Customer Service: How on earth?!

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AndiK

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Feb 27, 2012
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I wonder if you are as incredulous as I am.

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QVC UK wins again at Top 50 Companies for Customer Service Awards
Published: 9 November 2017 - Fiona Garcia

The famous shopping channel has won at the event for the fifth year running

Shopping channel retailer QVC UK has again been rewarded for its customer service, winning the Multi-Channel Award at the 2017 Top 50 Companies for Customer Service Awards.

In addition, it was first overall for Social Media in Retail, second for Customer Experience on Calls for Retail and third best company overall. This is the fifth consecutive year that QVC has been named as one of the Top 50 Companies for Customer Service.

The Top 50 is the UK’s biggest customer service and benchmarking programme in which real customers rate performance against defined criteria. Conducted in partnership with GfK, using its expert panel of 10,000 mystery shoppers, the assessment is the only one of its kind to delve beyond traditional customer service offerings and look at overall performance rating across multiple channels using over 60 KPI’s.

QVC’s customer services have been at the Operations Centre in Knowsley since 1996. The facility houses a state-of-the-art Contact Centre which is manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by expertly trained customer care professionals.

Commenting on the awards, QVC VP of customer services & experience Europe James Keegan said: “Once again, this is fantastic news for us and our Multichannel win recognises the many flexible ways that our customers can choose how and when they contact us. The results are testament to the continued quality and unrivalled experience that we offer our customers, building loyalty, trust and integrity in our brand.

“Our team’s pursuit of perfection and sustained dedication to continuous improvement in a changing customer experience landscape is unrivalled in the industry. To win such high accolades year on year is a fantastic accomplishment for our contact centre teams and something that the whole business is proud of.”

Source: QVC

http://www.diyweek.net/qvc-uk-wins-again-at-top-50-companies-for-customer-service-awards

Well, you could knock me down with a feather. Who is this "expert panel of 10,000 mystery shoppers" (and what's in it for them)? Is it the people who a few months ago were posting inane questions on the Facebook page, such as "What is the web address?" to test the administratorsx responses?

I dread to think what sort of customer service the other 49 companies offer! The particular award qvc has received is "the Multi-Channel Award", though, so there can't have been that many contenders. How they came first overall for Social Media in Retail is baffling, too.

Wait for the boasts on air. We'll never hear the last of this. Another good reason not to tune in.
 
It would be interesting to know who the other 49 companies are as it obviously does not include some of the companies I’ve dealt with such as The Lakeland shop who are excellent.
 
In my experience, QVC could never beat Amazons customer service if QVC were the only retailer on the planet. The 10,000 mystery shoppers consist of QVC employees, QVC employees relatives, anything to do with Fibby Flint/friends and Blaggers and of course, the Back To You crew.
 
what a con...customer service when they are taking money out of your account weeks before an advanced orders is due. not very customer orientated imo
 
Oh no just thought, Chuntley is going to absolutely love that, now she's going to have to find time to be all smug about it in her 60 minutes, I mean how ever will she cram it in when she already takes 52 minutes to go on......and on....and on....about the value/money back guarantee/easy pay?
 
It would be interesting to know who the other 49 companies are as it obviously does not include some of the companies I’ve dealt with such as The Lakeland shop who are excellent.

In my experience, QVC could never beat Amazons customer service if QVC were the only retailer on the planet. The 10,000 mystery shoppers consist of QVC employees, QVC employees relatives, anything to do with Fibby Flint/friends and Blaggers and of course, the Back To You crew.

Lakeland and Amazon are right up there for me, too. Love that: QVC couldn't beat Amazon "if they were the only retailer on the planet".
:mysmilie_19:
 
Most peculiar isn't it? I suppose the social media thing is because they do have a very active FB page. Personally I don't want all the faff, just a good, polite, efficient service, especially when things go wrong.
 
what a con...customer service when they are taking money out of your account weeks before an advanced orders is due. not very customer orientated imo

I know! We can't be the only people to have experienced this. I think the mystery shoppers are so mysterious, they have never shopped at Q and only exist in Mystic Meg's imagination.
 
I think this neatly sums up why company-related awards ceremonies are a load of self-congratulatory old codswallop.
 
Pfft, QVC wouldn't know good customer service if it bit them on the arse. These people probably voted on the fact that the call centre staff are usually fairly pleasant to talk to (which they are generally) even though they can't actually do anything for you other than make you wait for things to happen. Proper customer service is of the sort I received this week from Pureflo, who do water filtering kit. My system sprung a small leak after replacing a tap, so after sending a quick email, the company couriered spare parts, overnight from Scotland, at no charge to me at all, so I could fix it. Imagine QVC doing that? I'd be sitting in a very deep puddle before they even got around to sorting out.

I'd like to know how the 10,000 shoppers are chosen, and do they get paid - either cash or goods - for doing it?
 
Pfft, QVC wouldn't know good customer service if it bit them on the arse. These people probably voted on the fact that the call centre staff are usually fairly pleasant to talk to (which they are generally) even though they can't actually do anything for you other than make you wait for things to happen. Proper customer service is of the sort I received this week from Pureflo, who do water filtering kit. My system sprung a small leak after replacing a tap, so after sending a quick email, the company couriered spare parts, overnight from Scotland, at no charge to me at all, so I could fix it. Imagine QVC doing that? I'd be sitting in a very deep puddle before they even got around to sorting out.

I'd like to know how the 10,000 shoppers are chosen, and do they get paid - either cash or goods - for doing it?

i wonder if they remember qvc taking two lots of money out of customers accounts. then taking best part of a week to put it back.

or paying huge postage costs for items to take several days to turn up

or customers waiting weeks for qvc to investigate good that never arrive
 
When I have had cause to ring customer services they have always been helpful but then again I haven't had any serious problems.However I don't want to pay their P&P charges and wait what seems forever for delivery.It has been agreed many times other companies can leave QVC in the dark ages.Yes the likes of Chuntley will be insufferable simpering on about this.Awards are only worth anything if judged by a credible source and against recognised competitors.
 
A couple of months ago they published the annual list of top performing retailers for customer service, retail shopping, online shopping satisfaction etc., and QVC weren't even in the first twelve. Most out- performed them of course, as we already know. So, this study could have been conducted on Q customers only. Whatever, at least it will keep Chuntley deliriously happy...that and the staff Christmas party that she mentions every two minutes!
 
Unbelievable ! This year for the first time I’ve done quite a bit of Christmas shopping on-line from ‘budget’ stores such as Matalan and The Works. Their processes are very slick, low or no p&p, clear e mail updates and delivery within a couple of days. Well packed. I’m impressed that companies which probably rely on selling large numbers of cheaper items at small profit margins can be so good.
 
Unbelievable ! This year for the first time I’ve done quite a bit of Christmas shopping on-line from ‘budget’ stores such as Matalan and The Works. Their processes are very slick, low or no p&p, clear e mail updates and delivery within a couple of days. Well packed. I’m impressed that companies which probably rely on selling large numbers of cheaper items at small profit margins can be so good.

i agree i bought saucepan set, 2 dinner sets, broom etc from Wilko last year. too 3 days to arrive with the cheapest postage cost of £3.95. very well wrapped to. like you said these are budget stores with high volume
 
As a ex Q addict I'm at a loss to understand how they are still trading in their present format.

There are very few brands you can't get on DHS. The unbranded clothes have exactly the same in the low end chains at a third of the price or less.

There are only 3 things keeping them afloat:

1. Extortionate postage must make up most of their profit
2. TSV beauty seems to be a biggie for them but now its the same 4 brands over and over and over ..... surely even the most devoted beauty fan must reach saturation point?
3. Easy pays - but I think some of the catalogue companies do this as well

30 day was a big attraction years ago but I don't think anyone other than first timers are overly worried about this especially if buying repeat beauty buys. Many would actually welcome the scrapping of this as it would reduce the bad returns (the used ones) being sent back out.
 

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