Do away with hold messages and music, now!
I’ve been on hold with Microsoft for the past 1:40 minutes, and I’m going nuts. I think it’s an intended effect. They want to completely pound our brains into mush by the time we speak with tech reps. Either that, or the people who planned their hold music and hold messages are complete ninnies who’ve put no thought whatsoever into what they’re doing to their customers.
The hold music is the same, annoying, damned loop of faux lounge jazz, and every 30 seconds or so, they repeat one of three pre-programmed messages. While it might be interesting the first couple of times, it is NOT what I want to hear over and over and OVER and OVER and OVER, for more than 100 minutes in a row!
Microsoft’s way of handling its customers who are on hold is not unique, but is by far one of the worst I’ve ever seen. Honestly, by this time, I hate Microsoft’s Support Lifecycle site, and Microsoft’s Protect site, and Microsoft’s TechNet seminars, because I’ve heard about them over and over and OVER and OVER, ad infinitum, and if I ever hear about them again, I’ll get an instant migraine.
Get a clue, MS! Treat your customers better. Either give us some decent hold music and no repeated messages, or give us nothing at all. I’d rather hear NO music and NO messages whatsoever, so I can concentrate on doing some work while I’m on hold. I can do NO work while those maddening hold loops keep playing. At the very least, you should give us a mute option for all and any music and/or messages you might play.
You get an F, Microsoft! Raoul Pop “highly recommends” that you visit his blog and follow the easy steps outlined there to improve your customers’ hold experience.
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You should have heard the stuff on hold at the doctor’s office today. Yeesh. The worst is my bank: They play the same annoying jingle over and over.
I don’t mind a low (as in volume) tone every 30 seconds or so, just so I know I haven’t been cut off, and I don’t mind an initial “be sure you have the following items ready” message. Trying to sell me on their services just increases the annoyance factor.
Comment — June 12, 2007 @ 3:34 pm
[...] If you’re a regular reader, you may remember that I blogged previously about Microsoft’s poor customer support experience here, where I talked about their maddening hold music. They seem to have improved that aspect since I wrote my post, so I’m hoping that someone at MS will take this post to heart and change things up. A good place to start would be to revise the “callback only” policy for SharePoint Support. Another would be counseling for American MS employees about the value of customer service. The Indian guys get it better than Americans. Now that’s a surprise to me! [...]
Pingback — August 13, 2007 @ 5:49 pm