Condescending Customer Service
When Gmail recently added IMAP to its features, I sent a note to the customer service box of the web-based email service I use for personal mail to ask whether IMAP was coming to that service. I received the following reply:
I understand that you are want to use IMAP. I welcome the opportunity to assist you with your concern.
So far, so good.
Jimmy, I regret that the feature is currently not available but I appreciate that you have given us a wonderful idea to improve our service. I hope that the feature will be available in future. Since, you have given us this idea, only your brilliant idea will be the reason for this.
I guess I'm not entirely surprised that IMAP wasn't coming any time soon, but that final sentence really bothered me. Was that sentence necessary? Was it going to satisfy any customers? Or was it just condescending? I thought about that for two seconds and went back to my life.
As it turns out, that email vendor also hosts a non-O'Reilly-related website for me. A few days ago, the site went down. So I wrote again to the customer-service box, reporting that attempts to reach any page on my site was resulting in 404's. The problem went away several hours later and the next day I received an email from customer service.
I am sorry that you had to go through this unpleasant experience and I apologize for the inconvenience that you are facing with this issue. I welcome the opportunity to assist you with this concern.
Again, so far, so good. The email did have some useful information, including the results of some pings and what I might want to do if the problem continues. And then...
Jimmy, I visited your site using three different web browsers and found that you site is resolving at a normal pace. Moreover, it is one of the most attractive site [sic] which I have ever seen. I am sure that other visitors are also able to access your website properly.
This time it's the next-to-last sentence that set me off. First of all, it's a lie. The site is attractive much in the same way Alfred E. Neuman is attractive: i.e., not at all. Worse, that condescending tone casts a shadow over the whole interaction.
Two interactions with a company: In one, it claims that it can't help me despite my "wonderful" idea being "brilliant." In the second, it ruins a perfectly useful response by delivering empty flattery. At a time when the switching costs between email and web-hosting services are not all that high, why is a company presenting such off-putting scripts?
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Seems to me that the help desk for which ever web service you are using is based in India (or outsourced some where similar). I have worked with outsourced help desks before, both as a customer and to actually set up the outsource.
I wouldn't say they are being condescending (if indeed it is outsourced), just that they haven't got a natives understanding of written English. Not that i am defending their levels of customer service, they aren't exactly brilliant, but they are polite in a typically outsourced way which can come across as condescending.
Seconding the outsourced help desk, or just someone with a bad grasp on the English language. Honestly, I don't think the first email was meant to be condescending, I just think that there is a misguided directive somewhere in there requiring the help desk support guys to praise the customer.
Thirding, if that makes sense. I have worked with a lot of Indian people here and in Kolkata. They sometimes are overly complimentary. Maybe it is something learned during the British times. It is certainly not condescending.
Very useful comments, thanks. This seems to be as much a cultural differences story as a customer relations story.
May be their boss asked them just to be more polite. And now they are overdoing it. Using IMAP is a brillant idea? Maybe you are the first customer who ever asked for this feature... ;-)
Whether is a cultural difference or customer relations, it still demonstrates that the most widely taken course in history, "Bullshit 101", knows no demographic boundaries.
First thing I thought too when I read this was cultural difference. The use of flattery or praise of the listener varies widely between cultures.
May indeed be cultural/translation issues, but that doesn't matter in the slightest. That company DECIDED to use offshore labor for their help desk; therefore they are as responsible for any unpleasant phrasing as if they had their company president responding to email.
More to the point - with so many excellent web/email hosts available, why are you still with this one?
Hey at least you got replies - to two different emails - which is more than I do with the hosting company that hosts the sites for the company I work for. Even when you phone them (and they are based in the UK, like our company is) you don't always get an answer.
I'd think myself lucky to have got a response and just ignore the "flattery", which is probably all part of their script, like "Have a nice day".
:-)
AT Least YOU got a compliment!
Imagine how it feels to be responsible for suggesting about 20 ideas - that Google instituted within months of posting them on their Engineer's blog - and never even getting one acknowledgment over the past two years?
Jimmy, I regret that the email returns resulted in your unpleasant experience and I apologize for the feelings you are facing with those replies. I welcome the opportunity to assist you with your feelings.
Jimmy, I visited your site and changed positions in my easy chair three times while reading your concerns. I found that I could read them at a normal pace. I'm sure that other visitors are also able to read your concerns properly.
Peace-out.
:)
Jimmy,
I find that this is the best blog post of all time, on the most attractive blog I have ever seen. Moreover, I see by the photo of you that you are like God made beautiful.
Sincerely,
...
Almost everyone picked up on the cultural difference.
They were being POLITE!!!
Some cultures DO that!
What bothers me (and not intending to pick on the author) is how quickly some people have a knee jerk negative reaction to something this obvious. People need to "get out more."
It's way too much like Bush's uncultured outlook.
We really need to look outside ourselves and our own culture - especially since we are NOT the controlling force/moral authority anymore. We abdicated the throne!
(And I don't mean to sound like I'm praising Dems! It's just that Bush as a person is such a hick.)
It's not a script. It's English, as written by a native of India.
It's supposed to be flattering, not off-putting. Part of their training - be excessively polite. Unfortunately, when Americans say things like "brilliant idea", it's usually sarcasm rather than flattery, so their flattery falls flat.
"Mr. Jones, you're looking good today! Can I interest you in a new car?"
That's the native English speaker version.
Personally I've used Google's services for almost 4 years and haven't had a significant problem in that time.
When I did have some b.s. customer service inquiry it was responded to very quickly, although I agree it didn't accompany a phone call or a great explanation despite my requests.
Personally, even though Google (in my opinion) has a stellar software track record I hate to see them outsource something as vital as customer service.
Do no evil... outsourcing customer service is evil.
Yes! I can't count the number of times I've been ready to fling my laptop out the window . . . first, because of some maddening glitch with a Google feature; and then because of their response to my help request! And like you, each time they've managed to simultaneously laud my virtues and insult my intelligence.
A fellow Kango-ite wrote a satirical piece on the vicissitudes of the Google era -- coupled with your entry, it sums up my view of reality vis-a-vis Google: You can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em.
Great article.
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RADAR TOPICS
Michael H [11.16.07 06:44 AM]
First thing I thought was that the emails came from someone who did not speak English as their first language.
Following that, the next thing I thought was that maybe they are obsequious to all of their customers. However, maybe they also read Radar and are sucking up :-)