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Broadband and mobile provider Vodafone (VodafoneThree) has today launched a new service called ‘Just Ask Once‘, which will essentially see “one person deal with a customer’s query from start to finish, until it is sorted“. The operator claims this will mean no more waiting on hold, no more transfers between agents and no more repeating yourself.
The goal of this seems to be to remove “well-known bug bears such as waiting on hold, repeating the problem to multiple different people, and the need to chase for an update”. Instead of that, customers can load up the feature via the MyVodafone app and respond to messages when it’s convenient.
In fairness, this is how a lot of online support / ticket systems already work, but Vodafone claims to be going further by ensuring that related requests are handled by the same agent. If the query can’t be resolved straight away, the same person from Vodafone will proactively message the customer with updates until it is solved. But if, after all that, they still can’t provide the service they’ve promised, then “customers can leave with no exit fee“.
Rob Winterschladen, Consumer Director of VodafoneThree, said:
“When it comes to customers, our ambition is simple: we want to be the best. We want to set the gold standard for customer service and that’s why we’re launching ‘Just Ask Once’.
’Just Ask Once’ is based on a really simple principle: when a customer needs help, they ask us once, and we will sort it. Customers can simply and quickly message us through the My Vodafone app at any time and importantly, they’ll only deal with one person until their query is sorted. There’s no more waiting on hold, no transfers between agents, and no more repeating themselves – allowing customers to get on with their day, while we get on with solving their problem.
If we can’t resolve a query immediately, we’ll proactively message the customer with updates until it is sorted, so they aren’t left worrying or having to chase us. What’s more, if we exhaust all avenues and can’t provide the service we promised, then we will let them leave with no exit fee. ‘Just Ask Once’ will level-up customer care and give our customers the most convenient and reliable support in the market.”
The idea of essentially having a dedicated manager for a specific issue or account is not a new one, although it’s usually considered more of a feature applied to more expensive business connections and not residential ones. This is because maintaining the assignment of a specific agent to a specific customer can be quite tricky and isn’t always the most cost-efficient way of using support staff.
The announcement doesn’t say it, but we strongly suspect Vodafone will be making a fair bit of use of AI and automation for this system to be viable at the consumer level. In that sense, a lot of the updates may end up coming from a computer rather than a human, since automation can be used to tackle a lot of the more laborious elements in this sort of process. But that’s just our speculation.
‘Just Ask Once’ is also available for small office/home office (SOHO) business customers with 1-9 employees via the same app. Customers who don’t want to contact Vodafone customer service using the My Vodafone app can of course still get help by calling 191 on their mobile or through the Vodafone website.