A positive experience with BT
The other day I wrote about my frustration at trying to use BT’s automated phone system. To balance that a little I actually had a very positive experience on Friday. We were having some problems with our phone line (or so we thought) so I called the fault line.
I got through to somebody very quickly – just had to enter my phone number and select one option and then was straight through. And the lady I got through to was brilliant. She went through the problem with me and ran a test on the line. The test came back clear – no problem with our line at all, so it was most likely the equipment. She offered to send me an email with some suggestions as to how to test it myself and agreed a time to phone back to see how I was getting on.
Meanwhile, I discovered that it was something very very silly. Definitely not a problem with the line at all. So when she phoned back at exactly the time we’d agreed I sheepishly explained that everything was fine and it had been my mistake. She was great – very understanding. What a delight to have such a helpful person to talk it through with.
BT: worst automated phone system?
Yesterday I added a new article to the site describing some of our experiences of moving our business into an office. I described some of the problems we’ve encountered with setting up our business phone line with BT. What I find particularly interesting is that a phone company can do such a terrible job at providing phone-based customer service. Surely with their years of experience and expertise they should have an outstanding phone system?
Here’s the problem I had. I had an issue that I wanted to discuss with BT – that is with a real person who could listen to my problem, check our account and discuss it with me. So, I phoned the number provided on the paperwork they had sent and started the usual process of selecting options from the automated menu system. The first couple of times I chose the options which actually applied to me – yes, I was phoning from the number I wanted to enquire about; yes, I wanted to enquire about an existing order. And each time I’d end up at an automated message which told me that I had one order in progress. I already knew that, it was that order I wanted to ask about! There were then no further options so the call was ended.
Hmmm, not very helpful is it? I started experimenting with the options I selected and at one point got through to someone who reckoned they couldn’t access the kind of order number I had on their system, at which point they put me through to a number which just rang and rang and … rang. Why would a customer service department attached to the number given on the paperwork associated with my account not be able to access my account details?
In the end I resorted to randomly selecting the options which didn’t apply to me and eventually got through to someone who could actually help. This particular person was very helpful and sorted out my concerns very quickly. They were even very understanding when I explained how frustrated I’d got at trying to get through to someone who could help me. They reckon that the powers that be are aware of the difficulty customers are having with the phone system and are going to improve it. Do I believe that they will? Not sure. I certainly hope that I don’t have much cause to ring them up in the future.
