Personally, I’ve almost entirely stopped going through the MUDs’ normal CS ladder because it was so frustrating, and instead I prefer to just send something to Jeremy or yourself. I find that my problems are always answered faster and more satisfactorily that way.

Now, I’m imagine this is probably not the most efficient arrangement from your end, but as a customer of yours, I’ll say that I appreciate it, at least.

(Apologies for the belatedness.)

One point I want to make is that there are exceptions to the rule. Niche companies generally have to provide better CS, and are able to because they are smaller. I’m certain Matt does the best he can to provide good CS to keep his games profitable. Rhyke just posted that Three Rings has great CS. I’ve mentioned on my blog that the majority of Meridian 59’s expenses are to pay the salaries of the CSRs. (In fact, they’re still getting paid while I’m no longer taking a paycheck from the company.) But, does noes not negate my assertions as they apply to large companies like airlines and the larger online game developers/publishers.

My further thoughts.

For people in category 1 above, your CS doesn’t matter at all. I could have cared less about CS when I was playing DAoC back in the day, because I didn’t need much help; the problems I did have I fixed myself using in-game resources. Most people actually fall into this category from my experience and the data I’ve seen.

Category 3 above are likewise small, but they aren’t really using CS as CS. They’re often lonely people that just want to hear someone’s voice. Even if you had the absolute best CS in the world, these people would still call up because your CS members can’t provide the help they actually need. (And, if they do, that’s generally grounds for being fired! These people are, frankly, unprofitable given the amount of resources they chew up. Honestly, it’s often better to refuse service to these people while recommending they seek professional help.

That leaves category 2 above. This is, likewise, a small group. This is the group where CS matters, but not as much as you might think. I fell into this category in WoW when I screwed up using the game interface. However, note that I didn’t quit after my poor experience; so poor CS did not affect how much money I gave to Blizzard. No, it was when my friends left the game that I left the game myself.

Raph Koster once mentioned that in UO they worked out the math and figured out they would have been more profitable if they had banned everyone that contacted Customer Service. He said that most of the people that contacted CS needed regular assistance, and a single CS encounter could eliminate the profit made from the player in that month. (And, remember, the thing people remember most about UO’s CS is “I cannot help thee with that,” so we’re not talking expensive service here!) Obviously, they didn’t pursue that policy for the larger damage it would have done to the game, but this fact bears out that most people don’t use CS.

Note that this isn’t to say that I won’t have CS in any game I work on or encourage it to be the best CS that it can be. But, CS does not make someone play one game over another. The best you can hope for is that it retains some of the players that are already playing the game, and most people already have pretty deep investments into the game as it is; in other words, your mediocre CS isn’t likely to make them stop paying for your game.

Note that money is also a huge issue here. Above JJ mentioned Southwest Airlines and Four Seasons. Looking at Four Seasons, it is obvious why they value CS: because you pay for it. Rooms at the Four Seasons are considerably more expensive than comparable rooms. This is great… if you can afford it. As I said in my previous comment, I’m sure that Matt would have gotten very different care if he had been flying first class (or had a ton of recent flights on his frequent flier plan).

But, now let’s talk airlines. Note that SWA is more noted for their cheap fares and non-assigned seating rather than their CS. If SWA had a large reputation for CS and given that Matt obviously cares about CS, why didn’t he book with SWA? Most likely because he does what most travelers do these days: book the cheapest flight possible online. Airlines don’t compete on CS, they compete directly on price. You’re a bit of a fool if you try to remain loyal to a specific company.

And, note that other people support this assertion. Andrew Crystall says above that, “…if I get repeated bad service, I simply won’t use that company again.” Note that he doesn’t say he’ll reward companies with good CS with repeat business; he will only punish companies with bad CS with no more business. Which means that all the company has to do is provide the minimum level of CS which he does not consider “bad”. Providing good CS is a wasted cost.

So, yeah, in an ideal world CS would matter a lot. The truth is that it simply does not in most cases.

When I’ve had to submit tickets in WoW it’s very hit or miss, and there were 2 or 3 times that they didn’t even get to my ticket until after I’ve logged (after a few hours of playing). Then I just get a CS form letter in my in-game mailbox. Of course, I’ve needed to submit fewer than 10 tickets in about 2 years of playing, so I can’t really complain.

Luckily though, they found my bag this morning. Now it’s onto arguing for a refund.

–matt

Why? Because the guides could relate to what you were experiencing. As players themselves, they’d run into similar things, or knew someone who had. They didn’t use form letters either. They talked to you in game. You had a personal experience and even when they had to forward your petition on to the server GM to handle, you got an explanation and an acknowledgement.

Customer service is very much a big deal. I’ve known players to quit after bad CS experiences. Usually it takes 2 or 3, but they do matter. The only reason that it doesn’t seem like as big a deal as it really is, is that all the publishers out there pretty much suck equally when it comes to this.

As a customer when I call or write in with an issue, here is what I expect:

1. If I submit a ticket in game for something urgent, that it’s going to be answered within a reasonable period of time (say 15 minutes).
2. That whoever responds isn’t just going to give me some kind of form letter response, but is actually going to have a conversation with me about the issue.
3. That if they can’t fix the problem, due to policies or whatever, that they treat me like a human being and explain why.
4. That the customer service person responding is familiar with the game and is empowered to handle my issue, or if they’re not empowered to handle my issue, that they can quickly escalate the issue to someone who can.

Too many times lately I’ll submit a ticket for one reason or another only to get a one-off response that smacks of form letter and absolutely does not apply to my issue. Which makes me wonder if the person responding actually bothered to read the original ticket at all. I blame this on ticketing systems in games now that basically work like email, instead of allowing the CSR and the customer to actually have a conversation.

I’m very sorry to hear that you had your vacation cancelled, and I truly hope that you will receive your bags. I work as an arrival services handler for a “small” airline in Norway (it has some 70 destinations in Europe so it’s not exactly big, but… yeah..), and in my daily work I meet lots of upset passengers.

Each and every day, there are lost bags, broken bags, pilfered bags (thankfully, not too often on those) and other inconvenient events for passengers. Flights that are late, and flights that are cancelled, I have to meet it all. Not long ago, I had to inform a flight of 148 passengers that there wasn’t a single bag aboard their plane and that they’d have to file missing reports for all bags. Trust me, that’s no fun at all and passengers usually get very upset (yay for security to back you up, it was needed).

The first thing we were taught when I started was that each passenger should be treated with care which makes me a bit surprised at the way AA met you. However, I understand the stress if an airline has several cancellations at the same time and literally thousands of passengers with questions, worries and demands.

To start on the topic of your bags, I can tell you that they will be found eventually. When you file a missing report, they probably took your tag numbers and your name, address, phone, age and shoesize (no, just kidding, they don’t need the last two). When this is done, it is entered into the WorldTracer system and a cluster in Atlanta starts searching all over the world for the luggage. However, it can only be found if the bags were entered into the system at another location.

You see, when we receive a bag that wasn’t picked up by a passenger, not routed to our airport or anything the like, we search for missing reports matching that bag. Then, if we don’t find a match we do a so called “on-hand” report and enter that into the system. This report includes a lot of information, such as color and type (there are codes for this, which you probably saw when reporting it), name on tag, address on bag, brand, weight, flight and date, routing on bag etc etc. Whenever the system in Atlanta finds a match it is entered into the report and a message (yay for TELEXes) is sent to the airline who “owns” the report.

So, the conclusion of this is that as soon as the bag turns up somewhere, they will find the report you made. Things that can complicate it is if the bag is found tagless, but then there are always contents to go by. Check with the airline what they are required to give as compensation, I’m sure there is at least something you should have in compensation for the lost bags and the inconvenience this causes.

As for the delayed flight, I’m relatively sure they are also required to give compensation for tickets and such if they were responsible for the delay. Read through the airline regulations and their terms of fare or whichever

My airline cover like.. $30 for the most necessary stuff, like toothbrush etc. Yeah, I know, we’re cheap. But hey, it’s a low fares company.

At any rate, write a complaint to the airline and point out that you were treated poorly. But do start the complaint by writing each and every point that you think is good with the airline.

I tried searching in the system for your report, but I couldn’t find anything. It’s a tad difficult though, since I don’t know what flight you were on and what station you reported it at I’m a detective, but looking through the missing reports on an airport the size of LAX or SFO… No thanks

I truly hope you get your bags back as soon as possible.

/Henrik

PS. Drop me an email with your reference number (SFOAA12345, something? Depends on where you reported it) or bag tag number(s) and I’ll help with the searching process for you I’ve too little to do right now anyhow.

Kinda ironic that Eve, which has terrible CS is slow-burn, but that’s frankly an outlier because of the gameplay appeal.

Anyway, if I get repeated bad service, I simply won’t use that company again. And I’m prepared to go to what some people would see as an amazing amount of trouble to do that. For things like internet buying, 1 bad experience means no more dealing with that company. And I can hold a grudge for a loong time in these cases.

(Hi Nexon! If you’re not going to provide me with the Shattered Galaxy account I paid for after a week and 11 customer service emails, no I’m NOT bluffing about a chargeback.)