Earlier this week, I had to contact Scottish Power over a small mistake on my bill. I initially thought the easiest way to amend it would be to open my online account and submit the correction but it was impossible to sign into the website. I assumed there was high traffic and thought I would try again the next day. The website was still the same 24 hours later and, in case the fault was with me, I tried to register with another email address but that wasn’t possible either so I waited another 24 hours and the website was still unusable... that's when I decided to pick up the phone...
Now, when I call any customer service number, I expect to wait a little bit… that's fine... while not ideal, 7-9 minutes has become the average wait time for some service providers at peak times. I understand that lots of people are trying to get through, I’m prepared to wait a little bit, I have a pitch I can proofread while I’m waiting.
Now, when I call any customer service number, I expect to wait a little bit… that's fine... while not ideal, 7-9 minutes has become the average wait time for some service providers at peak times. I understand that lots of people are trying to get through, I’m prepared to wait a little bit, I have a pitch I can proofread while I’m waiting.
15 minutes of the most dreadful music later and I am still on hold. I pass comment on Twitter.
Oh how naive that tweet seems now. 15 minutes is a mere flash. After waiting a few more minutes, I decided to search Twitter to see if anybody else was on hold. There was. Here are a few.
Oh dear, some of these people have been holding for 45/55 minutes. That's more than double my duration so far. That seems utterly ridiculous. These people are exaggerating, right? There's no way people would hold for that long...
Being on hold is a weird thing. Once you have gone past a certain period of time, it becomes a battle of wills, you can't give up, you've invested too much time and you have to see it through. Also, you're convinced somebody will answer your call any minute as there's no way a big reputable company like Scottish Power would have such a long hold time as it's basically unacceptable.
My call is finally answered at 50 minutes. The customer service advisor asks me how she can help me, I begin by telling her how long I have been on hold, she doesn't apologise, she just says they are 'busy'. So am I! I don't have time to sit and listen to Ronan Keating for 50 minutes! I tell the advisor my problem and she says 'I'm just going to pop you on hold' NOOOOO!!! Too late, she's gone and I'm now listening to Ed Sheeran. A slight improvement. Two songs later, she's back and my problem is sorted. Now I can just put the phone down and forget about it... But I can't.
Fuel is expensive and essential, a very important requisite for modern living and we place our trust and our money with service providers to keep our homes and families warm and when that relationship begins to show flaws, it's unsettling. It's taken an hour out of my very busy work day to sort the problem, that was never part of the deal. If I am paying a large amount of money then I demand a better level of customer service.
Today, December 6th, Scottish Power are putting their prices up by 8.6% (on average). This will add £113 to the average annual bill. That's a lot of money for most households.
Today, December 6th, Scottish Power are putting their prices up by 8.6% (on average). This will add £113 to the average annual bill. That's a lot of money for most households.
10% of your bill is spent on customer services. That's an awful lot of your money to be sat on hold for 45 minutes.
Scottish Power have a Twitter account and it's constantly manned during office hours actively helping people with enquiries so I sent them one.
They didn't reply so over the course of the next couple of days I sent it twice more. Still no reply. I logged into Twitter last night to see if they had responded, they hadn't so I decided to do another Twitter search to see if people are still on hold. A few were.
These are just a few of the tweets posted in a 3-hour window on the same day, there are many more. And these are by people who are annoyed AND have a Twitter account. The actual number of people hanging on the telephone is higher, the long hold time is testament to that itself.
When companies exist on social media it's a great way to interact with customers and clients, keeping them bang up-to-date with news and offers. It's a two-way conversation and a lot of companies handle it very well. I use Twitter a lot and I'm familiar with leading brands and how they operate. Any successful company is going to get a few complaints on their timeline, everyone from Vodafone to Gap get dissatisfied customers airing their complaints but those brands also get a lot of praise and fun tweets from people too.
Scottish Power's timeline is almost all complaints and few of them are dealt with. The worst thing isn't the actual length of hold duration (although it is maddening), it's Scottish Power's ignorance of it. They don't apologise for their terrible customer service even though they are getting loads of messages on a daily basis (I've listed many more at the bottom of this blog). A simple recognition would be nice, even if they tweeted a short apology and a reassurance they will get around to everyone soon. Just what is going on at Scottish Power? Why is the website unusable and why is Customer Services so woefully understaffed? For one of the market leaders it is absolutely unacceptable.
So, I ask once again, Scottish Power, do you think that 45 minutes is an acceptable hold time for your customers? Coz none of your customers do.
I love that the top two were so aggravated they back up their claims with photos. Good work!
When companies exist on social media it's a great way to interact with customers and clients, keeping them bang up-to-date with news and offers. It's a two-way conversation and a lot of companies handle it very well. I use Twitter a lot and I'm familiar with leading brands and how they operate. Any successful company is going to get a few complaints on their timeline, everyone from Vodafone to Gap get dissatisfied customers airing their complaints but those brands also get a lot of praise and fun tweets from people too.
Scottish Power's timeline is almost all complaints and few of them are dealt with. The worst thing isn't the actual length of hold duration (although it is maddening), it's Scottish Power's ignorance of it. They don't apologise for their terrible customer service even though they are getting loads of messages on a daily basis (I've listed many more at the bottom of this blog). A simple recognition would be nice, even if they tweeted a short apology and a reassurance they will get around to everyone soon. Just what is going on at Scottish Power? Why is the website unusable and why is Customer Services so woefully understaffed? For one of the market leaders it is absolutely unacceptable.
So, I ask once again, Scottish Power, do you think that 45 minutes is an acceptable hold time for your customers? Coz none of your customers do.
I love that the top two were so aggravated they back up their claims with photos. Good work!
If you want to see many, many more complaints, head over to Twitter and search for Scottish Power. If you are unhappy with the service, why not add your own?
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