Is 67 Minutes an Acceptable Wait?

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Posted Mon 9 April 2007 @ 8:18 p.m. by Ernie Newman

Easter Saturday morning I enjoyed a live on-line chat with iconic Wellington talkback host Garry Ward. I talk to him about matters telecommunicatory a couple of times a year.

After the usual chitchat Garry told me - and his listeners - that the previous week he had occasion to phone his telecommunications company and was kept waiting for the call centre to answer for 67 minutes. You got it - more than an hour!

Garry named the company on air. I'm not about to here because I honestly believe it could have been any of them, so bad has the telecommunications industry's customer service become.

Back in 2004 Minister Swain took the industry to task about its sluggishness in dealing with customer complaints. He threatened to regulate, enforcing an industry specific complaints authority like those operating in banking and electricity. TUANZ at the time sided with the industry and asked for an industry-driven scheme in preference to a regulated one. Its been on its way via the Telecommunications Carriers Forum ever since and it will be a good scheme, but its taking far, far, far too long.

Even longer, you might say, than you wait "on hold" for a typical carrier's contact centre to answer!

Delays like this are unacceptable in any sector - they show contempt for the caller and wreck the nice warm fuzzy feeling the marketing departments try so hard to engender. In utility industries - where people's lives and businesses are often "on hold" with them and where there is a great imbalance of power between buyer and seller - companies have a special responsibility to be easily contactable.

The TCF needs to accelerate its work, and the phone companies MUST pay attention to waiting times for contact centres. This kind of experience shows the industry in a very bad light indeed.

Categories: Benchmarking | International | Technology

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9 comments

• No thanks says:

  What is an acceptable wait time? We hear that GOS is not as important as first call resolution, well which is more important to the customer? While its great to see contact centre's offering various GOS's instead of the 'old standard' 80/20 no matter what their business, has anyone done any research? What do you offer your customers from a GOS perspective? Are you driven by the cost to company or servicing the customer?

  Added: 13 April 2007, 1:26 p.m. Flag as Spam  |  Flag as Offensive

• Tired Waiting says:

  This is definitely relevant for my day. Less than an hour ago I was on hold, waiting for the contact centre at TelstraClear to help me. It wasn't bad because I was working while waiting, but after 25 minutes I had to leave my desk and had to hang up. Now I will have to try again, and my problem is unresolved. Very frustrating! It is also annoying to be kept waiting without any feedback. If an automated voice would tell me I am "5th in the queue" or "likely to be answered in 67 minutes" or similar feedback, then I know whether to continue or give up and call back later. It is experiences like this that give telco's a bad, but well-deserved, reputation.

  Added: 13 April 2007, 2:58 p.m. Flag as Spam  |  Flag as Offensive

• Fed Up says:

  Completely agree with Tired Waiting's comments. Recent calls to the same telco company had an average wait time of 45mins on hold before being answered. To be fair they were more than helpful once someone picked up the call, but that sort of wait with no info on where you are in the queue is just not on.

  Added: 13 April 2007, 4:31 p.m. Flag as Spam  |  Flag as Offensive

• Swapped Teleo's says:

  The wait I experienced in trying to move house with Telstra was so long i wait a cummulating 300 odd minutes over 3 calls. So I went to telecom. Cant beleive im saying that but the Telstra team dont seem to think that customer service is important or delays would not be that long consistantly.

  Added: 14 April 2007, 11:19 p.m. Flag as Spam  |  Flag as Offensive

• tristan says:

  I bet you a million bucks that if it was Telecom you would be singing it from the roof tops. My bet it's Telstra Clear, a big TUANZ sponsor

  Added: 17 April 2007, 9:52 a.m. Flag as Spam  |  Flag as Offensive

• wokky says:

  Tristan raises an interesting point, if TUANZ wishes to be seen as independant, then a consistent "name and shame" approach must be taken. Either always name the company you are lambasting, or consistently don't. Personally I have had bad experiences with all carriers I've dealt with, but on the average I have had consistently better response times and service from Telecom / XTRA than I've ever had from TelstraClear / Vodafone / Slingshot. In fact I've found all three to be woeful, hence I'm still primary with Telecom.

  Added: 23 April 2007, 11:04 a.m. Flag as Spam  |  Flag as Offensive

• MERKIN says:

  I totally agree with the above comments. Its really sad that people have to wait to have their calls answered. I deal with day-to-day customers who experience waiting on the phone or who are waiting for a reply from certain tele-communications companies. I empathize with them and wish that services can improve not only for the customers but for the Customer Services Industry because it doesn't shine a good light on other companies who are up to par.

  Added: 3 May 2007, 6:34 p.m. Flag as Spam  |  Flag as Offensive

• *Star*tel* says:

  Yeah, great rates are no good if they're not complemented by great customer service because the cost incurred (missed meetings, phone calls, missed/delayed emails) just about covers/exceeds the savings that the customers want to make or make with a Telco. And what's worse is that neither can Telemarketers sell with conviction nor can the Customer Service reach out and hold on to their customers (because they're always a little too late!). Can you imagine customers who're willing to incur the $99 penalty and move to a better customer services provider ignoring the competitive rates and savings schemes? And it's a shame that the Telcos couldn't care less to invest a bit more in their Customer Reps in a country with such a small population!! Good Services mean good savings!

  Added: 21 May 2007, 11:51 a.m. Flag as Spam  |  Flag as Offensive

• Myk says:

  I went looking for a place to complain about my current teco provider telstraunclear as a small business operator the times I have had no internet connection, 56kbps download (no not a typo) when I'm paying for 2.2mbps. and today finally waited 40 minutes to report a phone fault since trying since Friday (4 days) to finally get through to be able to report it. Has the government let all our infrastructure there seems to be no where to shame these companies and if you change provider YOU suffer a penalty fee! totally unacceptable.

  Added: 5 June 2007, 9:52 a.m. Flag as Spam  |  Flag as Offensive

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