My employer, a multi-billion dollar global company, a leader in its field, recently migrated to a new Human Resources and Financial Management system. This was an extremely large systems integration, over 2 years and millions of dollars in the making. No one is ever ready for something like this. People generally hate change. Dislike of change is the reason most men wear the same pair of underwear for weeks at a time. That and the belief that one more day isn’t that big of a deal.
So, no one was particularly excited they were going to have to learn a new system. They were less excited when they found out the current system was going to go away in November 2016, and the new system wouldn’t go live until January 3, 2017, right as everyone was returning from the Christmas and New Year’s holiday.
To prepare for the onslaught of calls, questions and complaints, the company hired an army of new Call Center Associates. “Tech Support” for short, if that’s actually shorter. They installed a new 800 number to handle the calls and inquires. They spent 2 months training the new associates in everything needed to respond in a timely and helpful manner.
January 3, 2017 came, the system was switched on, and, of course, it was a disaster. Nothing seemed to work or operate as it was advertised. Managers, Human Resources, Plant Personnel, all were very frustrated trying to make sense of this mess. After all, they had a business to run. They didn’t ask for a new system. The old one worked just fine. The decision to change was made by people who rarely use the system and never seem to bother to ask the average user their opinion of it all before they make the change.
So, the Call Center was flooded with calls. But answers? Are you kidding me? No one had any answers. The Call Center Associates could barely understand the questions! How could they? Many of them had only been hired a few months prior! You think a 2 month newbie can handle the ire of a 30 year grizzled vet who is P.O’d he can’t get his normal work done? No way!
After about a week of taking every kind of verbal abuse that can be dished out, the Call Center did what all Call Centers seem to do: They quit answering the phone! Yes! They put calls in an endless voice mail, prompt driven loop! It’s that loop from hell you can’t get out of. The one where no matter what numbers or series of keypad buttons you push, you cant reach a human. To add insult to injury, you received a canned “auto-response” when you tried to email for help! Its like everyone in Tech Support said, lets just hide under our desk for a couple of weeks, and when the smoke clears, surely everything will be better. They were even told to say, “We understand your frustration, things will get better!”
Really? “Things” will get better? Just magically, right? Things just get better? If you are having marital problems and you seek help, does the counselor say, “Don’t worry, things will get better?” No! Because things just don’t get better on their own. Things get better because you work on them, because you have a plan and a process in place to get you from where you are to where you want to be. That’s how “things” get better!
In desperation, they installed another phone number. This is the “Hyper-Care” line. That line you call when the issues are critical and need immediate attention. The most senior, most experienced, most knowledgeable people were called on the manage the “Hyper-Care” calls. That lasted for about 2 weeks, and the “Hyper-Care” service was disconnected.
During a call with my boss where we were reviewing this debacle, I told her I understood they got rid of “Hyper-Care” because all the callers were “hyper”, and no one in Tech Support “cared.”
She didn’t laugh.
The Lonesome Leaker 