Netflix: Curiouser and Curiouser
You know you’ve been dealt too many bad hands at the Customer Service Poker Table when news like this gets you excited (from the New York Times):
…in July, Netflix took an unusual step for a Web-based company: it eliminated e-mail-based customer service inquiries. Now all questions, complaints and suggestions go to the Hillsboro call center, which is open 24 hours a day. The company’s toll-free number, previously buried on the Web site, is now prominently displayed.
So, not only has Netflix eschewed the lower cost options of outsourcing its call centers to other countries and ignored lower cost calling locations within the United States because “Oregonians would present a friendlier voice to its customers,” they’ve likewise eliminated e-mailing as a customer resolution tool.
Don’t get me wrong here; this is an awful idea without significant marketing (though an article in the NY Times is a great start.) What I gather from Netflix subscribers, there are just some issues that aren’t important enough for dealing with hold time. It’s far easier to e-mail a service provider with a brief issue and wait for a similarly brusque response; no worries.
Furthermore, with only 200 representatives and, as Netflix reports back in March ‘07, approximately 6.8 million subscribers (though I wonder how accurate that figure is; Motley Fool reports a tremendous and increasing amount of customer turnover,) how do they intend to deal with the traffic? In fact, at this very moment, I have my phone shouldered against my ear to see how long it takes for me to get some service (the automated system informs me that I’ll have someone on the line within 12 minutes [my stars! It was exactly 12 minutes from said message to live human being!]; can’t fault them for that because it’s certainly faster than Verizon.)
Netflix’s stock has been on the downturn since the beginning of the year (NFLX) and there’s a lot of back and forth about whether or not it’s time for Netflix to cash out especially with the threat of digital distribution (I say "threat" because Netflix certainly doesn't have an appealing library for theirs.) With increasing customer hostility towards overseas calling center outsourcing, maybe there’s something to be gained from a little Nationalism PR. One great line I’ve heard so far comes from Slashdot.org: “At least with a call center in Portland, the deception doesn't start when the rep says ‘My name is George.’”
Still on this George Ramsay kick (see below), I'm reminded of a line of his from "Kitchen Nightmares" after a chef paired prawn with a badly made chocolate sauce: "Let food taste like food!" You're an online service; you should taste like an online service.
Again, this smacks largely of marketing. But I can’t find the rationality of eliminating the e-mail resolution system. Honestly, are the costs of having a 200 person in country call center less than the costs of an e-mail resolution system? I worked in several branches of customer service in the past and building rapport alone makes the system ungainly. The real question is: what aspect am I missing here that makes this a good idea?
Here’s my hope because, based on my friend’s reviews of the service, I’d love to see Netflix do well as a company: their service is so strong and so idiot-proof that receiving so few customer service inquiries makes a calling center a better customer service option because it balks the out-sourcing trend. If so, power to ‘em! As always, I’m curious to see what happens.
EDIT! It seems that Netflix still uses some very straightforward web forms which allow customers to report problems just as easily as a normal email. Bravo; all my issues with eliminating e-mail are now undermined!
…in July, Netflix took an unusual step for a Web-based company: it eliminated e-mail-based customer service inquiries. Now all questions, complaints and suggestions go to the Hillsboro call center, which is open 24 hours a day. The company’s toll-free number, previously buried on the Web site, is now prominently displayed.
So, not only has Netflix eschewed the lower cost options of outsourcing its call centers to other countries and ignored lower cost calling locations within the United States because “Oregonians would present a friendlier voice to its customers,” they’ve likewise eliminated e-mailing as a customer resolution tool.
Don’t get me wrong here; this is an awful idea without significant marketing (though an article in the NY Times is a great start.) What I gather from Netflix subscribers, there are just some issues that aren’t important enough for dealing with hold time. It’s far easier to e-mail a service provider with a brief issue and wait for a similarly brusque response; no worries.
Furthermore, with only 200 representatives and, as Netflix reports back in March ‘07, approximately 6.8 million subscribers (though I wonder how accurate that figure is; Motley Fool reports a tremendous and increasing amount of customer turnover,) how do they intend to deal with the traffic? In fact, at this very moment, I have my phone shouldered against my ear to see how long it takes for me to get some service (the automated system informs me that I’ll have someone on the line within 12 minutes [my stars! It was exactly 12 minutes from said message to live human being!]; can’t fault them for that because it’s certainly faster than Verizon.)
Netflix’s stock has been on the downturn since the beginning of the year (NFLX) and there’s a lot of back and forth about whether or not it’s time for Netflix to cash out especially with the threat of digital distribution (I say "threat" because Netflix certainly doesn't have an appealing library for theirs.) With increasing customer hostility towards overseas calling center outsourcing, maybe there’s something to be gained from a little Nationalism PR. One great line I’ve heard so far comes from Slashdot.org: “At least with a call center in Portland, the deception doesn't start when the rep says ‘My name is George.’”
Still on this George Ramsay kick (see below), I'm reminded of a line of his from "Kitchen Nightmares" after a chef paired prawn with a badly made chocolate sauce: "Let food taste like food!" You're an online service; you should taste like an online service.
Again, this smacks largely of marketing. But I can’t find the rationality of eliminating the e-mail resolution system. Honestly, are the costs of having a 200 person in country call center less than the costs of an e-mail resolution system? I worked in several branches of customer service in the past and building rapport alone makes the system ungainly. The real question is: what aspect am I missing here that makes this a good idea?
Here’s my hope because, based on my friend’s reviews of the service, I’d love to see Netflix do well as a company: their service is so strong and so idiot-proof that receiving so few customer service inquiries makes a calling center a better customer service option because it balks the out-sourcing trend. If so, power to ‘em! As always, I’m curious to see what happens.
EDIT! It seems that Netflix still uses some very straightforward web forms which allow customers to report problems just as easily as a normal email. Bravo; all my issues with eliminating e-mail are now undermined!