The Customer Service Survey
Use Cases
Fri - May 25, 2007 02:24 PM in
When designing a new piece of software, including an IVR or speech recognition system, it's common to begin with a set of Use Cases. A Use Case is sort of like a little story about why someone might be using the system, and is used to help guide the user interface design.
For example, one use case for Verizon Wireless' web site might be, "A customer wants to check how many minutes are left in his account. He knows his mobile phone number, but forgot his password." Another might be, "A customer's phone isn't placing or receiving calls, and he wants to get it working again." Based on these use cases, the designers will make assumptions about what information users are likely to have, and how to best serve them.
As I discovered this week, though, it can be intensely frustrating to be a customer who falls outside the standard use cases.
At VocaLabs, we subscribe to Verizon Wireless' national high speed wireless data network. This gives us a wireless data card we can plug into a couple different laptops in the company, which we use for Internet access while we travel, at events, etc. We do not subscribe to Verizon's mobile phone service; we do not have a Verizon mobile phone; we do not have a Verizon mobile phone number.
Unfortunately, the people who wrote the use cases for Verizon Wireless' customer service apparently couldn't conceive of the possibility of a customer without a mobile phone number. When I needed to set up part of our mobile data service this week, this is what I had to go through:
Step 1: Look up the setup instructions on Verizon's web site. To complete the setup, I needed to create a login through a web page. The login would be confirmed by sending a text message to my nonexistent Verizon mobile phone.
Step 2: That's not going to work, so it's time to call tech support. In order to find the phone number for tech support, I need....my mobile phone number. Which I don't have.
Step 3: Google for the phone number (what ever did we do before Google?). Dial the number. The first prompt is "Please enter your Verizon mobile phone number." Hit zero.
Steps 4 through 37: Hit zero repeatedly as the automated system repeatedly asks for my mobile phone number. I don't think I'm exaggerating in the slightest when I say that I think I was asked at least twenty times for my nonexistent mobile phone number. At some point (like maybe the second time??) you'd think they could assume that the reason I'm not entering my mobile phone number is because I don't have one!!!
Step 38: Finally connect to a customer service representative. Who immediately asks for....my mobile phone number.
Step 39: Politely but firmly explain to the customer service representative that I don't have a mobile phone number because I only subscribe to the data service, and that the person who designed all the automated systems deserves his own special circle of Hell for the agony he's inflicted upon me. Not that I'm upset or anything.
Step 40: CSR tries looking up our account by name (both mine and the company's). For some reason it doesn't turn up.
Step 41: CSR tries looking up our account by address, tax ID number, and sign of the zodiac. None of those work either. I reassure her that, yes, indeed, we receive bills and pay them, so we must be in there somewhere. I don't have a copy of the bill, though, since I'm traveling. So asking me to look up something on the bill won't work.
Step 42: CSR asks me to read every long number off the back of the wireless card. The third (of three) strikes paydirt.
Step 43: CSR explains to me that we do, in fact, have a mobile phone number even though it doesn't do anything and there's no particular reason I should know that it exists. This is a number Verizon uses internally as our account number, and it would be a good idea to copy it down because she's going to transfer me to technical support and he'll want the account number, too.
Step 44: Call is transferred to technical support.
Step 45: Technician immediately asks for....my mobile phone number. Fortunately I am now prepared for this. Total call duration so far: about 30 minutes, all of which has been spent wrestling with the no-phone-number problem (plus another 10-15 minutes I spent trying to get things going through the web site).
Step 46: Technician fixes my problem in about five minutes.
It's certainly true that my situation--a Verizon Wireless subscriber without a mobile phone number--is an unusual case. Still, I doubt I'm unique and you'd think they could deal with this a little more gracefully. I was particularly amazed at the incredible (almost inhuman!) persistence of the automated system in asking for my phone number when I clearly was not providing one. I can't imagine any possible benefit (to either the company or the customer) of persisting after the second or third refusal: all it's doing at that point is making the customer madder and madder.
So....I know there are a couple people from Verizon Wireless who read this blog. Anyone care to comment?
Posted by Peter Leppik
As I discovered this week, though, it can be intensely frustrating to be a customer who falls outside the standard use cases.
At VocaLabs, we subscribe to Verizon Wireless' national high speed wireless data network. This gives us a wireless data card we can plug into a couple different laptops in the company, which we use for Internet access while we travel, at events, etc. We do not subscribe to Verizon's mobile phone service; we do not have a Verizon mobile phone; we do not have a Verizon mobile phone number.
Unfortunately, the people who wrote the use cases for Verizon Wireless' customer service apparently couldn't conceive of the possibility of a customer without a mobile phone number. When I needed to set up part of our mobile data service this week, this is what I had to go through:
Step 1: Look up the setup instructions on Verizon's web site. To complete the setup, I needed to create a login through a web page. The login would be confirmed by sending a text message to my nonexistent Verizon mobile phone.
Step 2: That's not going to work, so it's time to call tech support. In order to find the phone number for tech support, I need....my mobile phone number. Which I don't have.
Step 3: Google for the phone number (what ever did we do before Google?). Dial the number. The first prompt is "Please enter your Verizon mobile phone number." Hit zero.
Steps 4 through 37: Hit zero repeatedly as the automated system repeatedly asks for my mobile phone number. I don't think I'm exaggerating in the slightest when I say that I think I was asked at least twenty times for my nonexistent mobile phone number. At some point (like maybe the second time??) you'd think they could assume that the reason I'm not entering my mobile phone number is because I don't have one!!!
Step 38: Finally connect to a customer service representative. Who immediately asks for....my mobile phone number.
Step 39: Politely but firmly explain to the customer service representative that I don't have a mobile phone number because I only subscribe to the data service, and that the person who designed all the automated systems deserves his own special circle of Hell for the agony he's inflicted upon me. Not that I'm upset or anything.
Step 40: CSR tries looking up our account by name (both mine and the company's). For some reason it doesn't turn up.
Step 41: CSR tries looking up our account by address, tax ID number, and sign of the zodiac. None of those work either. I reassure her that, yes, indeed, we receive bills and pay them, so we must be in there somewhere. I don't have a copy of the bill, though, since I'm traveling. So asking me to look up something on the bill won't work.
Step 42: CSR asks me to read every long number off the back of the wireless card. The third (of three) strikes paydirt.
Step 43: CSR explains to me that we do, in fact, have a mobile phone number even though it doesn't do anything and there's no particular reason I should know that it exists. This is a number Verizon uses internally as our account number, and it would be a good idea to copy it down because she's going to transfer me to technical support and he'll want the account number, too.
Step 44: Call is transferred to technical support.
Step 45: Technician immediately asks for....my mobile phone number. Fortunately I am now prepared for this. Total call duration so far: about 30 minutes, all of which has been spent wrestling with the no-phone-number problem (plus another 10-15 minutes I spent trying to get things going through the web site).
Step 46: Technician fixes my problem in about five minutes.
It's certainly true that my situation--a Verizon Wireless subscriber without a mobile phone number--is an unusual case. Still, I doubt I'm unique and you'd think they could deal with this a little more gracefully. I was particularly amazed at the incredible (almost inhuman!) persistence of the automated system in asking for my phone number when I clearly was not providing one. I can't imagine any possible benefit (to either the company or the customer) of persisting after the second or third refusal: all it's doing at that point is making the customer madder and madder.
So....I know there are a couple people from Verizon Wireless who read this blog. Anyone care to comment?
Posted by Peter Leppik
Posted at 02:24 PM | | | | |