Customer experience at its worst -- and what IT can learn

My customer experience with T-Mobile UK (or was it EE — Everything Everywhere, the joint venture between Deutsche Telekom and France Télécom in the UK?) last Friday was so shocking — and in some cases ridiculous — that I had to share it and highlight the potential customer experience parallels with IT service desks.

For balance: I've been a T-Mobile customer since February 2011 and its actual mobile service has been pretty good to date. I might whinge a little that availability seems to have dipped post–transition to EE (and I have no idea why) but that is probably just me imagining things. However, I didn't imagine this . . .

So what happened?

I bought a second-hand phone and when I put my partner's SIM in it (to test it), it registered on the EE network but I couldn't send or receive calls or text; however, I could use mobile Internet. So I thought: is this a service provider, software, or hardware issue? After a quick but unsuccessful "Google" — always my first port of call for support these days — I realized that I needed some expert advice. As the SIM was "nearly working" I decided that I would call EE first.

It started well-ish, taking three minutes to get through the interactive options to a point where I could hear the now mandatory "we are really busy so you might be wasting your time on hold for a while" message. Thankfully I think it was only a minute or so. Then the "helpful" Patrick was available to help. And this is where the relationship started to break down . . .

Why is the system of record, not the customer, always in the right?

It seemed T-Mobile had the wrong address for my partner in the system, so when she gave an incorrect address for security purposes (as we were using her SIM) Patrick said he couldn't help. She pushed that the system must be wrong and she gave our address again but, according to Patrick, it was "completely different to the one in the system."

My partner went round the usual customer support "circles" and abruptly passed the phone back to me in a state of disgust and disbelief after Patrick had asked her something to the effect of: "Are you sure you are not confused? Are you sure that's where you live? Are you sure you don't live at another address?" Say what? Who are you talking to Mr. Customer Support Person?

To make matters worse, Patrick then proceeded to demonstrate that he hadn't been listening and my fuse was lit. I have a polite manner on support calls because I appreciate the help and the plight of working on a service desk, but when the support operative is wasting my time, is not customer focused, and is not actually helping, I hit a point of what I would describe as "Hulk SMASH!"

As it turned out (my partner had checked her online account while I was still on the call), our address was wrong by one character — a previous T-Mobile employee had added the house number as 10 rather than 30, but the rest of the address was correct. I was ready to turn my dissatisfaction up to 11: Are you seriously telling me that Patrick couldn't have simply explained that he had a different house number on the system and realized it was likely a mistake by a colleague? The mind boggles.

Why doesn't your manager want to speak to me?

I didn't want to spend any more time with the ineffective Patrick. When I asked to speak to Patrick's manager, he explained that he needed to put me on hold for a few minutes until he found a supervisor "willing to speak with me." Managers aren't responsible for dealing with unhappy customers and can decline to do so? After 4 to 5 minutes on hold, Patrick returned. I "Hulk SMASHed" again — I wasn't prepared to be put on hold again while Patrick continued to source a manager willing to speak with me.

Then the last thing I heard: "I'll go ahead and forward you . . ." You know what happened next: I was cut off.

After three hours an EE manager eventually called me back, but it was more of the same. The manager asked about my experience with her employee Irwin.Did Patrick even exist? From there I was asked to repeat what had happened. Couldn't she have found time over the last three hours to listen to the 20+ minute call recording? And when my partner asked to cancel her contract, she was told the queue was 30 minutes. Wow, how many other customers are cancelling? (The manager did say, but it would probably be wrong for me to repeat how many it was.) She is still on hold (but working) while I finish this blog . . .

If it's any solace to those at EE, the entire wireless service provider industry, at least in the US, did not fare well in Forrester's Customer Experience Index 2012. This means that even who lead their industry in customer experience are the best of a bad or mediocre bunch. It's so easy to change your mobile provider, so why are they so bad at keeping us customers happy (or at least "not unhappy")?

So what can we all learn from this story?

While there are so many questions that require answers, here's a starting point for a few audiences:

For EE (or T-Mobile):

·         How is this customer service?

·         How is this support?

·         . . . I could go on.

For call centers per se:

·         Why do customer support people never realize that the customer is not only important but also busy?

·         Why is the system always right, not the customer?

·         Why can't your people deviate from the script if it isn't working?

·         Why do ineffective support people always hide behind rules and process (and the IT system)?

Finally, and probably most importantly, for enterprises who employ people like Patrick (or Irwin?):

·         Did Patrick not realize that he was losing a customer (probably two)?I really don't think he did.

·         Did he care?Probably not.

·         Why do you employee such people?You tell me!

And how does this relate to the IT service desk?

I'll try not to insult your intelligence here (and the blog is already too long); hopefully you can see what you need to do better. But here's the short of it . . .

If you're a service desk professional, realize that the end user is your customer. If you manage the service desk, you need to ask yourself how your staff treats these customers. If you don't know, find out quickly, since my next blog shows the disparity between the business's and IT's perceptions of IT performance and it's not good.

This customer focus (or lack thereof) goes for the entire practice of IT service management (ITSM). While the origins of service management are rooted in product marketing and management, the customer focus was lost as it was applied to IT. While recent updates to IT infrastructure library (ITIL) have added business relationship management and financial management, this isn't enough: ITSM remains predominantly inside-out.

In what Forrester calls "the age of the customer," technology-led disruption erodes traditional competitive barriers across all industries. And within your enterprise, it's now easier than ever for empowered employees and app developers to take advantage of new devices and cloud-based software and infrastructure that you don't support. To truly function as a service provider, ITSM needs to be more outside-in and consider the customer and the customer's desired outcome.

To do this, ITSM professionals need to reinforce that the customer comes first — not IT. To serve your customers faster, cheaper, and at a higher quality, you'll need to add automation to service management — and it's not just because we have fewer people. At Forrester we promote service management and automation, or SMA for short, over traditional ITIL-based ITSM. It's not "binning ITSM or ITIL," it's starting with the customer (not the IT or ITIL) and leveraging service management (including ITIL) and automation as a "means to an end" — it's not the end, as some technology implementation projects think. If you're a Forrester customer, check out our Service Management And Automation Playbook that is focused on just this.

Finally, behind my cloud of despair there is a ray of sunshine . . .

If it wasn't for the work of my colleagues in the Forrester Customer Experience team, I really would wonder where large organizations are with customer service and customer experience. I know it's a shameless plug, but I've read their book, Outside In, and it really does offer great advice to organizations that are adrift when looked at through the lens of customer experience — and ultimately customer retention, revenues, and shareholder value.

Many of the practices that customer experience professionals employ — such as customer ecosystem and journey mapping — can be used by us in IT to offer our internal customers a better and more productive technology experience that will ultimately benefit our paying external customers.