Why Tech Support Is (Purposely) Unbearable
Why Tech Support Is (Purposely) Unbearable
By KATE MURPHY JULY 3, 2016
You may consider yourself even-keeled, the kind of person
who is unflappable when those around you are losing their cool. But all that
goes out the window when you call tech support. Then you fume. Your face turns
red. You shout things into the phone that would appall your mother.
It’s called tech support rage.
And you are not alone. Getting caught in a tech support
loop — waiting on hold, interacting with automated systems, talking to people
reading from unhelpful scripts and then finding yourself on hold yet again — is
a peculiar kind of aggravation that mental health experts say can provoke rage
in even the most mild-mannered person.
Worse, just as you suspected, companies are aware of the
torture they are putting you through.
According to a survey conducted last year by the industry
group International Customer Management Institute, or ICMI, 92 percent of
customer service managers said their agents could be more effective and 74
percent said their company procedures prevented agents from providing satisfactory
experiences.
Moreover, 73 percent said the complexity of tech support
calls is increasing as customers have become more technologically sophisticated
and can resolve simpler issues on their own.
Many organizations are running a cost-per-contact model,
which limits the time agents can be on the phone with you, hence the agony of
round-robin transfers and continually being placed on hold, said Justin
Robbins, who was once a tech support agent himself and now oversees research
and editorial at ICMI.
“Don’t think companies haven’t studied how far they can
take things in providing the minimal level of service,” Mr. Robbins said. “Some
organizations have even monetized it by intentionally engineering it so you
have to wait an hour at least to speak to someone in support, and while you are
on hold, you’re hearing messages like, ‘If you’d like premium support, call
this number and for a fee, we will get to you immediately.’”
The most egregious offenders are companies like cable and
mobile service providers, which typically have little competition and whose
customers are bound by contracts or would be considerably inconvenienced if
they canceled their service. Not surprisingly, cable and mobile service
providers are consistently ranked by consumers as providing the worst customer
support.
AT&T, Comcast and Verizon Communications did not
respond to requests for comment.
Especially frustrating when talking to tech support is
not being understood because you are trying to communicate with machines or
people who have been trained to talk like machines, either for perceived
quality control or because they don’t speak English well enough to go
off-script.
“It’s utterly maddening because the thing about
conversations is that when I say something to you, I believe I’m having
influence on the conversation,” said Art Markman, professor of psychology at
the University of Texas at Austin and co-host of the podcast “Two Guys on Your
Head.” “And when you say something back to me that makes no sense, now I see
that all these words I spoke have had no effect whatsoever on what’s happening
here.”
When things don’t make sense and feel out of control,
mental health experts say, humans instinctively feel threatened. Though you
would like to think you can employ reason in this situation, you’re really just
a mass of neural impulses and primal reactions. Think fight or flight, but you
can’t do either because you are stuck on the phone, which provokes rage.
Of course, companies rated best for tech support often
charge more for their products or they may charge a subscription fee for
enhanced customer care so the cost of helping you is baked in, as with Apple’s
customer support service, AppleCare, and the Amazon Prime subscription service.
You can also find excellent tech support in competitive
markets like domain name providers, where operators such as Hover and GoDaddy
receive high marks. Also a good bet are hungry upstarts trying to break into
markets traditionally dominated by large national companies. Take regional
internet and phone service providers like Logix and WOW, which rank near the
top in customer support surveys.
But tech support veterans and mental health experts said
there were other ways to get better tech support or maybe just make it more
bearable. First, do whatever it takes to control your temper. Take a deep
breath. Count to 10. Losing your stack at a consumer support agent is not going
to get your problem resolved any faster. Probably just the opposite.
“I definitely remember seeing parts of myself I didn’t
know were there as far as getting irritated with people and using
passive-aggressive behaviors,” said John Valenti, a video producer in
Rochester, who worked as a tech support agent at an internet phone company from
2007 to 2012 to put himself through graduate school. He made an absurdist film
about it for his master’s thesis at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Mr. Valenti, like several other tech support workers who
have posted confessions online, said rudeness generally gets customers placed
on hold for long periods or “accidentally” disconnected. It also may result in
the agent fixing the immediate problem but not the root cause. So you’re only
going to have call back when it happens again.
Don’t bother demanding to speak to a supervisor, either.
You’re just going to get transferred to another agent who has been alerted
ahead of time that you have come unhinged, Mr. Robbins said. Also, be aware
that your words are being recorded and might be printed on posters in the call
center.
“I’ve seen companies make T-shirts with the cruel, awful
things people say,” Mr. Robbins said. He added the shirts might provide an impetus
to improve because customers have been driven to such extremes, “but then it
also may just show some people are truly from crazy town.”
Customer support experts recommended using social media,
like tweeting or sending a Facebook message, to contact a company instead of
calling. You are likely to get a quicker response, not only because fewer
people try that channel but also because your use of social media shows that
you know how to vent your frustration to a wider audience if your needs are not
met, as well as to praise them publicly when you are treated well, they said.
To get better service by phone, dial the prompt
designated for “sales” or “to place an order,” which almost always gets you an
onshore agent, while tech support is usually offshore with the associated
language difficulties.
You can also consult websites like DialAHuman.com and
GetHuman.com for phone numbers and directions on what digits to press to bypass
the automated system and get a live person.
Failing that, apps like Lucy Phone and Fast Customer will
wait on hold for you and call you when an actual person picks up. No need to
stoke your rage listening to grating hold music.
A version of this article appears in print on July 4,
2016, on page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Why Help on Tech Is
Unbearable.
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