From conspiracy theory to reality, HP has decided to ditch its mandatory 15-minute wait time for customers using its telephone-based support team.
Putting it down to "initial feedback, the U-turn came when it became apparent that the tech company introduced minimum waiting times before speaking with a human being.
HP’s Goal Was to “Encourage More Digital Adoption”
We all know the feeling of being sat on hold to customer service, thinking, ‘surely there aren’t that many people waiting in the queue.’
It turns out that when it came to HP, we were probably right.
Theorized as an attempt to lean on customers to use other channels, such as its chatbot or social media, in a memo to staff, HP said: "The wait time for each customer is set to 15 minutes – notice the expected wait time is mentioned only in the beginning of the call."
The main objective of this being to “encourage more digital adoption by nudging customers to go online to self-solve,” and “taking decisive, short-term action to generate warranty cost efficiencies.”
Initial Feedback as Fiery as Expected
While the initial feedback is likely due to those working internally at HP, people quickly took to social media to vent their frustration at the decision.
One user took to LinkedIn to state:
"Can you believe it? HP Europe purposely prolonged the wait time to reach a customer service rep to 15 minutes in hopes more customers would use online self-service methods.
Who's the CX genius who came up with the brilliant idea?!?!
Another user wrote that “some things are just too crazy to be made up.”
HP Claim They Were Simply Raising Awareness of Digital Options
After abandoning the policy, HP issued a statement that it is “always looking for ways to improve” its customer service experience.
HP highlighted that the support offering was intended to “provide more digital options” and “reduce time to resolve inquiries.”
We have found that many of our customers were not aware of the digital support options we provide.
“Based on initial feedback, we know the importance of speaking to live customer service agents in a timely fashion is paramount.”