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Believe it or not, customers want to talk to real people when they need assistance

Richard J. Dalton reports in Newsday this past Sunday that customer service industry experts report the “inability to reach a live representative is one of the top complaints of consumers calling customer-service centers.”

I’m sure that it’s right up there with “I waited for I-don’t-know-how-long on the phone to get a problem solved or get an answer to a question and I didn’t.”

Reports Mr. Dalton…

“Norma Freedman received notification in May that a movie from the Columbia House mail-order DVD company would be sent, but she didn’t receive the usual code used to cancel the order. So she did what many people would do: She called the company.

“And, like many consumers calling a customer-service number, she reached an automated service that couldn’t resolve her problem and wouldn’t provide a agent.”

I’ve run into a couple of similar circumstances where I’ve placed a customer service call and not once spoken to a live person. In such cases, I’m doubly sure to note any confirmation numbers I may receive as a result of the call (particularly if I am completing a transaction), as well as the time and date.

For more on contacting support at Microsoft, see this past post. And to contact Microsoft Customer Service, visit http://support.microsoft.com/.

Other support options:

  • Contact your PC manufacturer first if you’re having an issue with your PC. Similarly, contact your peripheral manufacturer for support with one of your computer peripherals (such as a printer, camera, router) if you purchased it separately from your PC. I’ve had great support from Dell and HP as well as other manufacturers. But not, so far, had good success with Samsung’s customer support in the States (‘though I have found that Samsung monitors perform very well).
  • Contact Microsoft – Phone Numbers, Support Options and Pricing, Online Help, and more.
  • Customer Service – For non-technical assistance with product purchases, subscriptions, online services, events, training courses, corporate sales, piracy issues, and more.
  • Newsgroups – Pose a question to other users. Discussion groups and Forums about specific Microsoft products, technologies, and services.

If one of these links don’t address your issue, please visit the Microsoft Online Support Page to start an email support incident.

Tags: Customer service, customer feedback

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Links: Navy’s Blue Angels flying over Seattle for Seafair

My wife and I took our boys to see the US Navy’s Blue Angels fly over Lake Washington this afternoon as they do every year during Seafair. (Here’s a link to a video of their flights during Seafair last year.)

It looked like the weather was going to be too cloudy this morning and impact the possibility of a good show, but by noon it had cleared up, and was truly spectacular.

From our local Channel 7…

iWitness Slideshow: Special Morning Marked By Blue Angels Arrival

The Blue Angels made another spectacular entrance as they arrived at Boeing Field for Seafair 2007. Reporter Michelle Millman was there for the story. More Details
RAW VIDEO: Blue Angels Land In Seattle
VIDEO: Blue Angels Arrive In Style
VIDEO: Amy Clancy Rides In F/A-18 Hornet
VIDEO BACKSTORY: Amy Clancy’s Blue Angels Experience
VIDEO: Navy Fleet Arrives For Seafair

blueangelsAdded 080507: The Blue Angels flew over the house several times today during their Seafair air show.

Very cool.

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Of interest: Now request available hotfixes for KB articles via the web… no phone calls required

As noted, customers can usually request hotfixes for issues via their support contact or by placing a call in to Customer Support. Now, you can request hotfixes associated with a particular KB article via a simple web application that allows you to submit a request and receive the hotfix via email.

Hotfix Information
A Hotfix is a single package that includes one or more files that is used to address a very specific customer problem with a product. A supported Hotfix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that is described in the previous mentioned article. Only apply it to systems that are experiencing this specific problem. This Hotfix may receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next service pack that contains this Hotfix.

To obtain this Hotfix, please submit your request via this form to Microsoft Online Customer Service and Support – you should expect to receive a download link via email from Microsoft within 8 business hours.

You can get more details on Todd’s blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/toddca/archive/2007/07/27/download-your-hotfixes.aspx.

As noted on the request page, “hotfixes have not gone through full Microsoft regression testing, so please carefully review the associated KB article for each Hotfix you install to verify that this is the fix you need and that there are no known compatibility or installation issues.”

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Seattle Times: a look at some of the best and worst in customer service

Today in the Seattle Times, Charles Bermant writes about the best and worst in customer service. He writes…



“… that some companies actually know how to respond electronically. And those who do so might not be the ones you would expect.”


Specifically, he describes his experience with his mobile operator as well as a friend’s experience with Shop-Vac…



“We have, however, examples of the best and worst. Ironically, this round finds a consumer-level garage appliance beating the pants off a major cellular provider.


I’m not surprised.


Some of the best customer service, I’ve found, comes in the seemingly lowest-of-tech companies and services… such as great hotels (where the best use the latest technology to know as much about their customer’s needs as they do to prepare their detailed bills with any number of arcane charges and taxes), popular restaurants and successful retail stores.


But I see that same spirit across many of the product groups at Microsoft, too. Whether it’s one of the staff in a product team with a popular blog or a group managing an early adopter programme on Connect, many employees and groups go out of their way to help customers and partners. Many groups run their efforts like their own businesses, meeting with customers to better understand their needs, working along side customers as they deploy and use products, and providing applicable feedback (often in one to many forums, as lots of people will run into the same issues).    


Entrepreneur magazine has an article that looks at the best customer service ideas from (way back) 1999, ones that are truly timeless…



  1. Hire The Right People.

  2. Make Service A Core Value.

  3. Empower Front-Line Employees.

  4. Solicit And Use Feedback.

  5. Pick The Right Customers.

Continues the article…


“Perhaps your first move, Berry says, should be to institute a formal measurement system to calculate the true costs of mediocre service. “If business owners take the time to properly measure the revenue lost to customers who left due to poor service and the extra costs involved in reperforming a service that wasn’t performed properly the first time, the number they come up with will be so large, it will never again be an issue as to whether service quality is important in their company,” promises Berry. “It’s instant religion.”


Food for thought.

Also of interest, Inc. Magazine’s Best Customer-Service Practices, a collection of links to interesting and helpful articles.

Tags: Customer service, customer feedback

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InsideMicrosoft speculates on a drop in the street prices on the Xbox 360 in the States

Of interest… the InsideMicrosoft blog news channel says that there’s drop coming in the street prices on the Xbox 360…



“Leaks are coming at the rate of several a day that an Xbox 360 price drop is imminent, sometime in the next ten days. A Circuit City ad shows that you should be able to get an Xbox 360 Premium, the most common version of the system, for $350, fifty bucks less than now, starting August 12. A Core system, without a hard drive, will go for $280, a drop of $20, and the big hard drive’d Elite will drop thirty to $450. The Premium comes with a free copy of Rockstar’s Table Tennis (which rocks).”


Hmmm… should be an interesting Holiday season. Perhaps with more interesting stories to come aroun Xbox 360 and HD DVD.


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