A Phone Call Causes a Flashback of Sorts

I had an experience with the customer service department of a large company the other day that reminded me of a lot of my experiences in that general field. It made clear to me why so many companies are failing. Certainly the driving force behind those failures and the failures yet to come is whatever has motivated the economy to destabilize as a lack of positive cash flow will destroy even the best run company. Quite simply, I don't think most companies are set up to succeed. Once they reach a certain size, the structure becomes unwieldy. When the economy is soaring, it's a lot easier to survive with a faulty structure. If the company's product is a success and positioned correctly for an economic downturn, it has a better chance at surviving said downturn. If not, well, the collapse can be a tricky one.

The problems in this process are down to structure and people. In themselves, both are necessary, especially to run a large company, so they can't be avoided. When things are going well, it's easier for well-meaning, or even not-so-well-meaning, employees to fail, to not be good at the jobs, or just poorly positioned. Some are in the wrong role. Some are badly managed. Some are repeatedly badly managed. Some are just lazy bums, doing the least they can without getting fired. All of these situations tend to be treated more calmly in times of success. Everyone fails at some point or another. Everyone should be given a second chance to atone for previous failings. Sometimes people don't 'get' it and they remain in a position because it's easier than removing them, thereby creating a drag on the rest of the group in question.

Organization is a good thing. Clearly defined roles help people to succeed as they know what their boundaries are and therefore don't waste time on work that's beyond their role. A well defined set of boundaries are a good thing.

Something always sets itself between the boundaries, in a gray area that never truly gets defined until it arises. While on hold the other day, that's what I felt was occurring. The question we had raised was outside the normal list of questions that the individual on the phone could answer. She needed a supervisor or someone in another area to consult with and they are rarely available when needed. They are busy people too you know! They will usually tell you that, even if they have their feet up on their desk.

I didn't know the exact situation of the structure on the other end of the phone but I could imagine a generic situation from my past to fill in the gaps.

It's about a month after a reorganization that felt very clear and tidy, very enabling. A customer calls with a question that is clearly outside your realm of ability. Using your memories of previous similar situations, you retrieve as much detail from the customer as you can, documenting it carefully. You inform them of your need to transfer the problem to another group and try to give them an expected time to resolution, while not wanting to speak for the other group's availability. The problem isn't critical, not yet anyway, but is important and needs to be resolved quickly. You reassure that you will do everything you can, politely terminate the conversation, and find who's on call for the group in question.

Said individual answers the phone but is grumpy because your group is calling his group. Your group 'never' has documented the problem well enough because your group tends to hear a word or two, immediately theorizes it's his group, and transfers it over without investigating fully. The criticism is unfortunately accurate but poorly timed. You explain the situation as described and add any personal investigation you were able to do with the tools at hand. While you have investigated properly, the individual you called quickly checks something (you hear them typing away), indicates that the error is not with their group's equipment and to call a third group.

You call the third group but the entire group is in a meeting for the next hour and none of them will respond to your call because it's not critical. Yet. As the group is known for not responding to videomail in a timely manner, you email the group, noting the incident number in question as well as a few details. In the meantime, you have other work to do while you wait, including updating the original customer on the status of the problem, and you work on that.

Despite the fact that the third group doesn't like voicemail, after the meeting, one of them calls you after their meeting. As you are on the phone with someone else at the time, you cannot respond to them. They leave you a long voicemail, noting that they checked on their equipment, all is well, and ask if the second group had checked on a specific item as this has been an issue in the past. You don't get to the voicemail for another twenty minutes. You call the representive from the second group again, but now he's at lunch. He can't check on the specific item yet, but will once he returns from lunch.

When he calls back forty-five minutes later, he's not grumpy but confused. Clearly typing away, he's calling to update you on the situation. An error code didn't report properly. Why it didn't isn't clear at this time and can be determined later. It looks like he'll need to call a fourth group that's in another state and is probably at lunch now. He'll let you know when progress has been made. You contact the original customer with another update.

Twenty minutes later, the original customer calls you back. She just got out of a meeting, heard your voicemail, and is hoping for an update. You have none. She is frustrated but points out she's not frustrated with you. She can't understand why the problem is taking so long to resolve. As you have no good answer to that question, you do your best to relax and reassure her that it is being taken care of and that you'll contact her as soon as you know. The group that's impacted by the problem has other work that they've been doing today but it's not the best use of their time. After noting this, she notes that she'll have to explain this to her boss who will have to explain it to their manager who will have to explain it to their vice-president. You don't think she's name dropping at this point but realize it's possible. You also feel that the vice-president will only hear that your entire area failed this group, not that there was an issue and an issue determining what caused the issue. Once that call is done, you immediately call the second group for an update but their line is busy.

Another member of the second group calls you about a half-hour later. They put some heads together on the situation and the failure has been resolved, at least they're pretty sure it has been. The original individual you talked to is verifying it's fixed now and asked for this other person to call you with the update. While you talk, trying to understand what went wrong and what the long-term resolution will be to catch the error code next time, you are given the thumbs up that everything should be back to normal.

You contact the original caller with the update and the resolution as you can best describe it, trying to take the explanation you mostly understood and translate it into something that a layperson can grasp. She says she gets it, thanks you for your attention to the matter, but expressed dispare at the time it took to resolve as it's now well after three and most of her department will soon be going home. You apologize despite the fact that it's not really your fault in any way and try to say nothing that will sell out any of the groups involved while she vents a little more frustration your way. After you apologize again and she thanks you again, you terminate the call and do your best to document what happened so you can update your supervisor before they leave for the day.

That's how a day gets wasted. I'm sure it's not much better at a smaller company where more outside help might be required. Imagine being on the customer side, being on the phone for an hour and on hold for the bulk of it, rather than being updated occasionally during the day. It's frustrating. It's how my Wednesday got wasted.