^

Recently, an independent consulting firm called Etruvian Consulting conducted a benchmark of online poker sites' customer support. The testing company used a "mystery shopper" approach, asking the sites' customer support various questions and grading the responses on categories equivalent to response time, product knowledge, and friendliness.

When the numbers were tallied up, PokerStars won. We're always delighted to be recognized for our customer support (it is a core component to our business) but frankly, nobody this is surprised.

Since the beginning, the bosses here have emphasized the things that actually define the client experience. Of course, the original thing about customer support for a web based company is that that's the place where our customers are in all probability to come across PokerStars people. I mean, we adore meeting you at places comparable to the VIP Club Live and the PCA, however the huge majority of you'll meet us only while you email support@pokerstars.com.

In short, our customer support individuals are the human face of PokerStars.

Read that again: our customer support individuals are the human face of PokerStars. That makes it difficult to over-emphasize the significance of excellent customer service, and we've taken that time to heart for the reason that beginning.

I can remember sitting in on CSR ("CUSTOMER SUPPORT Representative") training back in 2003. Having had years within the computer business (both as an employee and a customer), I USED TO BE all too aware of the minimal training many customer support reps got. But I saw that PokerStars was facing an intense and very selective hiring process. The folk that we do hire, we treat extremely well and we train the living daylights out of them.

Why wouldn't we? To practically every body of our customers, these individuals are PokerStars.

This is exemplified by folks akin to Eva and Ana, whom I met back in 2003 or 2004. They're now senior members of the client service team and what they do not know about taking good care of our players really isn't worth learning.

Or Shahnaz, who's a senior manager within the customer support organization. She is a no-nonsense woman whose eyes flash dangerous when she senses that her team (and by extension, her players) don't seem to be getting what they want. One can find the girl herself speak about working at PokerStars on this video.

The excellent news is that the buyer service team just about gets what they need, once they need it. There's a cultural understanding at PokerStars that customer support is crucially important; nobody gets indignant once we bend things of their direction.

Furthermore, this carries right to the players. I DO NOT know if I've ever heard it officially said this way, however the general idea is "SEARCH FOR how to say 'Yes'." Give them the best information as quickly as you'll be able to; if they're inquiring for something, see if there is a solution to give it to them. We cannot always say "Yes," but it is not for a scarcity of trying.

If you concentrate on it, it isn't that complicated. Those people who work at PokerStars are consumers too. As individuals, we maintain customer support organizations always (a few of that point as players at online poker sites as opposed to PokerStars). On some level, we're always comparing ourselves to the service we get elsewhere. We ask, "If I were the individual approaching PokerStars with this issue or question, how would i would like to be treated?"

Once you begin asking of yourself those questions, working out learn how to provide good customer support becomes so much easier.

Obviously we're delighted that Etruvian ranked us highest a number of the poker sites it benchmarked. However the fact is that we hold ourselves to a fair higher standard than "Better than the sphere;" our standard is nice" enough for us and adequate for our players." That standard, embodied by people similar to Shahnaz, Ana, and Eva ensures that customer support is still a shining jewel within the PokerStars crown.

***

Lee Jones have been desirous about the pro poker world for greater than 25 years. You'll be able to read his occasional Twitter-bites at @leehjones.

Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: Corporate Blog]