Customer Service - Here's What Not To Do

The other day I encountered a perfect example that shows why service companies are failing today. Here it is, are you ready?

Their frontline personnel have no urgency, no positive resolution to a customer issue, and no desire to consider anything that a customer or client has to say.

This is spurned by a personal experience that I have encountered with one of the largest internet service providers in this country – Comcast. A company that apparently is so large that their very own customers are getting buried under stacks of excuses and bundles of red tape. Let me explain.

In January of this year (2010) I moved to Indiana and needed to set up internet and cable television; of which I did through Comcast. My initial contact with Comcast was smooth and effortless. The installation technician that came to my house was pleasant and completed the installation process within a reasonable time. From this perspective, it seems like textbook customer service, right? Not so much.

Not even a week after the installation, the internet completely went down. Now, I understand that this will happen occasionally, it is technology. So, I called Comcast to see if there was an ‘outage’ or if there was something else wrong. After dialing their toll free number and go through the seemingly endless questions asked by a computerized voice, I get this message: “We are experiencing a higher than normal call volume…” This message is a message that is so familiar to anyone that has called Comcast and chose any option for service being down. It was then 10 minutes before I heard a human voice on the other end ready to ask me all those initial questions all over again. How frustrating.

Now, Comcast did send out a technician to see what the issue was and to attempt to ‘fix’ it, not once, but more than 6 times over the course of 5 months. This most recent experience has to be the absolute worst I have ever experienced, not just with Comcast, but with the entire service industry. It is no wonder why large companies are failing. Here’s what happened:

Once again, the internet went out and was intermittently resetting so that it worked – some of the time. Once again I called Comcast to get it fixed. The call center rep told me that “there is no way anyone can come out sooner than” next week. So, I would have to wait a full week without a service that I am paying for and in need of. I expressed my disappointment to the rep and the rep said that they would “put that in the notes to see if they can get there sooner”. Who’s ‘they’? Where I come from, the last thing you want to do is make your company seem so far distant and detached from your customer or client. Well, they did just that.

So, a week later (yep, putting ‘that’ in ‘the notes’ didn’t help one bit) a technician shows up to get my internet working – so I hoped. The technician stated that he felt it was the main line coming into the house that was the issue, so he replaced that cable line. It was working, so he left. Ten minutes later, yep you guessed it, the internet went down again. I got right on the phone, once again, to contact Comcast to get the technician back out to my home.

Firstly, I waited for more than 10 minutes for a representative to take my call. Secondly, the rep had no urgency, no concern, nor offered any resolution except this, “I apologize sir, but we can’t get a technician back out there, it’s too late.” Keep in mind it is about 3:30 p.m. EST. When I asked when I would have a technician out to my house, the rep again gave me a date that was one week away. I was amazed at this. At this time I ask for a supervisor. Boy and I thought waiting 10 minutes for a rep was bad. It took twenty minutes to get a supervisor on the phone. I then proceed to have to explain all this, once again, to the supervisor. The supervisor then proceeds to inform me that there is nothing more that can be done and I’d have to wait. I did everything including telling him that I was planning on leaving Comcast to go with their competitor. He stated I’d receive a phone call by 7 p.m. that night by ‘someone’. That call never came.

So, as I analyze my complete experience with a company such as Comcast, I must conclude a few things. First, if this was my experience, then there must be hundreds if not thousands of the same experience with the same company. Secondly, Comcast puts no value to their service when both their customer service reps and their technicians aren’t willing to go above and beyond for their customers or clients.

Just imagine if you treated one of your customers or clients in this way?

Lou Everett
Network Technician
b2Networx, Inc.
http://www.b2networx.com/

Social Engineering Attacks- In English Please

When you see or hear the term 'Social Engineering', you may just think, "Here we go again with this techie mumbo jumbo". But if I were to ask you if you ever recieved an email that appears to be from someone you know and they expressed that they were in need of your help (being that you are their friend and all). Then there proceeds to be instructions on how to get them the money that they need. That is what is called a Social Engineering Attack, more specifically 'Spear Phishing'.

These 'attacks', are seemingly targeted directly to you in search for your hard earned benjamins. These fraud emails have one goal - to fool you to giving out your personal information. Now, with a watchful and somewhat trained eye, anyone, including yourself, can spot these imposters. How so?

Many of these phishing emails have grammer errors and mispellings in them. And one dead giveaway is that they are asking for information that you wouldn't even give to your closest friend. Oh, and watch out for those crazy promises of enormous sums of cash that will flow your way IF you provide the information they request. On top of the fact that this supposed cash is coming from a crazy island that I may not have ever heard of, I am just not that lucky.

So, what should we do with these phishing emails that we may receive multiple times in a given day? There is a one word answer that will resolve all of your worries - DELETE. Remove these emails and never click on any links within them. Once that is done, pick up the phone and give your friend Linda a call to just make sure she is actually not stranded in some deserted island in need of monetary assistance.

For more information, take a look at this:
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/terms/socialengineering.aspx

Lou Everett

Network Technician

b2Networx, Inc.
www.b2networx.com

Viruses! What Can You Do?

Ok, so you have good anti-virus software installed on your computer. You also followed the recommendation of your computer guy and had him\her put in a firewall to help prevent unwanted external traffic. However, these pesky viruses just don’t seem to stop. Just why that is, you ask? Well, the short of it is that those smarty pants hackers just won’t stop, and the long of it is that those smarty pants hackers just won’t stop. Yep, they don’t have much better to do than to wreak havoc on as many computers as they can. So, what can you do to prevent your computer or business from being the next victim? Along with following the suggestions in the last post, there are other precautions that can be taken.

First, let’s consider a popular carrier of virus and spyware that we use everyday – email. Surely, you have received tons of email that is just absolute junk. Just like the junk mail you get in your physical mail box outside your home, you just don’t need it. But unlike the paper mail you receive in your mailbox at home, opening up an email that is unknown can be extremely detrimental. Be extremely cautious about what email you open, as well as any attachments that accompany an email that you don’t know where has originated. Subject lines in these emails seem really enticing, even seemingly legitimate. However, when opened there lies an invisible trap that can, at minimum, cause harm to your computer. Keep your eyes wide open and think smart when it comes to email.

Secondly, there are so many avenues on the internet for these evil techies to pounce on your computer. Have you ever been to a website and at that website there begins a slideshow of nothing but pop-ups? Here again, use caution. Traditionally, pop-ups were designed to gain your attention and a means to get you as the end user to click and see what this curious information is about. However, times have changed a bit. It would be safer to ignore such pop-ups, especially if you are unsure of the content, than it would be to get ‘click happy’. The end result could be disastrous. Do not hang out in sites like this.

So, while there is no 100% full proof way to get rid of all virus attacks or spam, there are ways that you can help in preventing these viruses from jumping on-board your computer system.

Lou Everett

Network Technician

b2Networx, Inc.
www.b2networx.com

Computer Viruses on a Rampage!

If you don't know of someone or if you yourself havn't been the target of a computer virus then you may live on the planet Vulcan. All kidding aside, these clever little 'techies' that use their smarts for evil are up all hours of the night just trying to find ways to hack into your computer and servers.

As an example,one of my collegues received this email just today:

Subject: Outlook Setup Notification

You have (8) messages from Microsoft Outlook.

Please re-configure your Microsoft Outlook again.

Download attached setup file and install.

So this email, posing as Microsoft, is atttempting to make the reader believe that there is a need to 're-configure' your email client in order to access these email messages by opening an attachment that is within the email that THEY sent that just so happens to be accessible. Ok..let's NOT do that!

Now, it is just not possible to know about ALL the possible ways viruses and trojans can access your computer or servers. And the reasons for creating them to begin with are just as numerous as the viruses themselves. So, what can you do about these obnoxious and annoying attacks?

First of all, there is an ABSOLUTE need for a good anti-virus for your computer (an Enterprise edition anti-virus if it's a company). Which one, you ask? Yes, there are many. Some that get great reviews are VYPRE, CA, Symantec, and Kaspersky. Ask your 'computer guy' what they recommend.
Now, although well intentioned and they work the majority of the time, there are some viruses that seem to 'creep' in. Take a look at this enlightening article entitled New Attack Bypasses Every Windows Security Product.
So, this brings us to my second point: FIREWALL
Now this, as it seems, is a mighty important part of a business network. Without it, and without it configured properly, you might as well go outside and give out your passwords. Don't know if you have a firewall? DEFINITELY check with your 'computer guy' about that and address it immediately.

So, in a nutshell, just approach your emails and the internet with open eyes and if you are unsure, then check with someone that knows.

Safe Surfing!

Lou Everett

Network Technician

b2Networx, Inc.
www.b2networx.com