{"id":34342,"date":"2021-12-02T16:51:31","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T21:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=34342"},"modified":"2021-12-07T09:55:24","modified_gmt":"2021-12-07T14:55:24","slug":"inside-apples-chat-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/12\/02\/inside-apples-chat-support\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Apple’s Chat Support"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zoe Schiffer<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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While Apple’s corporate offices take a proactive, deliberate approach to product development, Apple’s customer support function operates in a reactive mania, using a vast array of processes and metrics to keep employees on task. If workers go to the bathroom or are away from their computers for more than five minutes, they’ll sometimes get a note from their manager asking why they aren’t working. They’re monitored based on their customer satisfaction score, as well as after call work time, which dictates how much time after a call or chat they spend writing up notes, and average handle time (AHT), which indicates how long it takes them to solve a customer issue. A good AHT is around 15 minutes for phone calls and about two minutes for chats.<\/p>\n

“It starts to get into a game of fixing the numbers more than helping the customers. They look at the numbers and assume that is helping the customer,” a former employee says.<\/p>\n

Employees who really want to help customers say they often have to sacrifice their personal metrics. “If I have an elderly person on the phone, am I going to be a little slower with them to the detriment of my personal metrics?” a current employee asks. “Yes, I can’t treat every person the same because they’re not all the same.”<\/p>\n

On chats, the ability to resolve issues can be even more difficult, as employees are expected to speak to three people simultaneously during busy parts of the year. “It’s impossible to do a good job multitasking with that many scenarios,” a current employee explains. “Especially because we have to respond in two minutes — from an Apple ID issue to an iCloud issue to an iOS [or] Mac install.” […] “We equated it to being able to do your job with one hand tied behind your back.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Previously:<\/p>\n