Friday, January 9. 2009Is Business Getting Busier?........John Linton ......not more productive but just busier? A peculiar situation has arisen over the last few days - we are receiving far more telephone calls with 'sales enquiries' than we did at this time last year. This has reached the point where the physical number of telephone lines we use for incoming sales and support and account queries has reached saturation point on several occasions on each day and call wait times have shot up from an average of three minutes to an average of over 15 minutes since the start of 2009. This is, of course, a very bad situation for the people calling (and the people answering the calls) and one we have never faced before. We are putting in a 'crash' program to address this current issue but this time of year is not the best period to get additional telephone lines installed in a hurry nor to to do anything else as most of our suppliers are still at 'holiday staffing levels' and it takes a very long time to do anything. I don't know what has suddenly caused a 50% increase in our inbound call volumes at a time of year when they have dropped by 60% in each of the past four years. The vastly increased number of telephone calls are for sales type enquiries and while our actual volume of orders for all types of services have increased noticeably from this time last year they certainly haven't increased enough to explain the 'massive' increase in inbound 'sales' calls. Compounding this problem of a large increase in the number of calls is the increase in 'talk time' per call. I have no information on the content of the calls other than anecdotally but it must indicate that the callers are seeking more complex information or are less technically aware than in the past or a combination of both plus all sorts of other factors. Whatever it is it seems to point, at least in this particular 'flurry', to a different type of prospective customer contacting Exetel which is quite worrying in some respects. My assumption has always been that as ADSL becomes more widely used the 'technical' competence of the average user becomes better and therefore requires less 'question asking' and 'hand holding'. My assumption therefore was that as tie passed the number of "what modem do I need" and "how do I set up my email" level of sales calls would rapidly disappear and, as far as I can determine, it has done exactly that over the past five years. In my estimations this would have lead to the majority of customers for ADSL services already having an ADSL set up and already being familiar with how their modem/routers operate and how ADSL operates generally. For almost five years the call volumes received by telephone have tracked these assumptions pretty much as expected. Howeverthe huge increase over the past 10 days has no rational explanation that I can see. THis is proving to be the case with a majority of new Exetel customers coming from other ISPs via the ADSL1 or ADSL2 'churn' processes. However this should have resulted in less sales calls rather than the steep increase we have seen since the beginning of the year which when I now look back was becoming evident over the last quarter of 2008. I initally, and probably still, ascribed the 2008 increase in sales calls to the interest in the HSPA services which would be 'new' to even more experienced broad band users but I can't explain the surge over the past few days to interest in HSPA. Perhaps it's just that people are on holidays with more time on their hands and have decided to do some 'research' on a possible new ADSL provider if things get worse financially and they need to reduce their broad band costs? I suppose that could be a contributing factor but, like every other 'sudden' scenario it will turn out to be a combination of many different factors including a gradual increase that has gone unnoticed. I could do without yet another issue to resolve at the moment but it seems to be a complex combination of many issues that will need sensible examination before a decision is made on what should be done. The only worrying issue, to me, is whether this 'surge' will continue in terms of sales calls. Exetel has pursued a policy, for want of a more appropriate word, of not having 'residential' sales telephone answering to the point that, some two years ago, we didn't have an IVR option to talk to sales if you called Exetel. I'm seriously considering returning to that set up and will discuss it with the various people concerned over the week end. Perhaps, as I've become too busy over the past year or so, I've neglected to improve/simplify/clarify the information on the web site as much as I used to do and it has become less clear than in the past. Clearly there are far more services and options now which is inevitable but also obviously creates less clarity. I don't want the costs and problems of setting up a dedicated residential sales team at this late stage of Exetel's life - it goes against everything we have tried to do. We will need to find a better solution if the current call volume continues. Trackbacks
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Could the sharp increase in the last week or so be directly due to Exetel's free ADSL2 transfer offers (the Powertel one mentioned in the forum, and the Optus one sent out to some Telstra ADSL1 customers)?
I didn't receive the Powertel offer (not enabled on my exchange), but the Optus offer did specify that any questions should be directed to sales, and provided a telephone number. I found this unusual, as I'd always considered telephone the third (after forum and email) choice for contacting Exetel. Just a thought, anyway; I'm not sure if it would match up with your findings. Comment (1)
Perhaps Jimmy Carr gave us the answer:
"Every 6 seconds, someone calls Exetel for a quote. What a nutter!" Comment (1)
Maybe agents could help here. You could set up an IVR to automatically see the caller ID of the incoming number, and switch the call to an agent in that area. This would be no cost if the agent uses exetel VoIP (and if they don't then they can't get on the list). Fairness would require calls to be spread evenly to all agents - call 1 to agent 1, call 2 to agent 2 etc, so each agent would not be inundated but each agent would have an equal spread of customers from their area (larger areas have more agents so the evenness continues). Incoming calls who block their number could "press 1 fif you're calling from NSW, press 2 for Victoria" etc, and could randomly be switched to any agent in their state. Alternatively agents might "opt in" by receiving a reduced connection bonus or paying a small ($5) per month fee to be included, thus offsetting the cost of setup. Ongoing cost should be zero due to the use of exetel PABX to exetel VoIP (agents), and this would fit in nicely with exetel's "100% automation" ethos.
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Having agents answer calls to questions which are on the Exetel web is not automation.
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having anyone answer a question for which and answer can be found on the website either means the information is not as clear and concise as it should be (if you think it's clear but others don't this is called shop blindness, you know where the information is so of course it is clear to you) or you are dealing with a new level of customer that has never considered Exetel before, the total neewbie, I don't know that there are that many vanilla connections happening these days though, maybe an indication that it is time to have a closer look at the website with a renewed focus toward the technically challenged
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Have you considered what Telstra, DoDo, et al were doing at this time a couple of years ago???
I seem to remember that a few of these companies engaged in some rather big advertising campaigns to sign-up new customers to broadband services with 2 year contracts. Those (not too cluey) customers who got sucked into signing these contracts, would be coming off them now, and it's quite possible that they would be looking around for an alternative ISP to switch to. A company like Exetel is an attractive option for those people looking for a cheaper option. The problem is that they were hand-held during their time with their previous ISP's... pre-configured modems, a tech in attendance when they couldn't do it themselves (at extra cost of course), and someone who would sit on the other end of the phone for as long as it took to guide them through any setup issues that they may have encountered. (such as email) Generally, I would think that a great number of these people are just as clueless today as they were two years ago. Not their fault I suppose, because they've never had to think about it for themselves before. Afterall, for the average consumer, if the lights go out they call the electricity supplier or an electrician to fix it. They are not expected to check the wires or re-wire the sockets themselves. If the car stops, they call a mechanic, because most don't have the knowledge (or desire) to start pulling things apart themselves. If the computer doesn't boot, most of these people take it to the shop, rather than trouble-shooting their system themselves. Now, suddenly, they have an opportunity to get out of Telstra hell (or dodo, or whoever) but they are still the same no-knowledge consumers that they were 2 years ago. If this scenario is correct, then I guess Exetel can choose to wipe it's hands of them ("we didn't have an IVR option to talk to sales if you called Exetel. I'm seriously considering returning to that set up"), or take the opportunity to set-up systems to support these customers... perhaps things like a special page on the website with "easy-to-comprehend-for-the-beginner" info for re-configuring the modem previously supplied for these other ISP's services, to work with Exetel, and other aspects like email. Or perhaps even supplying pre-configured modems yourselves. I know that most things are covered in the user facilities, but we're talking here about a level of customer who have trouble even figuring out how to get into the user facilities. Believe me... I've been dealing with them myself. Then again... maybe Exetel considers that these high-maintenance customers are not worth the effort. Comment (1)
It's an interesting theory.
Perhaps cutting off the sales telephone answering will return the 'screening' of undesirable customers? Comments (6)
Something is certainly happening - I have had 2 people contact me regarding new ADSL connections just in the last 2 days (I normally only get 1 or 2 per month).
- One has a current ADSL service with another ISP with an anniversary date coming up soon...... and he could also do with a more mobile solution (he lives in 2 locations) - The other is moving house and also needs a more mobile solution ..... another person who lives at A but works 200 km away at a mine. Both are old business contacts who I have not talked to for 12 months or so... they both use Voip, which I had arranged for them. Neither had heard of HSPA - but are interested.... In the current economic climate people are looking for new solutions for their communications... Regards, Harry. Comment (1)
People post xmas are looking at empty wallets news headlines and the future - thinking that saving some bucks would be good idea, so you will be getting a lot of tyre kickers walking in the door.
Perhaps a bit more emphasis on 'for those who can generally help themselves' and less 'budget' in the sales pitch. Or it might be that Exetel is hitting a critical mass in terms of the 'word of mouth' approach and a changing market could be bringing you clients who you would never get before. Maybe you should check the call origin just to make sure it is not part of some crazy plot from Whirlpool Trolls? Good luck with the phones I know a good sparky if you need. Comment (1)
You know, we have never used the word "udget" about anything we do because everything we do is far from "budget" - excet the prices we chare which are lower than everyone elses because:
1) We are far more efficient 2) We give up most of the profit because we aren't in business to make more than a bare minimum to keep our suppliers happy. In terms of: A) Off peak hours - we provide 12 hours each day - far more than anyone else B) Peak downloads - far more than anyone else at every price point/speed C) Extra inclusions - far more than anyone else D) Up Time - you can't do much better than 99.99% year after year E) Support service - 365 days a year for 15 hours each day with REAL engineers on the other end of the phone Hard to apply "budget" to such a service. Comments (6)
One factor may be Telstra's discontinuation of the ISDN Home service. Most of those customers would have switched to NextG but many may have been looking at other options.
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Why not just make the IVR say for personal/home/private sales press 1 or business sales press 2.
Then when they press 1 direct them to www.exetel.com.au Then on the main page add a button called "Online Sales Assistance" (much like the BRW buttons etc. Direct them to a webpage that gives them an option of LIVE sales chat (AKA irc) and sales webforum during the day. And just sales webforum of a night. It would go a long way at filtering the phone calls and you'd soon discover the common problems/requests. Comment (1)
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