected or abstain from sex if you’re not capable of not getting pregnant.
Its not my fault that you work at a bad job. Its not my fault that your supervisor is a jerk and tells you to lie. Its not my fault that you live in Tornado Alley and need to replace your 17th trailer that ‘mysteriously’ got hit by a (gasp) tornado.
@DashTheHand: Yes there are other jobs, but look at them. I spent a lot of my childhood in a Vermont town of 11,000 where the only jobs available were at a $10/hr CSR call center where 40 hours and benefits were guaranteed, or $6, no benefits jobs at fast food restaurants where you would be lucky to get a consistant schedule. What would you do for your kids?
Abstain from sex? Not reproduce, or do the things that humans are meant to do? Like I said, Me, Me, Me….
No one is going to make me keep service I don’t want. Period. Any attempt to try only wastes both of our time, and I’ll tell that to CSR’s too. If you want to retain some customers today, hurry up and get me off the phone. The sooner you’re talking to someone else, the sooner you’ll actually have a chance of retaining someone today.
American Express had my back once when an unnamed and unimportant company would not stop charging me. They reversed the first charge I complained about, and banned any others from occuring. This was years ago, but ever since, I have used American Express for ALL of my over-the-phone-or-web purchases … just in case.
If cancellation ever takes more than one phone call, it’s because the 2nd is to AmEx.
Sounds like there are a few solutions to this problem.
1. Threaten to unionize, if the employer retaliates, walk out….everyone. Not having a call center will cost more than pissed off customers and employees.
2. Take some of that money you normally spend on Simpsons DVDs and Starbucks and get yourself into a trade school or college. Why should the burden of your future fall on my need to cancel a service from someone? Especially considering that you are allowing your employer to bully you.
This article is the equivalent of a car salesman trying to sell me a vehicle stating how he has children and a mortgage to pay so I should just fork over as much cash as possible to a complete stranger for that 1 sale that won’t matter much in a week when his quotas start again.
I forgot some people forget how hard they really work for their money.
I have nothing against CSRs so when I argue with them to death over the phone about what I want to do with MY money, I don’t feel bad taking my business where it’s put to better use.
Leaving a company for any reason should only go to improve customer standards. Perhaps they will learn from their mistakes and realize they can’t treat their employees or their customers as figures.
I can vouch for that because the company I worked for took great strides in keeping both employee and customer satisfaction up and that more than certainly includes our CSRs.
I have to say, I called to cancel my T-Mobile HotSpot account just the other day, and it took me 5 minutes, including the time on hold and the account lookup process.
Bravo to T-Mobile’s HotSpot division for making what I feared to be a nightmare into a breeze!
How is that not racketeering?
I mean, seriously– that’s illegal as hell. I’d love to see a couple of these outsourced csr/retention companies get strung up in federal court to scare the rest straight– it’s like the author said, those companies that bother to do a good job in customer service tend to make more money anyways, so why go out of your way to fuck people over? It seems to me that far too much of corporate america defaults to a criminal mindset, especially considering that all too often, doing things on the up and up would be cheaper if not actually profitable.
If a company gives you crap and refuses to cancel (coughcoughAOLcoughcough), just call your credit card company, say that you “lost your credit card”, and don’t give the new card number to the company you’re trying to cancel.
I’ve found that the best way to deal with obstinate CSRs is good cop/bad cop.
It’s best to actually have two people, because if the person in the bad cop role does it right, they’ve gotten themselves so worked up that they are simply unable to perform the good cop role when the time comes.
My wife usually plays the bad cop, gradually becoming more abusive and difficult until finally demanding to speak to a supervisor. The CSR gets a supervisor and no doubt warns them what a live wire they have on the phone so the supervisor braces herself. When the supervisor comes on, it’s my turn to talk. I’m all patience, understanding an reasonableness (while still politely insisting on what I want). It’s amazing what you can get done with that approach.
Also, getting your credit card company to do a chargeback can really get their attention, so I recommend that if nothing else works.
“I am about to be convicted for murdering a customer support representative who wouldn’t let me off the phone. I will be going to prison for a long time and no longer require this service. Can you cancel this and let me on my way now?”
…
“Your call center is in Texas, right?”
I have a GREAT idea for customer retention…better customer service! If I need to cancel, do so and perhaps, if your service has been very good, I may return as a customer. Fail to do so and not only will I not return, I will tell everyone I know about the experience as well.
@backspinner: You are correct. It is completely “Me, me, me” because I am in fact the CUSTOMER. I am the one that provides the money and services to the business that employs you. I will be the one suing your company for deceptive trade practices and fraud when I am continued to be billed after I have been told that whatever was fixed/cancelled has been done.
Where are you going to be when that company gets hit for a huge fine, is forced to cut back on employees, or does a mass firing of the bad personnel? Just because you are provided a job by an employer that means you are somehow above the laws governing the company itself? There is no excuse for lying to customers as shown quite clearly by the site in which you are posting on. Lies get caught, revealed the public, and things get hairy.
And on a final note, just because humans CAN do something, doesn’t mean they have to or should. A person can go on a mass killing spree, set things on fire, commit countless other profane acts. That doesn’t mean that because a human can do it means they should. Your argument is weak. Your “me, me, me” retort is just as valid when you are living below your means and decide to have children. Having a child is not a necessity just because you exist, are married, or have some primitive desire to reproduce.
in a commodity market, price dictates everything. Only when price differences decrease and competition increases will customer service improve.
no matter what they “should” do, the people running their businesses are making calculated decisions about how best to leverage and improve their market position.
Say you have comcast for high-speed internet and you like just on the edge of town. DSL is out of the question b/c of distance limitations, dial-up is no longer fast enough to keep up with modern website’s demands, and 2-way satellite is too expensive.
Because there is a significant cost difference between cable internet and satellite internet, comcast has you in a monopolized situation and knows that the demand for their product is so strong that they don’t have to beg for business and can basically get away with not having to properly take care of customers.
It’s a long term bet, vs a short term bet for these companies. Companies that are driven by stock value are going to do whatever they can do to keep that value up for shareholders and the market. Most top execs primary incoming is from bonus’s tied directly to profitability.
The fact is that, in some industries, the company doesn’t make any more money for a “happy” customer as they do from a “somewhat disgruntled” customer.
It’s really a simple supply and demand dynamic. We demand services at low prices with exceptional service. Because of our demands companies are continually trying to find a balance to this while trying to remain profitable.
As with anything, the more money you pay the better service you get. There is a reason there isn’t a concierge service at the motel 6.
consumer(and employee) entitlement is the reason companies can no longer afford to operate in the US. Someone has convinced us that we DESERVE the white glove customer service treatment for a service that is low volume, low margin, and commoditized all to hell.
Companies that have bad customer service have it because the market demands it. If the market REALLY demanded customer service, the cost of goods sold would go up. Since PRICE is the more sensitive variable to service…SERVICE suffers.
cheers.
A lot of people are saying bad things about customer service here. I’d like to see what these individuals would have to say if, like they want, customer services reps are abolished, and they have an actual problem that they need a CSR to help with. Don’t let one bad apple spoil the bunch. I manager a call center customer service department. Sure, if one of my CSR’s doesn’t attempt to “save” an account, they are reprimanded, but not nearly as much as if they don’t cancel an account per a customer’s request. That’s a terminable offense.
I too am under the same policies and “retention” methods listed in the article. We refer to is as a save and to listen to the other posts say “it’s my money” and “demand a cancellation”. Well, it is not that easy. We fall under the same pressure from mgmnt. adn make “mistakes” with your account to avoid getting fired. BTW, the particular company I am employed by are college graduates and specialists in their field. They hit low pay because there are NO jobs here. I feel the pain and the consumers too. My advice? READ YOUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS.
Former inbound CSR for Dish Network. Like all other call center monkeys, we were rated on call time, turnover rate, and adherence to script. The one thing you think is the goal of customer service — customer satisfaction — was not found on our evaluation spreadsheets. What effect do you think that has on job performance? Whatever you think, you’re probably right.
I took 50-70 calls a day, 22 days a month. That’s 1,320 calls a month, six of which were “recorded for quality assurance.” That means that if I screwed with your account, there was only a 0.45% chance that I’d be caught doing it. Sure, someone might find out later and tie my employee number to the mistake, but I could always deny recollection and chalk it up to a “fat finger mistake.” I’d like to tell you I never purposely signed a customer up for HBO against their wishes. I’d like to tell you that, but at the time, keeping my $9/hr job was more important than worrying about your callback.
However (DASHTHEHAND take note), my favorite calls were the self-important toads who threatened to sue the call center for lost time or extraneous charges. You do that, buddy. Trust me, that call center has a legal team that makes insurance companies look like lemonade stands. I dunno, maybe you think your threat of legal action over $51 in late fees is intimidating. Or maybe you think that because you say you make $200 an hour as a government contractor that you can bill my employer that same rate for the time you sit on hold. You, you, you have a lot to learn about interacting with people if that’s the case
I’ve got three words for thinking that it wouldn’t be intimidating: “Class action lawsuit.”
But I mean, what company doesn’t like those. I swear they love them just by reading the articles on this site. Fraud is fraud buddy. If it works its way back to someones ‘fat fingers,’ guess whose stubby index is going to be paging through the classifieds? Hah, and if you think some supervisor is going to defend you against the corporate execs wanting a scapegoat for losing that payout to all the people in that lawsuit that had similar complaints due to those ‘accidents,’ wow.
Hello, I’m the person who wrote the piece, and thanks to Consumerist for posting it.
I just wanted to shout back at some of the comments. My intent wasn’t to justify that lying to customers — basically, fraud — is OK because people are under financial pressure. Clearly, it’s not. But at the same time, the companies that have such hardline retention tactics are creating policies that naturally create “mistakes” in their favor and claim, then, that it’s a problem with an individual CSR. No, it’s not; it’s a much larger problem.
Should CSRs be truthful? Yes. Should they seek other employment? Yes, absolutely; call centers are often soul-crushing places to work. But should companies be responsible for the actions of their undertrained, underpaid, ill-managed employees when they are responding to retention pressures? Yes. That’s the point of what I wrote.
Companies need to be responsible for what they do. If you create a high-pressure environment where quotas are established, you need to show concern about people who take advantage. I saw with my own eyes that people who were OBVIOUSLY cheating – people who had terrible work ethics, were rude to customers, but had 80% retention rates. These people were rewarded with gift cards, paid time off (which most employees, as temps, never got) and good performance evaluations despite their misconduct. Good employees who were concerned with their customers often fared much worse.
The fact is that the company, and our client, cared far more about retaining customers than making them happy. As far as they were concerned, if someone cancelled and didn’t like retention, they were lost business anyway.
You can, and should, avoid dealing with companies who aggressively attempt to retain. If consumers speak out about holding companies accountable, things can change. As it is, most of these companies blame “rogue CSRs” when ultimately their business practices are to blame.
As for reversing your credit card charges – beware. Our company sent your account to collections if you did that. Also, letter writing reached the same people – the same CSRs – through granted of course retention numbers did not count. Still, many mistakes were made as the expectation was on volume of mail handled, with few quality checks.
If companies really care about quality of service, it will happen. But, especially when you’re outsourcing, reaching quotas and goals is far more important than if you’re happy or not. Consider the fact that an outsourcer’s true customer is the company – not you. And that customer’s happy with the status quo.
Think about it. Your personal information and credit card account is in the hands of the lowest bidder. Support companies with good customer service – not only is it good for you, it’s good for their employees and creates the incentive for companies to prioritize customer service.
@DashTheHand: I thought I’d clear the air here and let you know that I’m not a CSR, I’m not employed by a business that has this type of Customer Service, and I’m not in a position where I deal with customers. As foreign as this may sound to you, it is possible for some people to understand where others are coming from (even CSRs!) even if you haven’t been in their exact situation. You don’t seem to be one of them. That is the basis of the “Me, Me, Me” comment.
@DashTheHand: I wanted to clear the air and let you know that I am not a CSR and I don’t even work for a business that has this type of customer service, since you seem to be under the impression that since I am somewhat defending these employees, I must be one of them. As foreign as this may seem to you, there are some people that are capable of understanding where others are coming from without having been in the same exact situations as them. You and a lot of other people obviously do not have this abilty, and this was the basis of the “Me, Me, Me” comment. Brush up on your reading comprehension before you decide to post again.
@DePaulBlueDemon: “Doing business” in today’s world always amounts to highly unethical behaviour. That’s pretty much the definition of the term. The only way to make money (besides printing it) is to take it from other people. Whether they get something of value for that money is not important.
I believe you’ve got the reason why companies push retention this hard all wrong.
Churn rate (the rate by which customers leave the company) is a mobile phone operator’s biggest fear. They want to keep their churn rate as low as possible. It’s common knowledge that retaining a customer costs less than finding a new customer. This is especially true for mobile phone operators because of the high competition in this saturated market.
I was taught that if churn rate is decreased by even a finitessimal amount, you get huge profits: not only does the company not have to spend (relatively) huge amounts of money to find a new customer to replace him, but the old customer also spends more money the longer he stuck with this company. The profits generated by this customer increases as time goes by.
I believe they’re not pushing customer retention because they would like to make up some of the costs of customer service. They’re pushing customer retention because each customer saved brings with it huge profits in the long run.
Spend more time on producing a quality product without obscure legal rules (arbitration, fine print, other gotchas) and not only would I be less likely to cancel, minor mistakes wouldn’t piss me off so much, because I actually trust the company. I think too much marketing is done to make a sale this quarter at the cost of soured account terms/conditions later on. Change the rules, slip in a slick charge, I will make it my goal to cancel.
However, for the extra sleazy / profitable parts of a business, I will drag out a cancellation and get every “save” offer they have. Trilegiant is super sleazy and I make about $400 bucks a year on them in free gift cards/services/rebates. Ditto for credit protection on credit cards.
My brother told me AOL changed it’s retention script after the youtube incident, where a guy had to yell “cancel my account” to a CSR several times (yes, it was also con consumerist), now they only ask three times tops and then proceed to cancel (my brother worked for a while as an outsource AOL CSR). So, some companies actually learn, go figure.
@skummy: You mean the terms and conditions that are written in extremely small print and full of confusing legal speak that makes everything favorable for the company?
i work for time warner cable’s call center, not gonna comment on their retention policies (actually not that bad)
key thing to remember in these situations is your call is almost always being recorded, especially if it is regarding changes to the account or personal info is discussed or billing… and an easy way to ensure your call is being recorded, make a payment… even if its $1, you make a payment, that call is guaranteed recorded, then cancel, and make sure the rep clearly states services were canceled, this should be true for any company
Well written and very explanatory.
I forgot that retention could be outsourced. This post explains everything about cancelling a service. The poor CSR is actually paid to keep you from leaving, and since the outsource company is being paid based upon their retention rate, it is in nobody’s interest to let you go.
Even the line that “I am moving to Mongolia” most likely is not good enough to get you out of your contract.
I think most people already know why their account doesn’t get canceled. CSRs in these situations have no ethics, and the companies don’t want them to. If they did, they wouldn’t work there and screw people over just to keep their job.
Oh, and when you think about it, CSRs get paid pretty good. A call center will pay its employees $7-9 an hour, yet they have as much skill, education and qualifications as the guy flipping burgers for $5/hr.
@backspinner: And how exactly does “seeing where they are coming from” excuse lying to paying customers who should come first? Again, if you don’t like the job, quit. Or stop lying. It’s that simple. Oh, and the “I don’t do this myself, I just work for a company that does” is no excuse either. If you work for them, do something about it.
@callcenterinsider: You sent people to collections when they reversed your now-fraudulent charges? I’m surprised the people who did that didn’t find their asses in jail.
Call more than once to confirm as far as I’m concerned.
The worse experience I’ve had was with xbox live. You can’t cancel online or in your user account in xbox live, though you can do everything else. To cancel you have to call and speak to a CSR. I called and that poor kid (and he sounded about 18 years old) went on for about 5 minutes with all the reasons why I shouldn’t cancel. I actually got bored with him and stopped listening, when he would stop I would reply, “I want to close the account.” Maybe that kind of thing works with your typical xbox live user.
Ah, I found another great service not allowing customers to cancel their account. How can they believe that tying people in is a good way to retain clients, it just makes me think that I don’t want to use their services ever again. Check out http://www.efax.com, or rather, don’t check out http://www.efax.com ever.