One of my aims with the service we offer here at Daily is to break free from the more “traditional” approach that so many other companies used to (and still do) offer.
I’ve said in a previous blog article about Customer Service – the Daily.co.uk Way that the last thing I expect our customers to experience when they contact us is someone droning through a series of unnecessary scripted questions, or someone less concerned about resolving an issue than proving that the blame for the issue is not with them.
Following a recent case I was dealing with myself, I think it would be helpful to explain the process we go through at Daily when we are investigating a technical issue. Many people will have already had their fair share of negative experiences with other companies so it’s only natural that if this is the first time they have contacted us then they will be looking for similarities and may well expect any correspondence to go down the same dreaded path.
One of the most important factors we have when we are investigating a technical issue is being able to replicate the fault at our end.
Identifying the issue is often the first step in being able to resolve it. When we can replicate it, we can check the steps taken to result in the issue, see any error messages, alter any variables etc. Often once the issue is identified then it can be pretty straight forward in resolving it.
If we cannot replicate an issue at our end (i.e. we are performing the same steps as the reporter of the issue but getting a different result) then all this means to us is that we need to be looking in different places to find out why the reporter is seeing what they are seeing. Most likely it will be a localised issue somewhere that we need to isolate.
All too often, though, the response from other companies when they find out they cannot replicate the issue at their end will be along the lines of:
“Well it works here, so must be something you’re doing”
and then case closed…
In this industry it really isn’t that black and white and such an attitude only really benefits the person dealing with the query who may consider it as “Not our problem, goodbye, right – next ticket in my queue!”. Meanwhile the customer who reported the problem will be in the same situation and I’m sure will think twice about moving their provider to another company more interested in helping them rather than denying there’s a problem!
We’re not delighted if we find ourselves on the receiving end of this sort of treatment, so the last thing we want to do is dish it out to our customers. So, rest assured – if ever we do state that something is working at our end, this is only the beginning of the problem-solving process, not the end.
