Connor BrookeAt Parature, it’s our pleasure to showcase our customers and their dedication to providing exceptional customer service. Doing this at scale is Ask.com, which delivers answers to more than 100 million users every month.
Leading the customer service charge for Ask.com is Global Customer Care Manager, Eric McKirdy, and to Parature, he’s a true customer service champion. Like most customer care managers, his job doesn’t go from 9 to 5. He is routinely found helping users at all hours of the day and night, on weekends and holidays, whenever someone needs help. When you talk about above and beyond customer service, Eric has even responded to support tickets while rehearsing on the pipe organ in the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, at 38,000′ on commercial flights, below sea level in Death Valley – even at the top of the Empire State Building. (Watch Eric’s Christmas Day customer service story.)
Eric believes that people are at the heart of customer service. He treats each person as an individual, and makes every user feel like the most important person at that moment, providing that personal touch for Ask.com that is sometimes missing from the customer service experience at other large companies. His name and picture are even front and center on Ask.com’s support portal. How many customer service executives make even their self-service offering personal?
This personal touch and dedication to customer service has been paying off for Ask.com. By applying best practices to Ask.com’s self-service knowledgebase and writing articles and answers in a friendly, accessible voice, Ask.com has seen its knowledgebase pageviews rise from 500 to 2500 a day, a 60% reduction in the number of support tickets submitted, and because of the reduced support requests, response times for those who do need a personalized response have gone from eight hours to just 1.5 on average.
Looking for a customer service champion? Parature’s answer is Ask.com. Watch for the next Parature Customer Service Champion video coming soon….
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Connor Brooke.
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I found this disturbing due to the fact i’ve had a ‘personal response’ from Eric twice now. The last going like this, after I responded to someone insulting me randomly by telling me to ‘Just compare myself to an ant ;)’ (random I know) to which I responded ‘kill yourself’ to which my comment was removed yet not his insult. Asking this great customer support champion why the insult to me wasn’t removed I got this response and level of unreasonable discourse – it was like commenting to a troll (how personal):
‘Frankly, you’re being ridiculous. “Compare yourself to an ant :)” isn’t bullying language in the slightest, and I can’t fathom how you could conclude otherwise. “Kill yourself” on the other hand is completely inappropriate. You can quote our guidelines to
me all you’d like, but the fact is, you are far more out of line.
If you question the quality of an answer, report it and then move on. Our moderators will take care of it, and there’s no need for you to spiral out of control with horrifyingly awful comments.
If I can help with anything else, please let me know.’
**I ask Eric to tell me what he DOES think the comment to me meant not what it isn’t but what it is**
‘How about first you explain to me why you thought telling someone to kill himself was helpful and/or a good idea on any level, and why you thought that was permissible within our Guidelines that you love to quote?’
Me: ‘No I’ve accepted that my response to him should have been removed. But now for the third time can you answer how his comment doesn’t fall within the category of flaming: hostile or insulting interaction’
nd again, I’m not going to debate it with you. It contains no insulting language, it wasn’t an attack on your character, and it doesn’t meet any of the criteria of flaming or bashing. I can’t imagine why you’re choosing to be insulted by it, but that’s
your choice and you are welcome to it.
Maybe doesn’t exactly answer your question; however, it still offers an interesting perspective for thought. The answer will remain.
This personal response is fantastic.