HP ditches 15-minute wait time policy due to 'feedback'

It woz The Reg wot won it ... or maybe just common sense prevailed among management

HP Inc today abruptly ditched the mandatory 15-minute wait time that it imposed on customers dialling up its telephone-based support team due to "initial feedback."

As The Register exclusively revealed yesterday, HP introduced the minimum time that PC and print users would need to wait before they spoke to a human being. This was to lean on customers to use online alternatives such as social channels or live chat.

This came into force for folks phoning up the call center in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, and Italy on February 18. It went down like a lead balloon internally at HP, with some staff on the front line unhappy that they were having to deal with a decision taken by management, who didn't have to directly interact with customers left hanging on the telephone… for at least 15 minutes.

Now HP has abandoned the policy, and in a statement issued today, said:

We're always looking for ways to improve our customer service experience. This support offering was intended to provide more digital options with the goal of reducing 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. As a result, we will continue to prioritize timely access to live phone support to ensure we are delivering an exceptional customer experience.

We're tempted to say it was The Reg wot won it, but it seems annoyed customers and pressure internally from staff that want to do a good job, or were fed up managing irate customers whose patience was tested, were more likely the influencing factors.

Just to remind readers, from Tuesday HP started to play a recorded message to punters ringing up its call centers that warned of a longer wait time of 15 minutes and apologized for the inconvenience. HP had decided to inconvenience customers deliberately to make them give up and use online support. On the fifth, tenth and thirteenth minute, the recorded message again mentioned the longer wait times and, ta-da, suggested trying other forms of digital support.

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."

It was absolutely intended to test people's patience. It was all about "encouraging more digital adoption by nudging customers to go online to self-solve," and "taking decisive short-term action to generate warranty cost efficiencies."

We've asked HP for further comment. We suspect we'll be waiting longer than 15 minutes. ®