Vodafone policy Stopped solving problems

[gipjon]

back in 2016 headline in the newspaper was 

Stop solving problems... just make the customer happy': As complaints against Vodafone soar, a whistleblower claims it is obsessed with its 'satisfaction' ratings and that Vodafone employees are encouraged to soothe issues rather than solve their complaints.

so now in 2021, it seems as the issues continue and complaints have gone through the roof Vodafone has decided to try and make satisfaction ratings better by blocking all private messages on the Vodafone forum.

According to Ofcom, Vodafone has 5 times more complaints than sky or ee. 

I would love to know what Vodafone is going to do next instead of addressing the problems that Vodafone is the worst provider according to Ofcom figure. Maybe offer customers a free cup of tea OR start sending free tea and biscuits out to customers instead of sorting issues out. 

[TJ]

I made you aware of the reason for this change previously @gipjon - the private message function has been removed from the Community as it's causing confusion for some customers, who believe it works as a Live Chat function. This has never been the case and we've never dealt with customers via private message on the Community. Previously we used emails and now we direct our customers to our social channels. 

This change has been implemented for our customers own benefit, as I'm sure you can imagine you would be annoyed if you messaged expecting a reply; only to be told this isn't available and you're sent round in circles.

Your message is neither constructive nor necessary and gives people the wrong impression so I'm simply here to clear this up. The change will go ahead for one month whilst we assess if it has had a positive or negative impact and was discussed before going ahead with our moderators, managers and Community Champions.

If there's anything you're still unclear on simply let me know and I'll be happy to discuss this further with you. Also, we do currently have plenty of offers for free coffee and food etc on the Vodafone app using Very Me Rewards, which I like to take advantage of whenever I can.

[Cynric]

.@TJ Never dealt with customers via PMs? 

https://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Other-broadband-queries/Impossible-to-contact-Customer-Service/td-p/...

[HappyNomad]

---

@Cynric wrote:

.@TJ Never dealt with customers via PMs? 

https://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Other-broadband-queries/Impossible-to-contact-Customer-Service/td-p/...

---

In fairness, most of the current batch of Moderators and Community Champions probably weren’t around when ‘no help whatsoever via PM' was changed to 'no help whatsoever via social media'.    
Cutting off the PM facility seems petty and largely pointless beyond stopping unhappy subscribers discussing their various Vodafone broadband, hardware, firmware and customer service issues 'privately’.

[Cynric]

That's a fair point, but I did have some messages that would likely have wanted to refer to and hadn't the slightest idea that they would become inaccessible. Perhaps had VF stopped the sending of new messages while still allowing access to the old ones it might not have been such a problem.

[TJ]

Sorry @Cynric I should have phrased that better. We've never dealt with customers accounts via private message, we used to send them a link, to send us as email; which is now obsolete as we've cut out a few of the middle men and they can get in touch with us directly. 

@HappyNomad I myself have been working the Community for over four years and most of our Community Champions have been here almost a decade. As Community manager I try to make it a safe, friendly and informative place for everyone who visits and apologise if you feel like the removal of PM's has somehow disrupted this. 

@gipjon it is not constructive, neither is saying that our agents should spend time with other companies for tips. All of the moderators and Community Champions have been picked for their knowledge and willingness to help in any way they can. They come to work, or volunteer every day and try to do their best.

As for the last point, I did ask the company who run our Community if it would be possible to simply restrict the sending of PMs, so that customers would still have access to the ones already in their inbox; but was told this wasn't an option I'm afraid. This hasn't been done maliciously or pointlessly as you seem to think - as I mentioned above, it's causing confusion; especially for newer Community members and they have been disabled to see if it has a positive effect. they will remain off for the remainder of the month, when the impact will be assessed again.

If necessary I can allow access for you to gather together any information you might need for a small period, I hope that helps

[gipjon]

Admin TJ ( All of the moderators and Community Champions have been picked for their knowledge and willingness to help in any way they can).

Then I think you need some better admin who can pick moderate because some Vodafone moderate are underperforming . Lets have a little look at 2 very nice people who try and help

In less than a year jayach received 238 thanks 

In around 3 years keithalger received 508 thanks 

Now let's have a look at paid staff 

Vodafone staff moderator mark in over 6 years has only received 349 That Only 58 in a year

And I love how when you look at Vodafone moderators Stats it very clear that they keep thanking each other .( Is this to keep the staff satisfaction rating up which was what this thread was about ) by highlighting  the 2016 newspaper story 

The forum seriously need a new admin and staff need training You could ask Keith or jay nicely if they could become the new adminstration they would make such a good job at it .

[TJ]

@gipjon the main point of the Community is that it is just that, a Community. Customers should talk to one another, thank one another and share ideas. The kudos on the Community holds no standing on our stats and figures and is simply gamification to add another form of enjoyment for our users.

The Community Champions kudos is worth five, if we wanted to bump up own own stats, I'd make the moderators worth more than two and go around liking every comment possible. Our Community Champions give out the most likes and these can be for anything that they agree with, whether it's Keith writing a great post about broadband; or an update from a moderator. 

If you're done talking about the original topic I'm going to leave this as my last comment, as I feel we're going round in circles and this conversation has stagnated. If any of the other commenters have any relevant questions about private messages, I'll be happy to help you further. 

[gipjon]

Have you been drinking TJ 

TJ says "the main point of the Community forum is that it is just that, a Community. Customers should talk to one another, "

Well customers would talk to each othet  if vodafone has not decided to block all private messages to try and gain rating etc 

[TJ]

Hey all, I thought I'd let you know on this thread as I believe everyone on here raised their concerns about the Private Message function being switched off, compared to the rest of the Community. 

I've turned them back on again for the time being, to see if there's a change in our Value Analytics responses. I'll continue to monitor this over the next few weeks and update you all again after this time. I'll also make sure that you get a response to the other question you raised regarding broadband channels ASAP 👍