Improved CS from o2 - Coming Soon

[madasaf1sh]

Interesting Article on ISP Review, on o2 improving Customer Services and the ability to be served by the shops

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2022/04/mobile-operator-o2-uk-pledges-better-customer-service....

[pgn]

This was covered here earlier in the week as well - a unified message, at least...

https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Welcome-News/O2-System-Updates-What-you-need-to-know/m-p/1544225/highl...

[Cleoriff]

Leaves me wondering whether we should still be offloading customer queries to social media quite as much? I've never felt particularly happy about that at all. If you read some of the comments on the SM platforms, the queries aren't answered with any degree of speed. That's why I continue to add the Contact numbers as well as the links for social media.

Edited to add: with reference to the article posted by @madasaf1sh, this will only work well if they provide a live stock system. It doesn't matter how well trained your CS staff are, if they can't provide you with the device you want, then they may as well not bother.

[madasaf1sh]

@pgn 

I completely missed that post by Chris_K  

@Cleoriff 

Totally agree, Social Media is good for none time sensitive queries, but people should still call in to o2 for account queries... and a live stock system would be a 21st century addition to the stores...

[Chris_K]

Hey all,

Just wanted to pop in from a social media perspective that contacting us on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram is a great option for anyone not wanting to spend time potentially on hold when calling us. Outside of payments, we fully own all queries on social and can help with anything you'd normally consider calling us about.

We actively review our response times against a set of SLA targets, and regularly take steps if or when that falls below what we'd want it to be... But, the great thing with Social Media is you just drop us a message and you can manage any further replies or engagements with us around your own time or schedule. No hanging about on the phone listening to some music you may not like! 😉

[pgn]

Last time I called O2, the music was not too bad - selected by someone who knew the frustration of "hanging on the telephone", of being "right here waiting for you" and "part of the queue".

Just as this track "Nothing ever happens" came on, my call was picked up...

That said, Social Media does get around the "Why aren't I receiving SMS text messages" issue, which is what O2's My Network app resorts to when you log a mast or signal problem...

Always good to be there for the customer, regardless of the medium used to make that connection - great update, @Chris_K 👍

[Cleoriff]

I'm really pleased to hear this @Chris_K. It's quite new for us regulars to be pointing people in the direction of social media, particularly when we had no understanding of staff levels. 

Back in the day, I always thought there were many people employed as customer service agents on the phone, whilst social media was a 'one man and his dog' type of affair. (I realise now, that isn't the case)

I note you don't deal with payment related queries? That's good to know.

Could I ask what your response time is for queries on any of the three platforms you use? Do they differ between say FB or Twitter/Instagram?

Years ago I used FB as I didn't have a twitter account (and Insta wasn't an option back then.) It was answered but not as quick as a phone call. However I do stress this was probably 5 years ago. 

Great to have an update @Chris_K x

[Chris_K]

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@Cleoriff wrote:

Back in the day, I always thought there were many people employed as customer service agents on the phone, whilst social media was a 'one man and his dog' type of affair. (I realise now, that isn't the case)

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You're not far off the mark actually... I remember my first time supporting the Social Media team was back during the iPhone 4 launch - nearly 12 years ago! And it was a full-time 3 person operation, plus me and another person supporting for that month. Back then, Social was very different and very quiet - you could be waiting 10-20 minutes for a comment to come in to reply to.

Fast forward to today and Social is a completely different beast - and that's just down to how it has evolved over the past 10-12 years... People use social media different to how they used to, and customer service via social is at a level now that was unheard of back then. I can't share how many people are now involved, but it's no exaggeration to state that it's an entire operation in itself now. We have people who create campaigns and content, people who create paid and sponsored ads, people who work with influencers and marketers, people like me and my team who respond to customers on Social, and other teams and individuals who support and do other specialised roles or tasks too.

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@Cleoriff wrote:

I note you don't deal with payment related queries? That's good to know.

Could I ask what your response time is for queries on any of the three platforms you use? Do they differ between say FB or Twitter/Instagram?

Years ago I used FB as I didn't have a twitter account (and Insta wasn't an option back then.) It was answered but not as quick as a phone call. However I do stress this was probably 5 years ago. 

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I don't know the full ins and outs of it, and if it's down to laws, rules or policies, but we're not able to take bank or payment details via social or make payments for you - that's the only real thing we're unable to assist with, but virtually anything else you'd ever want to call us about, we can fully handle within Social.

As for the platforms - the way our social media tool works is that it scrapes for comments or messages on a continuous basis and all platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) are 'seen' as one - so if you make 3 of the same comments on all 3 social platforms, we'll see them all at the same time within seconds of you posting them - and we don't have different response times depending on where you message us.

As far as response times goes, unfortunately it's a 'how long is a piece of string' sort of deals... Today, I've seen some comments answered quicker than you can make a cuppa, and some answered within the runtime of your favourite TV shows - the reason being that social fluctuates quite massively and it's impossible to predict, because we could see 2, 3 or more times as many comments in one hour as the hour before or after it.

[Cleoriff]

Thanks for your detailed response @Chris_K.

Since we have been encouraged to use the social platform more in our responses, I've seen a few who state they don't have any SM accounts. As we are dealing with a wide age demographic, that's to be expected.

I usually respond by including CS phone numbers as well as all the Social Media addresses. This gives members different options.

Time moves on Chris. We need to learn to move with it.

[gmarkj]

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@Chris_K wrote:
As for the platforms - the way our social media tool works is that it scrapes for comments or messages on a continuous basis and all platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) are 'seen' as one - so if you make 3 of the same comments on all 3 social platforms, we'll see them all at the same time within seconds of you posting them - and we don't have different response times depending on where you message us.

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Way back during the first lock down I helped our customer support team with answering queries, and we used something called ConverSocial which sounds like it does the same kind of thing - aggregating comments either with a mention, tag or hashtag.

We went to delivery only, and the number of orders we had went from less then 1,000 per week to nearly 80,000!

As you can imagine that brought it's own set of challenges...