This should be required reading:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-walsh/bad-customer-service_b_3799574.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-walsh/bad-customer-service_b_3799574.html
Before calling DISH customer service...
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I appreciate the underlying sentiment, but that had to be one of the most ridiculous articles/blogs I have ever read. That's the problem with Huff. To many would be or entitled journalists.
Well the article is pretty accurate in the way people think they should get everything for free and right now. As a tech I can tell you that is exactly how 90% of the people I go to are just from reading the notes put in from a CSR on the phone call for the visit. Threats to go to Direct or Cable co if they don't get a earlier appointment and so on are just enough to laugh at. You all of a sudden have an issue that you can't watch TV no more and it is now the end of the world. I'm sorry but TV is not the end all be all and you don't need it to live so just get out the house and go do something else or read a book. Around where I work at we are prob a few days out on the schedule but most of those are stupid service call visits that are taking up time for something serious, such as those that people put batteries in backwards, wrong input, cut their own cables or hit their own dish in the yard with a lawn mower or something along those lines.
Of course I can't blame the customer for everything, Dish at the moment is pushing promo's so hard that we are getting over booked for installs and running out of receivers daily as they can't even keep up with their own demand on what they want to push. It is getting rather old that is for sure on both fronts fast and I can't wait till fall gets here and things slow down some.
Of course I can't blame the customer for everything, Dish at the moment is pushing promo's so hard that we are getting over booked for installs and running out of receivers daily as they can't even keep up with their own demand on what they want to push. It is getting rather old that is for sure on both fronts fast and I can't wait till fall gets here and things slow down some.
I work at Dish. One of the first things new employees are told, drummed into them early and often, is that a lot of the customers who call will be rude and/or disrespectful. I have found that to be true in the many thousands of calls I have taken. I have always worked to help the customer, even when the customer is rude, mean, insulting, or condescending, and I have had a LOT of that, but I have told quite a few customers that repeatedly cursing me and dropping the f-bomb over and over will not help me resolve their issue. I watched the account of a particularly rude customer I talked to, who insulted me over and over, insulted the company over and over, screamed, yelled, dropped every possibly combination of M-Fer, F-bomb, GD, A-Hole, KMA, and others I can't remember...all because he had to wait two days for a tech visit. He hung up on me, called back 5 times in 24 hours, and did the same thing to 5 more frontline and advanced agents. Over TV, man.
I work very hard at my job, I am very good at it, and appreciate when customers tell me I am awesome, solved what others said was impossible, complimented the company, etc. Makes my day. But, I can tell you, a LOT of the reason for turnover at the frontline level is that a lot of people cannot handle being insulted, cursed, and yelled at for 8 hours a day. Takes tough skin.
I work very hard at my job, I am very good at it, and appreciate when customers tell me I am awesome, solved what others said was impossible, complimented the company, etc. Makes my day. But, I can tell you, a LOT of the reason for turnover at the frontline level is that a lot of people cannot handle being insulted, cursed, and yelled at for 8 hours a day. Takes tough skin.
People just don't believe that a field tech is like any other person and works a regular day like anyone else and doesn't work in the dark. You can NOT do this type of work in the dark no matter what Dish thinks or the customer thinks there are major safety issues here. I've stepped in holes in customers yards, bad places on roofs or fell over items in yards when it gets dusk or near dark because they are harder to see thus a major safety concern so I don't work after dark no more no matter how many flash lights I carry - TV is not that important. The receivers are typically not the problem on a service call they are usually cables/connectors messed up corroded or something or the customer is lying to you about if they tried to adjust the dish out of desperation.
As a front line phone CSR there should be more things you should ask people and have them check no matter if you think or don't think they can.
If no signal showing up on 611 thru point dish then follow the line all the way back to the dish as long as its safe to do so and not say up on the peak of a roof or follow it till they can't no more and make sure any connections are tight and clean. Make sure to ask more than once if they moved the receiver or unhooked anything behind the receiver as many times they did. I can't tell you how many times I've run up and found satellite line going into a VCR or another spot vs where it should be so ask them many times over and over even if they do get upset - ask them again.
This would solve so many truck rolls before they happened!!
Next if there has to be a truck roll - MAKE 100% sure to tell EACH AND EVERY SINGLE ONE:
#1. Make sure all DOGS are locked up secure in another room where the tech does NOT have to go before the tech arrives!!! I don't want to be licked to death cause they THINK they won't bite!! I will get hateful in a heartbeat if they do not put their dogs up and go sit in my van.
#2. Tell each one to remove anything around the TV locations that may get broken and pull any entertainment centers away from the walls a few feet so you can access them well before the tech arrives. I'm not a furniture mover and will not touch their belongings to get to a spot where I need to work...I've told people this when I arrive and they look at me like deer in headlights. I'm sorry but if you can't respect me enough to move your sh*t then I won't work on your sh*t.
So please pass that on to all your fellow CSR's and help us field techs out a little... ohh and don't ever ever push the Trouble Call button - set that sucker up as a regular service call as I can bet you 99.9% of the time it is not the fault of a previous tech visit but something stupid the customer does so don't burn us.
I must not frequent that particular fast-food place. Myself and two of my kids always order our burgers with "only cheese" and I can count on two hands the number of times they've messed it up (I don't mean "two hands" to sound bad either - I'm guessing 95% or higher it's done right). 
Company reps should be allowed to hang up on people like that. Problem is, what is the threshold ? Seriously though, if more and more companies started doing that, people would cut out their bullsh*t tactics. If they leave (the customer, I mean), good riddance. You know they'll pull the same crap with the local cableco and other providers.
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Frontline agents are not allowed, under any circumstances, to hang up on a customer. What can be done, though, is to transfer the call to their manager, who has a little more power to tell the customer how it's going to be. I don't know that Dish does it any more, but it used to be that if an account was flagged as excessively abusive, that the customer would be terminated, and not allowed to reconnect with Dish. The Terms do allow that, if I remember correctly, as Dish can refuse to provide service to anyone.
I've never done it, as I am remarkably calm, but I have heard anecdotal tales of people like that being transferred over to our Spanish IVR. Oprima Ocho!
@ dvrexpander, good tips. I'm not a CSR (I'm further up the ladder), but I have a lot of interaction with new agents, and I promise you, we ask them to try to avoid running any type of service call if possible. Some agents want to keep their handle time low (since Dish measures much of an agent's success on how quick they can finish a call...don't get me started...LOL), and they will run a tech when a little time could solve Grandma's black/blue/snowy television on the wrong input.
I am guessing for liability reasons, Dish doesn't want the agents asking customers to check anything from the wall plate outward, worried that someone will get on a ladder, or even footstool, fall off, then blame Dish for asking them to check something. The agents are taught to ask probing questions about what specifically the customer has done, and some agents are better than others at it. And...no surprise...customer will lie. Talked to a customer who had a 015, asked what had changed since it worked, they swore nothing. Asked them to check the cables, several times was told "Oh, they're fine, we didn't change anything". I refuse to take that as an answer, had them check, and the sat in cable was connected to the 'TV/Antenna in" port (211k receiver). Had them move it to Satellite In, it was magically fixed. Of course, that cable moved over to the wrong spot on its own...LOL.
One of my biggest frustrations is the dreaded entertainment center. The customer treats it as the wall of death: it cannot be moved, ever, nothing behind it can be seen, ever, and the customer claims they're too old/feeble/stupid to do anything about it. I can imagine it's a nightmare for you to deal with them.
The tips about the dogs and moving furniture, though, are very good, and I am going to push those upward to see if we can get some standard language about that included in the standard pop-up disclosures our agents read to the customer when confirming a tech visit.
I am guessing for liability reasons, Dish doesn't want the agents asking customers to check anything from the wall plate outward, worried that someone will get on a ladder, or even footstool, fall off, then blame Dish for asking them to check something. The agents are taught to ask probing questions about what specifically the customer has done, and some agents are better than others at it. And...no surprise...customer will lie. Talked to a customer who had a 015, asked what had changed since it worked, they swore nothing. Asked them to check the cables, several times was told "Oh, they're fine, we didn't change anything". I refuse to take that as an answer, had them check, and the sat in cable was connected to the 'TV/Antenna in" port (211k receiver). Had them move it to Satellite In, it was magically fixed. Of course, that cable moved over to the wrong spot on its own...LOL.
One of my biggest frustrations is the dreaded entertainment center. The customer treats it as the wall of death: it cannot be moved, ever, nothing behind it can be seen, ever, and the customer claims they're too old/feeble/stupid to do anything about it. I can imagine it's a nightmare for you to deal with them.
The tips about the dogs and moving furniture, though, are very good, and I am going to push those upward to see if we can get some standard language about that included in the standard pop-up disclosures our agents read to the customer when confirming a tech visit.
We now have a new automatic call/message system that keeps them aware of the visit and time frame, this information needs to be included into that as well but I've already expressed this from our office end not sure how far its gotten.
And, there are plenty of CSR's that are incompetent, have poor English, and seem to be incapable of helping customers with their needs. (A problem not unique to Dish)
That said, rudeness and nastiness is inappropriate regardless of who is on the other end the phone. Generally, I try to chat with CSR, trying to make a personal connection with them. I can almost feel the tension lower..with them thinking...there is a nice guy on the other end of the phone. I can only imagine how difficult it to deal with abusive, nasty SOB's all day long.
If I do get a CSR that simply cannot get the job done, I either ask for a supervisor or say I will call back later. Nothing is gained by abusing the person on the other end of the phone.
I know it seems petty that some get irate over 'just tv', but it isn't just tv at all, it is good money spent on a service. When mine goes out on those very rare occasions, I see nothing wrong if the CSR could say "well it will be 2 days before we can get you back up, I'll credit 2 days service". Wouldn't be much but it would certainly send the message that we are 'a valued customer'.
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CSRs routinely issue Time Without Service credits in the event of an outage or truck roll delay. So it's not even good money spent on a service... it really does boil back down to "it's just TV".
Presume someone has AT250, which is $75/mo. Two days credit is just $5. Offer someone a $5 credit and I think most would be insulted. Let the customer do the math and they'll see that that credit is perfectly sufficient though !!
Add to it, not only is the time without service prorated for the number of days, it's prorated for the number of tuners having issues. Can't remember exact numbers, but had a customer once that had a problem with a single tuner (they had a solo, a duo, and another solo, or something like that), and gave 4 days time without service. Think the bill was about $60/mo, therefore $2 a day, so the net credit was $2x4 days x (1 tuner/4 tuners)=$2.00. Customers will go through the roof for that kind of thing...
Some would be insulted, but I think the majority would see it differently. Those that would be insulted would probably be the ones expecting next day service with anything less than that being totally unacceptable.
I've been fortunate in that in all the years I've had Dish and Direct, I've had maybe two actual outages that were from receivers that died and no outages for anything else.
Ooops! Not quite, right after my latest install, I had some issues with the HWS caused by a barrel connection the installer hadn't spotted and changed out. He was back within a couple days.
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