Re: CAIS DSL failure: lessons in how not to inform

[John Todd <jtodd () loligo com>]

This is a great summary.  All of your points are salient, but I'll 
pick two in which I have a fervent belief and which I've run up 
against on more than a few occasions.  I've implemented several 
technical help lines.  You'd be absolutely stunned at how difficult 
it is to convince people (read: management) that there should be NO 
music on hold, or any advertising, and that it infuriates customers 
(especially business customers.)  The concept that music on hold is a 
BAD thing simply does not compute in their little minds, at ALL. 
There is no amount of evidence, testimonials, or ranting that will 
change their minds.  Often those persons who insist on music or 
advertising aren't people who would ever use the call-in lines and 
who are not familiar with the issues that technical networking 
consider important.

In addition, I have often been on conference calls with four or five 
different vendors, telcos, etc. and often with one or more 
participants in very poor phone conditions (overseas.)   Now, imagine 
that one of those four puts the call on hold with their on-hold 
music.  What do the other three (still working) people hear instead 
of each other?  The Muzak version of the Moody Blues.  Great.

When I'm on hold with a vendor and I get music (or worse, ads) pumped 
into my ear, I will often ask for the manager on the next opportunity 
that someone comes on the line.

One of the best implementations I've heard was a beep every fifteen 
seconds to let you know that you're still connected.

How is this relevant on NANOG?  It certainly is an issue that 
everyone on this list has to deal with, on (I'm guessing) a regular 
basis if you're actually handling technical troubleshooting over the 
phone.  I have also noticed that hold music or ads seem to be a 
uniquely North American habit.  I can't remember the last time I had 
music on hold while taking to a European location (sorry, I can't 
speak for the Pacific Rim nations; I have very little dealings with 
that side of the globe.)  I suspect this is due to the American drive 
to put advertising into every possible square inch of our lives.

So, when you're designing your call center, fight for sanity: no hold 
music or ads.

JT


> I'm in a SOHO environment with SDSL from CAIS. After several 
> intermittent failures in the last few days, I've now been down for 
> about 24 hours.  There's no question that I'd like to find out (1) 
> what is wrong and (2) when it will be fixed, but I'd like to review 
> some of the problems as a guideline for other providers.
>
> The only available status information is the phone trouble number, 
> which, up to a few minutes ago, said "we are having some issues with 
> one of our DC core routers. It affects all CAIS DSL customers."  I'm 
> sitting on hold now; even that message has gone away.
>
> suggestion 1:  when a failure affecting dedicated user access 
> exceeds more than  (4?) hours, send email to subscribers and/or post 
> something on an internal web.
>
> suggestion 2:  make this at least somewhat meaningful.  In a DSL 
> environment, at least some indication if the problem is in or 
> between the local loop provider, DSL aggregator, local ISP, or 
> upstreams. Some estimate of restoral time. In this case, I find it 
> hard to believe that a core router in a major urban area can be down 
> this long.  Is it an upstream problem? Facilities? Lack of backup? 
> DSL provisioning?
>
> suggestion 3:  accept that business-grade customers are busy.  If I 
> do have to sit on telephone hold, I'll often put the phone on 
> speaker so I can do other work.  Please do not insult my 
> intelligence with periodic blathering about "your call is important 
> to us," "it will be just a moment," etc. Based on your results, 
> neither are true.
>
> suggestion 4: For that matter, can the music on hold. If I'm doing 
> other work, I don't need the distraction.  When I hear a noise from 
> the phone, I want it to be meaningful.
>
> suggestion 5:  if you must put a voice response on your trouble 
> line, give the time of the response, and update it frequently.  24 
> hour outages deserve a bit more than "our technicians are working on 
> it." With major router vendors, this would be a priority 1 failure 
> with executive visibility. I'd like to know that my service provider 
> treats it as seriously.