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Come on Fido, you can do better than this?

HandyAndy
I'm a contributor level 1
I'm a contributor level 1

So here I am, the day after a 2 hour 40 minute phone call with a supervisor in Manilla trying to get six Fido numbers working properly.

 

The phones (not Fido handsets) seem to be working (mostly, but data is broken) and the support person ("Ace" I think?) that helped me from Manilla (why not in North America?) couldn't add the international dialling option from where she was and the call was dropped before I managed to speak to someone in monthly billing, so I've had to get back in touch this morning.

 

I can't log into Myaccount on Chrome (really? you haven't fixed this yet) and I've had to go through the rigmarole of punching in numbers for a robot to get to talk to someone. Of course, that someone is bound by rules and guidlines and can't help me as I'm not the official account holder. My boss is the account holder and he's kind of busy so I'm in charge of setting this up.

 

What am I writing about? Well, I want to talk to a human, I don't care if it's pre-paid or monthly, I want to talk to the same human for either, I don't want to be transferred ("please hold"), I don't want to spend time punching in numbers for a robot, I want to talk to a human within three rings of the phone (like my bank does), I want to see current problems on the front web page so I don't have to waste half an hour finding out that there's a technical problem with data when I could have read that immediately instead of (did I say this before?) punching in numbers for a robot. I want to use Chrome and not Internet Explorer, I actually want to talk to the people in charge of how customer support is presented to the public as they've made a complete dog's dinner of the whole thing. The customer agents are great, but they bear the brunt of disgruntled customers because the designer of the customer service flow has made a complete mess. Who's in charge and why do they still have a job with Fido (or is it Rogers?).

 

Whoever is in charge of this sham of a system please get in touch, I think I may be able to help ... Smiley

 

A.

 

***Edited to add labels*** 

 

5 REPLIES 5

FidoMaria
Former Moderator
Former Moderator

Hi @HandyAndy & welcome to the Community!

 

I'm sad to read that you're having difficulty gettings things sorted out in your account. Sad Were you finally able to reach someone?

 

In regards to making changes to the account, you would indeed need to be authorized on the account or be the account holder. If neither of these are the case, the account holder will need to get in contact with us to authorize you on the account.

 

As for Fido.ca on Chrome, have you already cleared the cache and cookies, and do you have an ad-blocker or pop-up blocker activated?

 

Let me know!



HandyAndy
I'm a contributor level 1
I'm a contributor level 1

Hi and thanks for the quick reply,

 

I'm aware of the restrictions on identity for the accounts. We (and I'm sure other customers) have phones on an account that is paid for by a business but managed by one of the employees. We ensure that we can identify the account holder when necessary. This is perfectly understandable.

 

I did get the problem resolved and the customer support supervisor I worked with was knowledgeable and efficient, I would personally recommend the level of support I got to anyone. HOWEVER, it was reaching the right person to talk to that was difficult. Call centres are very impersonal (with or without being called by our first names - I really don't care either way personally) and having to hold or wait for a call back is extremely annoying when you have six people breathing down your neck to get a problem fixed. When you do get through to a human, they work from a script and don't have the context of the problem. It's not their fault, it's what they're paid to do. IT'S THE WORKFLOW THAT NEEDS CHANGING! (that's not an angry shout, it's a "eureka" style shout)

 

What I'm getting at is that Fido/Rogers could lead the way in customer service by NOT having a robot answer the phone and having support agents that can deal with any problem directly without the need to transfer to other centres. Furthermore, NO NUMBERS! Humans respond better to easy to remember words and phrases like postal codes, last names, security questions that are relevant to them (NOT PIN NUMBERS!) etc and can just as easily identify themselves this way. Get rid of the numbers and people feel better about the whole experience. Also, in this day and age, it's possible to transfer the customer detail from one support centre to another without the customer having to repeat themselves with information that's not relevant. Admitedly, they need to have a security check again as the customer could have handed the handset to someone else, but apart from that, don't ask for relevant information more than once.

 

This is all customer support workflow 101 really and Fido/Rogers could lead the way as an example of how to do things better, rather than just doing what everyone else does.

 

A flashy web site is useless when it doesn't work and it's frustrating for customers to deal with the issues above in order to get help elsewhere. Clearing caches and cookies is not an option for some of us as personally I really don't want to have to re-enter all the cached and cookied information that works just fine on the plethora of other websites that I use. The site should never have been rolled out with this kind of problem. Who was the Project Manager on this one? Maybe they would like to respond?

 

Anyway, having poured my heart out, please keep doing the good work you do, just stop doing the silly things that get customers frustrated.

 

Thanks,

 

A

 

 

@HandyAndy,

 

The PIN on the account, we need to ask for it for security reasons if the account holder already set that up. 

 

As for the website, we're trying to fix all issues that were reported to us.

 

Thank you for your sharing your feedback and we will work hard to continue to improve. Smiley



HandyAndy
I'm a contributor level 1
I'm a contributor level 1

@FidoTerry wrote:

 

The PIN on the account, we need to ask for it for security reasons if the account holder already set that up. 


Precisely. Why use a PIN when something more personal and easily remembered can be used?

 

Of course, using a PIN is necessary for remote access when you only have a numeric keypad available. However, when I'm talking to someone on the phone I find that the numeric keypad on my left elbow is hard to reach ... (I am kidding of course).

 

An example: when I phone my bank, a human answers the phone within three rings. They ask for my postal code and then my last name to find the account. They then ask for certain letters from my password (a word I can remember easliy that I have defined) and a security question such as a memorable date or memorable address (again, only I know these things and they are easy for me to remember). Then that's it, the next question from the agent is "How can I help you today Mr HandyAndy". No account numbers, no PINs, no robots and no frustration. This is a real example of a real company that handles their calls this way. I kid you not.

 

There are HUGE challenges in supporting a large customer base for a dwindling budget and having worked on the frontline and back end of support during my career I am well aware of these difficulties. I have found though that customers are far happier when handled immediately by a human that asks relevant, contextual questions.

 

What I'm getting at is that Fido could be doing this and winning more customers by the fact that they dare to be different and more importantly, human.

 

Go for it!

 

A

 

PS. Thanks for the engaging discussion!

I totally get it. We offer the PIN as an extra security for our customers if it was already registered. We normally ask for other information if the PIN wasn't set up.

 

Fido takes personal information extremely seriously hence why we need to do this but I can understand how this can be of an annoyance. Smiley