The BT Customer Service Scandal

British Telecom, a great British Institution, market capitalisation of £50bn+, providing telephone lines to over £28m of the UK population, helping us to be connected, be complete..... 

Love them or hate them, BT has to deal with some significant issues, massive volumes, an ageing and stretched infrastructure, and, worst of all, rising customer expectations that demand immediate, fast and reliable connectivity.  BT is also facing significant competition from multiple global players, all trying to access the profitable parts of their marketplace.
 
So when things do go wrong, against this backdrop, you would have thought that even this leviathan would be interested in addressing it effectively, after all customers do pay the bills…?
 
No.  Unfortunately, judging by my experiences, you’d be wrong.

Operational Priorities

Outstanding operational processes should place the customer at the centre of their focus, aiming to to address their, increasingly demanding, requirements for speed, cost, reliability and quality.
 
One of the disadvantages of having an enormous market share and an aging infrastructure is that when what operational experts call “failure demand” occurs – ie when things go wrong – it can be in a big way, with enormous peaks and troughs. For those of us receiving the blunt end of this experience, it appears to be BT’s prime operational aim to control this demand so that it can be aligned to its limited and expensive resources, particularly the time of their engineering staff.   They do this through a number of routes:

• Self service.  Encouraging the customer (or as I was described, the “User”) to self-diagnose and address the issues themselves.  Potentially a win:win here as it could be empowering for the customer, and resolve the basic issues quickly, removing them from the doorsteps of BT.  However, of course, when there is clearly a more complex “non-standard” problem this approach will not work. In my situation, an exchange problem, as I later found out, could only be addressed by an engineer visit.
• High volume contact centres.  Based in India, these contact centres are geared up to deal with enormous volumes and the operatives follow tightly controlled processes which must be adhered to.  Supervisors’ roles are to make sure call demand is dealt with efficiently and processes are followed, with no unnecessary escalation.  The process is king. 
• Flattening short term demand.  Ever not heard “We are very busy at the moment” at the start of your call? By setting expectations low, BT uses customer wait time as the malleable layer that can be flexed without needing to increase contact centre resource.  Judging by my experience, customer wait times of 20-30 minutes are viewed as acceptable.
• Staged processes.  BT has tiered response levels with different capabilities and powers.  Only once you go through a specific layer will an engineering resource be booked. Of course, this will build in a further wait time for the customer. In my situation, once they were sure that it was not a line problem, they followed the next stage of the process and sent out a brand new BT broadband hub – taking yet more time with no change in the result (and adding to the pile of redundant equipment going to landfill….)

So do you feel like a Customer?

So what should BT do?

Unfortunately, you don't get to be as poor as BT by listening to the advice of the customer (I mean "user"). Although, if, in a parallel world, they did, they might think about implementing the following improvements: 

1. Be accountable.  Stand up and be counted, BT. Admit you have an issue and tell the world you are going to do something about it.  Make outstanding customer service your unique selling point – the reason we use you.
2. Get the right measures of success.  For a start, measure what the customer feels, such as the time taken to resolve an issue, not whether you are achieving internal Service Levels.
3. Customer-centred processes. Invest in processes and systems that are designed around the customer, empathetically understanding what the customer wants. Empower your staff to do what it takes to help the customer.
4. Communicate.  Explain how your processes work, outline the probable timescales, and help the customer to help you.  Communicate through channels that the customer values.  Learn to communicate empathetically.
5. Provide customer choices.  One size does not fit all, therefore provide choices which help customers and allow you to manage demand efficiently.  Customers don’t mind paying, if they get value.

 
Chris Lorimer is an operational consultant who has advised organisations across the world on how to develop outstanding operational processes.  He lives in rural part of Devon with his family.  If you’d like to contact him, assuming his broadband is now working, email Chris@lorimerconsulting.co.uk
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