Why Customer Support SUCKS Nowadays

I would say we are witnessing history.

In my opinion, we are living in the era of the worst customer support.

Despite the awful customer support among brands, prices are still increasing.

Tips are still expected.

And customers are being portrayed as “Karens” when they are upset with the poor service.

What is causing such atrocious customer support?

I know.

• A lack of accountability & too much decentralization.

Decentralization is great for processes and workflow.

However, decentralization is awful when there is a crisis.

When there is a crisis, we need a head honcho.

This head honcho will take ownership of the problem.

This guy will get the flowers when the ticket is resolved and will get pressed until it gets resolved.

My Encounter with Poor Customer Support

In the final part of 2023, there were 3 different platforms where I needed to hit up customer support to resolve a series of issues.

For one platform, I was missing royalty payments.

We opened a ticket.

The guy named Rohith knew how much of a crisis this was.

My most popular book was not receiving any royalty payments!!

Rohith said, ‘we will get this resolved.’

A week goes by, and I don’t hear from Rohith.

I responded back to the initial ticket and was now given a new person.

Let’s call her Mary.

I now have to explain to Mary what is going on.

She is listening but does not understand how much of a crisis this is.

I need to infuse emotion into this interaction.

‘Mary, my top book is selling on your platform but I’m not getting any royalty payments. Rohith mentioned this was an issue affecting multiple authors.’

After a long time of speaking to Mary, she seems like she understands.

She says she’ll update me in a few days.

After not hearing back from her for a week, I respond to the ticket.

Now I’m connected with someone new again!!!!

This is infuriating.

I pretty much have gotten a new job of explaining what the issue is, instilling urgency in the customer support rep, and then following up myself.

Why Too Much Decentralization is Not Good

The problem with too much decentralization is that it’s easy to get lost in the queue.

It’s because no one is taking responsibility.

Rohith can be like:

‘I’ll just tell this guy what he wants to hear until I clock out. Then he’s Mary’s problem to deal with.’

Then Mary faces an upset customer as soon as she clocks in.

The customer is upset that no one is giving him an update and takes out his aggression on Mary for having no clue on what’s going on.

Mary now has a bad day.

Afterwards, she thinks:

‘I should have said X, Y, and Z when the customer was berating me.’

She slowly forgets that her job is to resolve issues and now thinks her job is to get even with the customer.

In the future, she looks for an unruly customer to show him who is the boss.

This is a big mess!

‘If decentralization is so bad for customer support, then why do companies implement it?’

Because big brands look to make their processes more efficient.

It’s efficient for a ticket to be handed to a free representative.

This allows the traffic to stay in motion.

However, the downside is that the ticket stays in motion for too long.

What A Poor Customer Support Will Do to a Brand

When things are going well, customer support seems like the least of worries.

Many CEOs outsource this team overseas to save money.

But when shit hits the fan, that’s when the CEO would have wished they took the time to invest in the people who directly deal with their customers.

“Customer support” should be viewed as “brand ambassadors.”

I really resent the brand that disrespected me at my low point.

I haven’t gotten royalty payments for my most popular book for almost a year and there is still no urgency to fix it.

Whenever I ask for updates, I’m seen as the bad guy.

I get connected with a supervisor who tells me in an aggressive voice:

‘We told you; we are working on it.’

Or I get an email with a prepackaged statement that has been copied and pasted to the moon.

I despise this brand for disrespecting me at my low point.

And I will remember this.

Many folks are like me.

We remember how folks treated us when we were down.

How to Fix Customer Support

My first fix for customer support is to have more centralization.

Quit handing the ticket off to new employees and having the customer repeatedly state their issue.

Have a central figure who is assigned to each ticket.

This figure is meant to see the solution all the way through.

Whether it takes a few hours to a few months.

Make sure the ticket is resolved!!

In addition to that, each person assigned to a ticket must do 2 things:

• Show empathy.
• Give frequent updates.

People love it when you articulate their inner world out for them.

This brings the customer to your side.

When they are going through a crisis, show empathy by doing your best to articulate their inner world.

Often, they’ll tell you how they feel.

Next, give frequent updates.

The customer should not be reaching out to the customer rep and be like:

‘Um…is there any update?? I haven’t heard back in 2 weeks!’

Instead, give any kind of updates.

It doesn’t even matter if the issue is resolved or not.

State what is being done to fix it.

Any information gives the customer peace of mind.

3 suggested fixes:

• Assign a central authority for each important ticket.
• Show empathy.
• Give frequent updates.

These 3 fixes are better than bullshit responses like:

‘Can’t we just be kind? I’m sure the customer support reps are having a bad day.’

I don’t care!

Do your fucking job or quit.

Plain and simple.

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