World of Warcraft™

Have the hours of coverage by the CSRs changed? Usually you'd see Orlyia posting her little panda heart out during Oceanic primetime, but that seemed to stop a few months ago. Is this going to be a permanent thing?

Its just a little concerning for me because the mod squad don't seem to operate after hours either and if someone gets a bee in their bonnet... Well, I'm sure you've had to clean up enough messes in the morning to know how ugly that can get :-/

Of course, if this was something Orlyia wanted then I suppose I shouldn't complain since she's allowed to ask for shift changes. But it would be nice to see those of us on this side of the pond get a little more coverage since Billing isn't available during our primetime either. I'll send you Tim Tams and Minties if you'll think about it :)

Here are my concerns regarding the CSF (all times referenced are Pacific):

I've been posting and reading the Customer Service/Support Forums since their grand opening in April of 2006. Up until about 6 months ago, we have always had 24 hour coverage on at least 5 of 7 days (the remainder being Orlyia's days off). Prior to that scheduling, we had people like Pavonum who were in until 2 or 3am with an overlapping shift that picked up before he left.

From what I've seen lately, I believe Orlyia in on first shift (Pacific Time), and Vrak is later in the day.

As for weekend hours, I've seen Zenlyth pop in on occasion, but it seems to be more of a Monday-Friday job now.

To me, for reflecting the Support department that is open 24/7/365, this is unacceptable. Even Billing and Account Services/Technical Support is open on weekends. I don't feel, however, this is entirely the case. As I've been watching the forums, overnight coverage has been slashed entirely. The last post of the night is usually around 10pm or as late as 10:30 depending on when Vrakthris or Nevalistis finishes for the night, and I have no idea when posting starts in the morning if Orlyia isn't in because the blue posts start at different hours. Over the past 3 days, there has not been a blue post after 6:30pm which really scares me. Harlsoco has the last blue post on Friday at about 4:30pm, Saturday I don't remember who it was but it was about 4:45, and yesterday was Zenlyth last posting at 6:30pm.

Now, I'm not faulting anyone for being out sick, taking vacation time, or whatever. But the reason that coverage is provided that late is because players have questions that we, as regulars, do not have the tools to answer. As an example, last night someone was asking about how many Granted Levels he had left. He asked it around 8pm. Because nobody was in, he had to petition a Game Master in where the wait time was estimated at hours at best (thread was never updated). While a blue response is never guaranteed on the forums, those seem to almost always get picked up. They are and can be time sensitive if the player's RaF link is on the verge of expiring, which they may not be aware of because the Account Management screens don't reflect a down to the minute expiration date.

02/13/2012 09:38 AMPosted by Mourninglory

Nor does it get rid of the threads where all that's happening is trolling back and forth.

These forums have a very passionate community. Occasionally, they get so concerned with providing correct information that they might troll or get baited into trolling. The players that come here for assistance are far more likely to fall to those Code of Conduct violations. While the Support Forum Agents shouldn't have to babysit us, it's no secret that they have popped into a thread and requested one party to stand down when conversations become too heated or against CoC. Without that, fights can (and do) go on for hours overnights when nobody is in.

We were told that there was a shift in the team and everyone would be required to do a little behind the scenes work, which also concerns me. We've heard this several times before, and it's never changed the amount of presence we've seen on the forums. However, recently it seems that whatever their new responsibilities are takes them away from the forums. Auryk nearly disappeared completely, quite literally posting a day a month or so. When Khromuk was added to the team, he introduced himself in his introductory post as someone who does more work behind the scenes and we'd rarely see him.

Different CSF "leads" have lead differently. Vythe, the original manager when the forum went live, liked to participate with the community engaged with the us fairly regularly. The point where Vythe left is a little fuzzy, because the next manager who took on the Forum project never posted. We know nothing about them. However, during their tenure there were no visible changes on the forums, coverage, or services provided. All in all, no harm done.

Then we had Arrestide, who introduced himself as the lead of the Customer Care and Loyalty team. In his service, we started seeing polls asking us what the community wanted, better transparency on policies, and even Customer Service Q&A's with people such as policy makers and heads in support. That was incredibly awesome.

We now have Adam S/Ukiebe, according to the "Welcome to the Customer Support Forum!" sticky. As much as I hate to say it, in recent months the forum coverage has been slashed, additional duties added, no MVPs added to offset less blues, and there haven't been any policy clarifications posted in stickies like Arrestide used to do. Adam S has traditionally been a poster in the Technical Support forum, which makes me wonder why in the 5 and a half years the CSF has been around not once has it seemed like anyone was promoted from within to take over the team. I feel like those who would be best suited to help manage the forum is those who work closely with it.

As someone with prior management history and degrees in Business Management and Human Resource Management, anyone can learn to manage a team of people if they know what they're doing. However, the forums themselves are a unique platform with customer service because of the delicacy in which issues must be handled and how quickly they can be resolved. They're a huge face of how Blizzard Entertainment handles their playerbase's in-game concerns. Games like Star Wars: The Old Republic are getting terrible reviews on customer support right now, and that's part of poor in-game support as well as abysmal Support Forum response. Blizzard Entertainment is all about maintaining a standard of quality and showing off that polish to the players and the industry. The moves that the Support Forum has taken lately, I feel, are starting to show a little tarnish. The Support Forum Agents are part Customer Service, part Public Relations, and part Second Review. On more than one occasion, we've seen an Agent post that a GM miscommunicated or took improper actions. Upon submission of a second ticket, you'd be surprised at how many players come back much happier. Also, for every ticket that is opened about an issue, think about how many aren't opened because of going to Google and typing in their issue first? Things like Nevalistis's blog post on the Valentine's Day event and policy. Blue sticky posts on bugs and known issues, questions about the Annual Pass, or wanting clarification on how a service works (such as Character Transfers or Transmogrification).

I love the Customer Support Forum. I'm passionate about it and helping other players. I've been doing so for free, of my own volition, for almost 6 years. And in those 6 years, I have never felt more concerned for the way things are going than right now. We've seen a reduced presence during the day, no presence over night, and I'm concerned that the promises of more coverage and transparency from 2011 are not going to be coming in 2012. If anything, what we've seen demonstrated so far seems counter intuitive to those points.

These forums are important. Other companies in the industry have them, and those communities are almost entirely player-run. Blizzard Entertainment chose a different model: one where players can interact directly with Customer Support Agents and the community, with prolific employee posts, and much less of a gag order than your standard GM without Public Relations experience could manage. It's a fantastic, player-centric model. When the CSF was created, we asked how employees were selected to work on the forum team. Vythe explained to us that these employees are quality; some of the best in support. That's why they were chosen to run the forums. I implore whoever reads this, keep the quality and standards of the Customer Support Forum. I've never met people so passionate about providing help to other players, both within and outside of the company. The players in the community I've met here are some of the best, willing to give up their free time to learn and help other players. Please continue to provide us with the support that we've had for years to help us better assist each other.