Netflix Makes It Easy To Reach a Human

msblack writes "In a move that goes against the prevailing trends of outsourcing and non-interactive customer support, Netflix has forsaken e-mail as a means of resolving customer problems. According to the NYTimes article, Netflix set up a call center in Portland OR, shunning other popular US call center cities (because Portland natives were perceived to sound friendlier) or off-shoring. 'It's very interesting and counter to everything anybody else is doing,' said Tom Adams, a market researcher in Carmel, California. 'Everyone else is making it almost impossible to find a human.'"

Why not both?

[UbuntuDupe]

While it's great to be able to reach a human, sometimes you have a simple question, or a complicated one with a simple solution, such that email is a lot more time efficient. I've had a problem with Sprint billing and their customer service part of the site doesn't give an email, so I have to call in and be put on hold for 30 minutes, authenticate myself, and get shuffled around through several departments, just to be able to communicate the existence of a problem. On the other hand, with Vanguard (investments) you can both call and email, and this has saved me a lot of time, for example, when I have a question that doesn't need to be answered immediately. I just send it, and pick up the answer at my convenience. (Thought it's not "email" per se, but a messaging form after you log in.)

Good news!

[loony]

Good enough for me - I just signed up. People always complain that everybody is outsourcing and service is bad and all. Well, here is your chance to put your money where your mouth is. I know I just did.

Peter.

Wow, cool... um, can I have my email back?

[Applekid]

It's nice that there's a call option that's home-grown, and there isn't a push for using the web/email for customer service, and all... but, did they have to cut e-mail out of the loop altogether?

DVDs by mail isn't such a big hairy deal that I need to jump on the phone and hold for who knows how long to express that I never got a disc that was sent when I can just shoot off an email saying "It's been a week, the disc you sent never got here, could you try again?" and forget about it.

(Partial disclosure: I am not a Netflix subscriber, but of another DVD-by-mail rental company (Full disclosure: Greencine) and never had any problems using e-mail only, although I think they've got an 1-800 number, too.)

Re:Why not both?

[HUADPE]

I think the point was that in addition to using only phone, they don't make you wait 1/2 hour to speak to someone, or get shunted from dept to dept.

Answers

[COMON$]

You know, I really don't care if I reach a voice, I just want my questions answered. There are situations where I prefer a computer answering, Airborne package pickup comes to mind. As for customer service I am happier to have a live chat with the rep as anything. I get a person (albeit they are multitasking) fairly quickly and there are no misunderstandings as the text is right in front of you. When I am done I get a transcript to file away in case I want to look at it again. Talking on the phone just takes way to long most of the time and I dont feel like I get as good of expertise on the first try as I do chat anyway.

And if you want to use email?

[Albanach]

What about those of us that want to use email?

I hate calling call centres and finding staff who are not empowered to fix anything. Being held in queues, being promised call backs that never happen. I mean, if I want to report a cracked DVD, it's just as easy to say in an email "you sent me this DVD it has a crack, please replace it" as it is on the phone.

If I use email I have a written record of what I said to them and what they said to me. All I ask is that I get a timely and helpful reply. That means not sending a canned response based on the first sentence of my email, rather than reading the whole thing. That means a response in English, not a jumble of English like words that you need to read several times to understand what the sender might mean.

I'm all for companies having call centres. I'm all for them having an easy way to reach a humnan. However, just replacing all the problems with email communications with human staff that can do more than read off a script won't improve customer satisfaction.

Wait Time?

[Tiberius_Fel]

They're not doing themselves any favours if the call centre has a huge wait time. At least with e-mail you can send the e-mail and wait for a response, as opposed to sitting there with the phone playing bad hold music on speakerphone or while you hold it in your hand. Though it's nice that they are using (relatively) local reps who no doubt speak English... it's not very helpful if you can't get to one in a reasonable amount of time.

What exactly DO people talk to Netflix about?

[RudeIota]

Good for Netflix, but after being a Netflix customer for a few years, I've never had to contact customer support.

And that, my friends, is probably the best 'customer support' of all.

Friendly, indeed

[Otter]

(because Portland natives were perceived to sound friendlier)

As long as you don't mention you're a Californian!

Re:Call center in Oregon...

[jgarra23]

English was their first language too!
Mod parent up, I totally understand this problem. Why on earth companies that cater to a predominantly English speaking country off-shore their support to ESL countries where the people that can read & speak English DO NOT understand the vernacular, expressions, idioms and vocal inflexions are driving me nuts. How many companies do I have to put on a list to avoid because I just couldn't understand the person on the other end of the phone because:

1. They are ESL
2. They are reading exclusively from a script
3. The connection is so bad it sounds like we're both under water.

Just like if I were in France, I would expect a French speaking CSR...

4 stupid things companies do to lose customers

[JustNiz]

Here are 4 crazy things that companies do with their phone systems. I have experienced them all. whenever any of these happen to me I try hard to avoid ever doing business with them again.

1) Those voice menu things, especially if they have no paths to speak to a human, or make you key in some arcane reference number to speak to a human. Score bonus points if the human asks for it again even though you just know they've already got your records on their screen.

2) Getting some message that tells you the wait will be long as they are experiencing abnormal call volume yet that happens any/every time you call, even at 3am. Score bonus points for providing automated wait time estimates that are wildly inaccurate.

3) Hiring phone operators that can hardly speak English, or have a very heavy accent. Score bonus points if they are overseas themselves or have had their common sense surgically removed.

4) Assume its OK to keep customers waiting on hold for 20 minutes just to talk to someone. Score bonus points if the person you finally speak to just redirects you to another 20 minute wait to speak to someone else. Score mega points if any person you speak to redirects you back to an earlier person you have already been redirected by.

Re:Call center in Oregon...

[Wolfrider]

--You know, stuff like this actually makes me want to go out of my way to *support* NetFlix -- for doing the Right Thing(TM) for their CUSTOMERS.
 
// Hates outsourcing with Teh Very Core of my Being

Re:Call center in Oregon...

[vigmeister]

Why on earth companies that cater to a predominantly English speaking country off-shore their support to ESL countries where the people that can read & speak English DO NOT understand the vernacular, expressions, idioms and vocal inflexions are driving me nuts

Assume for a second you are from Texas. I'd say that a rep in Portland would have trouble understanding your accent if you have thick southern drawl.

Or you can try ordering a 'pie' from a pizza place in Valdosta, GA.

1. They are ESL

That should not have a bearing on the issue. Although I am from India (and ESL country)english was the first language I learnt. My spoken english is quite good and most people I meet are surprised that I "don't have an accent". I am not an exception and I know several Indian/Chinese/European people who all speak excellent english. In fact, one of my english teachers at GT was german. Problem, however, is that the people smart enough and capable of speaking good english usually don't end up working in call centers. The fault lies with the hiring process and not the outsourcing itself.

2. They are reading exclusively from a script

Again, they hire the wrong people.

3. The connection is so bad it sounds like we're both under water.

They are skimping on the mechanism. Nothing to do with the fact that the reps are from ESL countries.

I daresay that these companies can hire better employees, improve connection of the call and still come out ahead if they outsource. It's the implementation that is at fault - not the principle.

Cheers!

Kudos to NetFlix

[xednieht]

The irony a technology company going low tech to serve their customers, while my local bank sends my phone calls overseas.

Yeah, I think that warrants giving NetFlix my business.

Re:Call center in Oregon...

[vigmeister]

I do happen to be from Texas. There's nothing about a southern drawl that is unintelligible.

I am fairly good with accents and to me, the southern drawl is not an issue. However, I know several people who DO have a problem with understanding various accents within the US including the southern drawl, the NY talk and ebonics. There is nothing about the indian accent that is unintelligible either.

In all of the times I've called customer support (both domestic centers and outsourced) I've never had anyone not understand what I was saying. I've had more difficulty understanding them.

Not insinuating anything, but if they understand what you are saying and you can't communicate back, there is still some ambiguity as to which one of you lacks the ability to communicate or whether it is a problem with the connection.

And while it's great for you that you happened to learn English as your first language, that doesn't automatically mean that we can assume the entire nation of India speaks perfectly fluent English. It's only common sense to assume that if the hiring pool is in a nation where the majority of citizens don't learn English as their first language, then the majority of hires will speak limited English.

Then I guess it is also common sense to assume that if the hiring pool for a hospital is in a nation where the majority of citizens don't have degrees in medicine, then the majority of hires will have limited medical skills?

Additionally, whether you learn a language as a first language or a second language is irrelevant to your skills in that language. I am better at understanding and communicating in my fifth language (Hindi) than several native speakers of the same due to better communication skills. When you learn a language is not so important as linguistic and communicative abilities.

You seem to have an acute case of closed-mindedness. It was ignorant of you to make such a statement about the fine people of Texas

Having a thick southern drawl is not a negative thing. In fact, it is helpful in the south to communicate better. It might be the portland hire's inability to bridge the gap. Point is that the difference between a NY accent and the southern drawl (which I semi-consciously find to be a mark of politeness) is no different from the differences between a Texan and a well educated Indian.

and it was also ignorant of you to assume that you, with your fortunate upbringing, represent the whole, or even the majority of citizens of "ESL" nations.

My upbringing was not especially fortunate. My parents spoke 3 languages at home and they just picked one to teach me. I picked up the other two as well and was very comfortable using them. I am by no means an exception like I said, a good portion of India's urban population have kids speaking english by the time the kids are in kindergarten. Regardless, it doesn't matter as long as peolpe like me DO exist and CAN be hired as opposed to dimwits who can't communicate.

Cheers!

Re:Call center in Oregon...

[plague3106]

I ntoday's society I find a lot of people clubbing their objection to outsourcing and the quality of service to strengthen their argument against the low quality call centers in India. I think these are separate issues. I will accept that it would be easier for me to bitch about Indian call centers. If you do it, people might misconstrue it as an argument against outsourcing or xenophobia. If I do it, they take my argument at face value.

I disagree; the reason for offshoring is to cut costs. By definition, the quality of service will be much lower. Also, I don't think you're being xenophobic when actual jobs are being removed from our economy by offshoring. Xenophobia is an unreasonable fear of outsiders; I don't think losing your job to India is unreasonable.

Re:Wow, cool... um, can I have my email back?

[trjonescp]

All the quick and easy problems like Disc not received, Damaged disc, Wrong Disc, etc. can be reported with an automated system on the customer service portion of Netflix.com. It's easy and works quite well. If you have a commonly reported problem it' on there.

So obvious and so rare...

[localman]

So many companies today seem outright hostile to their customers. I am continually amazed how companies do their very best to avoid contact with their customers. Research has shown that people hate computer menus whether they're numerical or voice recognition. And if you do manage to fight your way past those, how many times have you heard "due to unusually high call volume"... 365 days a year, right? Insane.

It's not impossible to run a great call center. I used to work at Zappos [zappos.com] and we did our calls in-house and usually maintained wait times under 30 seconds. And the good will we generated with customers has paid off big time. We took on several more established companies with deeper pockets and so far we've left them all in the dust, largely because of our focus on customers.

Also, it's not just about having people answering the phones. There's two other critical ingredients: the phone people have to be empowered to actually serve the customer, which means they have to be well trained, but dammit, that's what it takes to run a company. And they also need to have a voice back to the company itself, so that problems that they encounter are recognized and addressed -- because customer service problems are really just customer problems. And for all the companies spending millions on ads to establish their "brand", they could establish a real, authentic brand by resolving their customer's problems.

There is so much room to improve this kind of thing. I applaud Netflix and wish the luck. Any company that wants to take on the 800lb gorillas need only treat each customer with care and respect. The gorillas never seem to figure this out.

Cheers.

Re:Call center in Oregon...

[Phroggy]

No, I really don't like outsourcing customer service, even when it's within the same country. If I have a problem with a particular company, I want to talk to someone who works there! Is that really too much to ask?