YouTube Takes the "Customer" and "Support" out of Customer Support
20 Aug
If you want to see how NOT to run your Customer Service operations, try to connect with a YouTube representative.
After searching in vain through YouTube’s Help forum for a customer service contact, I finally tracked down a Contact Us form via a Google search. I sent YouTube a question — not even an urgent one, mind you — and got an immediate response. It just wasn’t the response I wanted. Take a look:
Seriously? That’s the message you want to send from Customer Support? Let’s see if I understood it correctly:
- We can’t help you.
- We don’t want to help you.
- Don’t try to contact us, because we won’t answer you.
- We’ve even set up defenses to keep you from contacting us.
- Go find your own damn answers.
Yesterday, I talked about the 5 D’s of Customer Evasion: Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive and Dodge. But this takes it a little far, don’t ya think?
YouTube’s slogan: Broadcast Yourself.
Alright, readers, you heard ‘em. Gold stars to everyone who shares this post with a friend.
YouTube is the 3rd most trafficked website in the world. Unfortunately customer service does not scale as well as raw machine power. I would venture to guess YouTube would have to increase it’s manpower by one or two orders of magnitude to even begin to *read* (just read!) everything the community has to say.
YouTube encourages the community to help each other out where possible. Customer support has its hands full (as you are no doubt aware) and must focus their efforts carefully.
Given that prospective I have to protest and argue that one bad experience is not really grounds for a riot.
@Phil I’m glad to see YouTube is at least paying attention to what’s said about it online. It’s a good start.
With all due respect, though, I’m confused as to how a company that doesn’t have time to respond to customer service requests has time to defend its reputation online.
It’s easy to say “customer service doesn’t scale as well as machine power.” Maybe. But that’s also a reflection of YouTube’s values. Other big companies have managed to make customer service a priority, even in the face of complex business operations. Southwest Air’s use of Twitter is a good example.
Call me naive, but telling your customers to help each other seems like a cop out. Yeah, you’re busy, we get it. Want less work? Slow down. Quit being The All Powerful YouTube. Worry less about boosting your Alexa ranking and more about satisfying your users.
My goal isn’t just to bash YouTube for bashing’s sake. And I’m not the first to air frustration with the company’s customer care: http://tinyurl.com/59xnmr
Again, I’m pleased YouTube employee has engaged in the conversation. But building relationships with your customers is about more than setting up GoogleAlerts for your name and leaping to the company’s defense when you’re criticized. It’s about hearing complaints and improving your business. And so far, YouTube has a long way to go.
It’s interesting, this week I tweeted about someone else’s Comcast problem and @comcastcares tweeted me and followed up the person having the problem. If YouTube is going to monitor it would be nice to be prepared to I don’t know actually help! In the past when I have had YouTube issues I have ended up googling for answers from other users. *Sigh* Great post Scott and great response.
I follow twitter like @comcastcare does but on behalf of the engineering side of YouTube. I do it to watch for problems and to listen for improvements.
If you want help unblocking your account etc that’s clearly not my responsibility as a developer. YouTube isn’t a one man operation right? Customer support can’t fix bugs and developers can’t fix accounts. Don’t be angry if I try though ;)
@Scott: You can’t slow down growth by satisfying customers. Doesn’t high satisfaction lead to more business (generally)? You talk like YouTube and Google aren’t hiring but that doesn’t sound right either. I’m not going to speculate… these key business decisions are bigger than either of us.
Scott I have yet to get a response back from YouTube for a question I submitted months ago about how to set up an account for PRS161 & making sure we weren’t violating any terms of use. The size of the organization doesn’t matter. Bad customer service is bad customer service.
@Phil Thanks for the reply. Despite my criticisms of YouTube, I think it’s a very positive sign that you’re monitoring the buzz online.
Also, appreciate the insights about your role at YouTube. Does the company have anyone in PR/communications who follows the company’s reputation online, too?
As for my thoughts about slowing down to take care of customers…I hope I didn’t imply that taking care of customers would CAUSE a slowdown. What I meant is that YouTube should have done a better job of building a user support strategy into its growth plans. If it wasn’t prepared to handle customer concerns, maybe the company wasn’t ready for the big stage. Google is now a public company, which shareholders to answer to, and “we can’t help you” is probably NOT the message shareholders want the company to send to its users.
Sorry to be directing all of this criticism toward you, Phil. I realize you’re trying to help. I just hope the higher-ups are listening, too.
I'm glad to see YouTube is at least paying attention to what's said about it online. It's a good start.
With all due respect, though, I'm confused as to how a company that doesn't have time to respond to customer service requests has time to defend its reputation online.
It's easy to say “customer service doesn't scale as well as machine power.” Maybe. But that's also a reflection of YouTube's values. Other big companies have managed to make customer service a priority, even in the face of complex business operations. Southwest Air's use of Twitter is a good example.
Call me naive, but telling your customers to help each other seems like a cop out. Yeah, you're busy, we get it. Want less work? Slow down. Quit being The All Powerful YouTube. Worry less about boosting your Alexa ranking and more about satisfying your users.
My goal isn't just to bash YouTube for bashing's sake. And I'm not the first to air frustration with the company's customer care: http://tinyurl.com/59xnmr</p>
Again, I'm pleased YouTube employee has engaged in the conversation. But building relationships with your customers is about more than setting up GoogleAlerts for your name and leaping to the company's defense when you're criticized. It's about hearing complaints and improving your business. And so far, YouTube has a long way to go.
I'm glad to see YouTube is at least paying attention to what's said about it online. It's a good start.
With all due respect, though, I'm confused as to how a company that doesn't have time to respond to customer service requests has time to defend its reputation online.
It's easy to say “customer service doesn't scale as well as machine power.” Maybe. But that's also a reflection of YouTube's values. Other big companies have managed to make customer service a priority, even in the face of complex business operations. Southwest Air's use of Twitter is a good example.
Call me naive, but telling your customers to help each other seems like a cop out. Yeah, you're busy, we get it. Want less work? Slow down. Quit being The All Powerful YouTube. Worry less about boosting your Alexa ranking and more about satisfying your users.
My goal isn't just to bash YouTube for bashing's sake. And I'm not the first to air frustration with the company's customer care: http://tinyurl.com/59xnmr</p>
Again, I'm pleased YouTube employee has engaged in the conversation. But building relationships with your customers is about more than setting up GoogleAlerts for your name and leaping to the company's defense when you're criticized. It's about hearing complaints and improving your business. And so far, YouTube has a long way to go.
Its true, i tried to find that customer contact service where you can email them but i cant find it. none existent.
I need help and can not post online the issue due to email confidentially.
I just need to send them an email and ask for possible help on an account i lost my password and which email could have been closed by now. (however telling me which one was used, imight be able to dig up old archives- i have a number of emails.. grrr) i never got the re-set email after checking all of them and now its took so long. still hoping to contact them.
Its true, i tried to find that customer contact service where you can email them but i cant find it. none existent.
I need help and can not post online the issue due to email confidentially.
I just need to send them an email and ask for possible help on an account i lost my password and which email could have been closed by now. (however telling me which one was used, imight be able to dig up old archives- i have a number of emails.. grrr) i never got the re-set email after checking all of them and now its took so long. still hoping to contact them.
Its true, i tried to find that customer contact service where you can email them but i cant find it. none existent.
I need help and can not post online the issue due to email confidentially.
I just need to send them an email and ask for possible help on an account i lost my password and which email could have been closed by now. (however telling me which one was used, imight be able to dig up old archives- i have a number of emails.. grrr) i never got the re-set email after checking all of them and now its took so long. still hoping to contact them.