[Lineage 2] In Lineage 2 you have the wonderful feeling of knowing that if you ever need help, you can simply type /gm and usually within 20 minutes a real GM will be talking to you (wow).
This concept tends to breakdown however when you ask a question and the GM continues responding with prewritten form responses which in no way answer your question. After informing the GM that this response does not answer your question, you are rewarded with another form response which is simply the same response you were given before, yet written somewhat differently.
What is this GM doing, playing Russian roulette with a response generator?
Finally I explain once more what my question is and why this person has not yet answered it. Response? “Is there anything else I can do for you today?†I told them no thank you and to have a great day.
GM Evaluation: Poor!
Spot
Well, there was the argument over at Feet of Clat that customer service is a waste, and maybe someone believed him. Simple process for cutting CS costs:
1. design a system that can use approximate match for questions in your current FAQ/Knowledge Base, so that it gives the answer you already have to the question closest to the one asked;
2. set the system to respond to all support calls under a random GM name;
3. make sure the system only responds 10-20 minutes after the call is made, because players will start making a lot more GM calls if they think that they can get a human response in less than 10 minutes;
4. fire all customer service personnel;
5. ignore the occasional complaint. At least half of the questions that come in have already been answered in the FAQ and knowledge base, and most of the rest fall under the banner of “no, I cannot (a) ban someone who pissed you off (b) give you free stuff or unfair help (c) otherwise satisfy your irrational demands.”
This might actually work, especially if you could keep it a secret that there is no customer service department. You would have a lot of irritated players quit, but their monthly fees are probably less than the cost of running customer service. And how many players really do quit, rather than just fuming on guild chat then moving on to the next spawn?
Hehe… working in a support function myself, I know that alot of helpdesks employ a script the person on the phone follows. You’ve all heard it:
“Ok, I need for you to unplug the modem and wait 10 seconds before you plug it back in…”
Even if you can prove it’s within the network, they still want you to do that…
But, taking that script… and making it into a /script… is pure genius… I shall submit the idea to my superiors immediately. I smell a promotion coming…
=P