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Anonymous User
Not applicable

NOW TV feedback to the management

I'm not sure if NowTV management read any of the feedback on here but there seem to be some very common threads re issues we, your customers, are facing (so it's not just "Bob from Brighton" having a little rant).

 

1. Black Friday deals are not made available to your existing customers. They should be easily accessible and just added to our Vouchers to get used when needed. You have the mechanism to do this, just remove the current block in the website code.

 

2. Sort out the customer service. Currently it is only via Live Chat. Not a problem UNLESS you are only using an India based call centre with no escalation to UK folks with a bit more understanding and authority. Existing one is fine for simple stuff (password changes) but not much more. No surprise here, Talk Talk have been getting it wrong in exactly the same way for years (with corresponding lowest customer service ratings you could wish for) so please learn from their huge mistake.  I understand it's all about cost but you really need to rethink this one and fast. At least provide a simple escalation to UK and / or telephone number.

 

Just a couple of thoughts from my recent experience.  I've just renewed Now TV for another year so I still like the basic sevice, it's just these peripheral issues that really let the side down big style. 

 

Please Like this post if you agree as it may help us get some attention on these issues.

 

Cheers

14 REPLIES 14
starman73
Elite

So you want deals, but you also want Now TV to spend more money on customer service. Is there a magic money tree?

 

...India based call centre with no escalation to UK folks with a bit more understanding and authority

 

This is just racist. I find I my various dealings with companies the location of the staff does not mean more understanding and err authority.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

I'm in agreement with @starman73 on this.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Ah the good old Racist tag if someone says anything like this. Sorry but I'm not being racist. Call them off shore call centres if that offends your sensibilities less. They never have the same level of understanding or authority to sort out issues and they certainly have little in the way of escalation possibilities and no way to actually talk to someone. I have spent about 4 hours on Chat to them recently (going round and round) to deal with a relatively simple issue which should have taken 15 mins.  Just look at the issues being described by dozens of different people on these forums and you will see this common thread. What more examples of these problems do you want? No problem with off shore call centres as long as they can pass you back to someone with knowledge / authority when required, at the moment they can't. Simple as that.

Re the magic money tree. Well that's down to NOW's prioritisation, and given this is a hugely customer service related business you'd have thought it would have been a priority. All you are doing is making excuses for them.  Deals are a part of business life. If they can make them for new customers, they can make them for existing ones. It is always cheaper to retain existing clients than to go out and get new ones. Hence it actually makes good business sense (ask anyone in business).

Change will not happen if issues are brushed under the carpet. Nothing wrong with debate.

starman73
Elite

The good old racist tag when someone writes something racist. You are being racist.

 

The issue is not the location.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

As I said in my previous post. Call it off shore if that works better for you. I had no intention of being racist and I'm sorry if it came across to you that way. The issue here is the way the service is set up. That is all this post is trying to highlight. I really don't care where it is based or who is running it as long as it works. If they can do the job then fabulous. And that may be down to training or authority that they are allowed to have, nothing to do with the staff themselves.  In every dealing I have had they have been unfailingly polite and would genuinely love to help, they just don't have the mechanisms in place (e.g. escalation that works). This is not an uncommon situation and often the case with off shores examples. Why do you think so many companies now proclaim UK Call Centres in their marketing? Think some of the high street banks here as good examples. Are they being "racist"? No. They are responding to customer issues and complaints with their previously off shored call centres.  Again, this was the intention of this post. These companies previously spent huge amounts of money back in the day out-sourcing stuff (when that was the latest buzz word re saving money). For some stuff it works ok (data centres, WANs etc.) But for some stuff it has been less than glorious. You don't then spend another pile of money reversing that without very good reason. Customer service is one such area. So again, my apologies if you think the post was racist, not and never my intention.

I still think NOW need to look at the customer service model here. They don't need to on-shore it again necessarily but they do need a better escalation route. That may be within the off shored centre or back to UK. As long as it works that is all that matters.

starman73
Elite

The issue here is the way the service is set up

The service is set up to be as cheap to run as possible. That is why the chat is based offshore and also why there is nothing else. It is not comparable with banks where people have lots of money held by the banks, nor even with Amazon where lots of people spend lots of money or Sky/Virgin Media where the same services cost significantly more.  At best, the average ARPU of a Now TV customer is around £100/annum and the customer base is in all likelihood not large enough to justify the spend. 

Now TV does not call you with offers (always sent by email) so they don’t have much staff unlike Virgin Media who have a small army calling you with offers, and on call to make the smallest change to the package.  Virgin have UK and offshore call centres and the location makes little difference. 

Personally I can live with the Now TV customer support model (have done for 7 years) as what I pay for a year is less than what I pay for a month of Virgin Media. In fact, truth be told, I have never had an issue that couldn’t be resolved by Now TV chat unlike Virgin who I have spent hours on the phone with.

The issue is what is the priority. Cheaper TV or comprehensive customer service? For me it is cheaper TV.

RoyB
Legend

@starman73 @Anonymous User @Anonymous User 

 

@starman73 If the average ARPU of a NowTV customer is about £100 (and I have no reason to doubt that figure), then they could give all us existing customers the £99 deal, and probably see the ‘missing’ £1 more than covered by the DCF of the payment up front versus month by month, let alone the massively reduced admin costs this would bring from making one collection over the year instead of twenty four.

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.
starman73
Elite

 At best, the average ARPU of a Now TV customer is around £100/annum

 

Note - I did not state ARPU is £100/annum.

 

I suspect the real ARPU is far less as many people will be taking advantage of the various offers, using just one service for a short period and so on.

 

FWIW my annual spend is £60.60 from December 2018 - Present.

 

I had Entertainment for most of the last 12 months, a month of Sports for £13 and a couple of sticks which had 2 months cinema plus 2 sports day passes.

 

It does make sense to take single annual payments, but as I get offers of £1.60/month when I cancel Entertainment, it doesn't work out any cheaper.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Of course, Now is a subsidiary of Sky so it has a rather large parent behind it.

It also has the advantage that all its product already exists and is supplied by its parent.

Now is effectively another route to market for Sky. So they aren't really a small stand alone company who have a huge outlay for their product. 

That said they will be income and cost aware so will try and do things cheaply where possible. 

I don't buy the "accept poor service for a cheap price" line. Neither should Now, it's just a route to the bottom. Not a race I suspect they would want to win.

I can't see any issue with them giving the offers to existing clients, especially if that stops them leaving.