Calls made to Call Centers can often lead to frustrating experiences … long waiting times before you can reach a live operator, difficulties in understanding thick accents of some of the operators, having to repeat yourself each time you call to follow-up on the same complaint, call getting disconnected repeatedly, and so on.<\/p>\n
Today, I got a pleasant surprise from HUTCH, my mobile phone provider. After my call to its helpdesk got over, I got an SMS message asking me if I was satisfied with the experience of talking to its representative. Since I have never been asked such a thing before by anyone, I decided to reply back immediately. It replied back seeking more feedback.<\/p>\n
To best convey what were the specific areas of feedback sought, I am giving below the transcript of the SMS messages exchanged between HUTCH and me.<\/p>\n
QUOTE<\/p>\n
HUTCH: We would like to know more about your experience. Would you like to respond to a few questions? Reply toll-free with Yes or No.<\/p>\n
Me: Yes.<\/p>\n
HUTCH: Was Mr. MP able to take care of your query or problem? Reply toll free, with Yes or No.<\/p>\n
Me: No.<\/p>\n
HUTCH: Did you like Mr. MP’s tone and manner?\u00a0 Reply toll free, with Yes or No.<\/p>\n
[At this stage, I couldn’t help testing their system. Instead of a ‘Yes’, I tried a ‘Y’. Let’s see what happened]<\/p>\n
Me: Y<\/p>\n
HUTCH: Invalid response. Please reply with Yes or No.<\/p>\n
[Fair enough, their system was programmed to accept only a ‘Yes’ or a ‘No’. So, I went back to ‘Yes’.]<\/p>\n
Me: Yes<\/p>\n
HUTCH: Thank you for your feedback. If there is more that you would like to share, please SMS your comments to 6790 (toll-free).<\/p>\n
Me: Doing a survey to evaluate call center performance is a unique initiative. I appreciate it and I am going to make a mention in my blog on sketharaman.com.<\/p>\n
HUTCH: Invalid response. Please reply with Yes or No.<\/p>\n
ENDQUOTE<\/p>\n
In their previous questions, they clearly asked for Yes \/ No responses. But, here, they specifically asked for comments and did not restrict the response to Yes \/ No choices. Under the circumstance, their system should have been programmed to accept free format comments in response. But, apparently, it wasn’t — instead, it was still expecting only a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ by way of response.<\/p>\n
This is a flaw. By correcting it, HUTCH could possibly get a lot of additional comments and feedback for improving its call center performance. (I noticed that HUTCH had mentioned a separate number to SMS my response, but hitting REPLY is so much more convenient!)<\/p>\n
Apart from this small flaw, I found this to be an excellent initiative from HUTCH. Hopefully, other large users of call centers like other telephone companies, banks and online travel agencies start following a similar practice in due course.<\/p>\n
UPDATE DATED 3 JULY 2020:<\/strong><\/p>\n It’s nearly 15 years since I published the above blog post. Apart from a couple of 2-way SMS surveys by Vodafone and a couple of other companies, I don’t recall any other campaigns during this period. Surely none from banks and online travel agencies. So, sadly, HUTCH’s practice has not caught on.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n