UbuntuOhio Dell and UBUNTU

[Brady Merriweather]

"training existing call centers on how to troubleshoot Linux/Ubuntu or
if they plan on bring some people in from the outside. "

They don't train. Some call centers like AOL now use CBR tools "Case
Base Reasoning tools" This is how it works and anyone with good
"customer service skills can do it!" AOL did it to save on paying from
starting pay of $7.50 to $14.50 in which that is what places like Del &
Gateway were paying. Well that wasn't cheap enough, so moved
overseas.... anywho


1. You call, they say a greeting .... notice the greeting from the
"tech" is very hmm robot like....
2. You tell them what is wrong / They type it into the computer.
3. The CBR reports back based on what the "tech" type in a verification
question. Hence why they repeat in some scenes what you mentioned to
them.
4. They then read from the screen all the steps to you until resolved.
5. They then verify it works with you. And read the closing from the
screen.
6. The CBR then records that fix, and based on your call: and others
around that that fix had a better 1st time fix rate.... however... this
information can be skewed!!! and this is funny!

I was asked to beta test and help uptrain people on this new ?CBR system
at AOL. 1st week when testing, worked like junk... but then eventually
after we had powers to correct the answers, worked fine. Always coming
up with the proper answer.

Well first week out to the other techs, we noticed the same thing...
Many people couldn't get it to work well, and always end up with the
wrong answer. After the week, everyone mentioned it worked fine. See
this is the deal, it was suppoed to learn "human speak" and relay it
back to what the customer was saying.... however it wasn't learning
human speak... but EVERY HUMAN'S TYPE WRITING SKILLS AND SENTENCE
WRITING BEHAVIOR WHO WAS A TECH ON THE FLOOR!!! 

One day someone who worked for a looong time in tech support and the
industry... His name was John . He worked with Big Blue working on Vacum
tube ram that took an entire room.... anywho..... 

He shouts out across the floor "Hey guys! I type in this DB here .. My
brain Hurts... and it came up and responded ... So you cannot connect to
America Online, is that correct?!"

Everyone stated laughing... then months later they started hiring Sears
Catalog Employees to handle tech... then shortened training, from 3
weeks, to 4 days..... The end.... Other companies did the same, then
moved across over seas... moral of the story... the person on the other
end doesn't have to know tech. They just have to know how to type in
like a dead zombie what you say. The only reason they exist is because
based on data, people would like to talk to a real human voice... if
they could... and I know it's been tested in my days at AOL... all
voiced bots to manage customers..

So dell train.. nah... maybe they will demo the operating system for
them, but they just have to read the screen.... :)


On Wed, 2007-05-02 at 11:00 -0400, Mike Simmons wrote:
> I think also depends on how they intend to market them and Dell's
> intent.  IMO Dell is making this move not to lose sales from the geeks
> like us.
> 
> I can't imagine them mass marketing this to Mom and Pop...I hope I am
> wrong. 
> 
> Another key will be the level of support they provide.  I would be
> curious to know if Dell plans on training existing call centers on how
> to troubleshoot Linux/Ubuntu or if they plan on bring some people in
> from the outside. 
> 
> Mike Simmons
> 
>