Lets Talk Metrics

Metrics
AT&T tells us there is a certain amount of time we can spend on the phone with a customer. In fact, for each type of call (such as registration, no sync, browser problem, and security center install) there is a metric. A metric that has a time so low that it is unattainable. Are there people hitting these metrics? Sure, but they do NOT hit them consistently. What good is a metric if it is unattainable the majority of the time? You would think the company would open their eyes and see the error of their ways. Nope, not at AT&T!

You see, at AT&T, the customer does not matter. The only thing that matters is the bottom line. Here is the AT&T way of thinking. If a customer calls in for the same issue 3 or 4 times and spends too much time on the line with the rep, that customer has cost the company more money than they pay for their DSL per month. Even if you have the basic DSL service at $19.95 a month, the average Customer Assistant (CA) makes $12.00 per hour. At two calls into support lasting an hour, you have cost the company more than you pay in one month. All the same time, while the CA is providing you with service and help, we are getting the short end of the stick. Are some of us short on the phone with customer, sure. We all have bad days. But when we are paid peanuts for what we do and try and support a family, the stress levels run high.

I received an email from a customer saying "Hey, at least you have a job." Yes, and we are thankful that we have jobs. But does that give the employer a right to take advantage of us? Working at AT&T is like working in a sweat shop.

These metrics do the customer no good. CA's end up having to try and find a way to transfer the call to someone else, or refer the customer to the Geek Squad or the like. The customer gets angry because we refer them out to someone else. Why? Because we can be fired for staying on the phone too long with them.

This is not the only metric that CA's have. There are MANY metrics in the mix. But this metric is the one that impacts the customers the most.

Until customer start complaining, and I mean via emails, phone calls, and letters to AT&T corporate HQ in Dallas nothing will change. Help us to help you.