All that sounds wonderful, when can you start development?
I think the frustrating part is most of these texts are along the lines of “is the tower down” or “my Internet is down”, with no other information than a cellphone number, which is probably not the contact number in our database. If they would just include the account name, I would get on the computer and do some tests before texting them back. But usually I have to first text them back for more information. Maybe a robot could check the customer database, tell me the customer name, and if not found, text the customer back “Who is this?” At that point I usually prefer to call them, because it can take 50 back-and-forth texts just to get someone to check if the POE is plugged in. If they have a smartphone, they can go to our website. Maybe we need troubleshooting instructions, maybe YouTube videos, on our website. Text them a link to that? From: Af [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Brian Webster Sent: Sunday, December 4, 2016 1:30 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Customers texting cell phones "hey my internet isn; t working" You know all annoyances aside; there is an opportunity for a product to be developed. Think about it: Your customer is off line, they likely have a cell phone that they can use to get in touch with you. They call your tech support line, this requires you to either call them back and devote 100% of your time at the moment to talk to them one on one, or you answer the call directly immediately, no matter what else you might have to do and you can’t do much of anything else. If you can text back and forth you would not have to sit there on the phone and wait while they do things like reboot and such. On a dedicated phone call this only lets you service one customer at a time. If you had the equivalent of the on line chat support many companies have, it could also function through the SMS system, it’s one way the newer tech savvy customer can interact with you and they can also do something else at the same time in between steps. If you had a good SMS system it would start a ticket just like an on line ticketing system would. Texting prompts back and forth for customer name and account information if necessary. This part would be automated and all keyed up to you prior to you getting the first live text/email/ticket notification or on screen system messages. This would not have to go to YOUR cell phone but rather it would go to your ticketing system and get handled just like any other ticket and tech support network. It gives the client the convenience of getting support via SMS should they chose. You could easily have pre-canned help files sent as basic troubleshooting steps they can perform first without needing direct interaction. Reboot sequence or how to request their Wi-Fi password information come to mind here. If done right it could prompt them to text back a response at each step, much like a troubleshooting decision tree diagram works. Once it’s gets beyond basic decision tree stuff it could be transferred to the live tech. This transfer should also be smart enough to show the tech on screen how far the automated process went and what steps are already completed so they don’t have to re-ask all those questions that annoy each of us when we call tech support. With Google Voice being a free way to do web to SMS interaction, it seems like some good programmer could build inter some middleware to do this or a standalone system. Cost for the SMS interface/gateway can then be free. I am sure there are other methods to also keep the cost free as well. This clearly would not work for most customers but I can see it becoming popular over time, getting in front of the idea now and working out best practices would be good before the consumer demand for it is real high. Thank You, Brian Webster www.wirelessmapping.com <http://www.wirelessmapping.com> www.Broadband-Mapping.com From: Af [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mike Hammett Sent: Friday, December 02, 2016 7:35 AM To: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Customers texting cell phones "hey my internet isn; t working" Some carriers support mobile CNAM, some don't. Mine's in there, though. ----- Mike Hammett <http://www.ics-il.com/> Intelligent Computing Solutions <https://www.facebook.com/ICSIL> <https://plus.google.com/+IntelligentComputingSolutionsDeKalb> <https://www.linkedin.com/company/intelligent-computing-solutions> <https://twitter.com/ICSIL> <http://www.midwest-ix.com/> Midwest Internet Exchange <https://www.facebook.com/mdwestix> <https://www.linkedin.com/company/midwest-internet-exchange> <https://twitter.com/mdwestix> <http://www.thebrotherswisp.com/> The Brothers WISP <https://www.facebook.com/thebrotherswisp> <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXSdfxQv7SpoRQYNyLwntZg> _____ From: "Ken Hohhof" <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > To: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, December 1, 2016 9:25:40 PM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Customers texting cell phones "hey my internet isn; t working" Awhile back I added SMS-to-email capability to our main number and discovered people have probably been texting it forever. You don’t need a cellphone to receive texts. The nice thing is the service we use has the reply-to address on the email set to properly to text the person back. What I find annoying is they never include their name, somehow they think their cellphone number is all we need. So 123-456-7890 wants to know “Is the tower down?” I’d rather they use the contact form on our mobile website. It’s not a “responsive” site, it’s a separate mdot site so the contact form is easy to use on a phone. One of the other great mysteries of life is why calls from cellphones don’t have CNAM. 95% of the calls we get are from “Wireless Caller”. There are apps for everything, but they can’t do this one simple thing, show me the name of the mobile caller, without having them in my address book. From: Af [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Brandon Yuchasz Sent: Thursday, December 1, 2016 8:40 PM To: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Customers texting cell phones "hey my internet isn; t working" I expected more Sarcasm. But thanks for the reply anyway. We are small still by most standards and I still go on every install so generally customers feel they know me a little. That relationship is of course a good thing. Some texts of course I don’t mind like “ hey the internet has been dropping off today but comes back” it’s the shitty attitudes that they would never give me in a phone call that generally piss me off.. From: Af [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of That One Guy /sarcasm Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2016 8:31 PM To: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Customers texting cell phones "hey my internet isn; t working" We call into the office and call the customers from there DID or something to avoid it. But it happens. When a customer has my cell, ive given it to them on occasion for troubleshooting and most of my contract service have my work and personal. As long as they dont abuse it, I handle their business (facebook is becoming popular for customers to contact me, which is odd because my face book is private and highly offensive) Once they abuse it, they get a couple "call the office"s then they get ignored. Like right now there is a voicemail from a contract services customer i haven't even listened to from two days ago. I do prefer all communications voice or digital go through work channels, or phones are recorded and all the digital stuff is logged on company owned assets. Better in the long term for liability. On Thu, Dec 1, 2016 at 8:25 PM, Jim Bouse [Brazos WiFi] <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: I respond with “The support number is: 979-985-5912 <tel:%28979%29%20985-5912> ” Short and sweet (maybe not sweet). Often, I am on call in the evenings so I end up answering the support call but It is customer training. I don’t want people calling/texting my personal cellphone and then getting pissed off that I don’t respond in a timely manner (vacation or whatnot) when I have paid support staff at the office. Additionally, if they call my cellphone, I tell them the same thing. The sales and support number is: X. I will be happy to help you there. We record 100% of the business calls due to some he-said/she-said incidents. I don’t talk business on the personal cellphone unless the call is routed through the PBX. Jim Bouse Owner Mobile IT Pro - Brazos WiFi 979-985-5912 <tel:%28979%29%20985-5912> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> From: Af [mailto:[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> ] On Behalf Of Brandon Yuchasz Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2016 8:19 PM To: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Subject: [AFMUG] Customers texting cell phones "hey my internet isn; t working" Wondering if anyone else has dealt with this and if so what they used as a solution. I am getting more and more texts from customers as time goes on. They get my cell phone number at some point when I call them or from a friend or who knows but they hold onto it. Instead of emailing the tech support or calling in they send me a text to my cell phone. “hey my internet isn’t working” . I don’t know who the hell they are of course since its just some random number with no context. So Then I am faced with ignoring the text or replying. “ I’m sorry but I don’t know who this is from can you please give me additional information. “ Text back and forth over the next 15 minutes reveal they have the wireless turned off on their computer or the router took a shit or they are off line. Regardless it’s annoying, I have considered asking them not to text my cell phone and instead call or email but half the time they are still going to get me. That’s not ideal. Please don’t text my cell phone instead use our online contact option or call us at…. 5 minutes later I get a call that forwards to my cell phone not ideal. although that is changing and hopefully in the next 6 months I won’t be doing any tech support calls anymore. How do you guys deal with this from a company standpoint. Just so everyone realizes it… this is at least 65% rant so sarcasm and honest real feedback are both welcome. -- If you only see yourself as part of the team but you don't see your team as part of yourself you have already failed as part of the team.
