IB Customer Service is Poor
- Thread starter stockgirl
- Start date
That's another thing (except for having to wade through some trash to sometimes see the answer), I'm grateful for the IB support that we get here, but why is the support here better and faster than IB's own forum? It should not be that way. I think it's because Elite Trader uses better forum software with more user-friendly features. IB needs to change its bulletin board software to VBulletin, Invisionboard, or something better than what it now utilizes. There are oftentimes when a company forum, for customers only, is better.
Quote from kiwi_trader:
LOL. You can't even get this right.
First, I don't keep complaining about "IB adding charting features that bloat TWS."
Next, I love to hear about peoples complaints. You really have to be a 1 in 100 special case to invite my scorn - congratuations
The reason IB have responded on data quality is that they recognize useful suggestions (and its not clear to me that I really lead to that, they might well have been going to fix it anyway.) The reason their customer service people treated you like an idiot was .... .... well I don't want to say for risk of offending someone sensitive (lol).
IB's service, as pointed out above, is like Brown's service used to be - for experienced skilled traders who don't need lots of hand holding. Think about it
If you are willing to hear others' complaints, that's a good thing.
As to "IB not for hand-holding", I agree strongly. However are courtesy and hand-holding the same thing? No, I'm afraid.
What I'm saying is it is usually good to courteous to most customers (I use "most", not all. Sometimes some customers may be very irrational, shouting and insulting staff. It is porbably useless to be courteous to them. They won't appreciate it). And I don't think courtesy is something needed to be trained a lot (and incurring a lot of training costs). It is somewhat a personality.
By the way, to balance my post, I'm not saying all IB staff are rude. Some of them are nice.
Quote from ddunbar:
First, did you laugh when you read my post? At least smile?
Ok, oK. To your question above.
The answer is yes! LOL. No I'm serious. Yes.
What if you didn't want a certain type of customer?
Example:
I went to this posh club in NY once. At the door, the bouncer (6'5 275lbs) put his hand on my chest perventing me from entering. All he said was "no jeans" in a monotone impersonal voice. He didn't even look me in the face when he said it. Never mind that they cost $400 a pair and I was wearing an Armani Jacket. Of course I was indignant afterwards. All embarrassed and what not.
But I was the type of clientele the club owners didn't want.
I never went back, but I never made the mistake of wearing jeans other than to bars.
So training them to be courteous (not saying that they are not mind you because I've had nothing but good experiences with IB cust in the courtesy dept.) wastes time. Being courteous to those who are wasting their time costs money. (not saying that you are but they might have interpreted you as being so for that particular instance.)
Nevermind the 80's axiom that the customer is always right. In trading, more often than not, the customer is always wrong. And he rarely takes responsibility for his actions or lack thereof.
Like Kiwi said (which I think I said first, neener neener neener) Brown co elitist attitude was a source of contention to those investors who lied on the app that they were experienced.
IB's slogan, "the professional's choice." Not that diff from Brown co's. Just less effrontery.
In my viewpoint, it doesn't need to cost much to be courteous or friendly to others. Take your case as an example, if the person had said "So sorry, but people wearing jeans could not get into the club", it would have been much better for both parties.
At least it can lower the chance for people getting pissed off and scold them.
What's more, how much does it cost to change your wording, and tune down your voice? Really nothing.
Saying "thank you" does not cost you tons of money.
Talking about doing business, if one is solely business- or money-wise, it may simply do the following:
- there's no point to treat every customer more or less equal.
- different levels of treatment should be applied to different classes of customers to maximise profits.
- If a customer trade at very low volume, it might waste their time to even support them or listen to their requests. They'd better allocate their time to their most wanted VIP.
- Every time these kinds of customers turn to customer service, an automatic reply will be received. "Please leave. We don't listen or support customers who trade at low volume"
The dollar earned / cost spent ratio is simply not high enough. One should focus its efforts on its most "dollar earned / cost spent" ratio.
By the same token, one should not spend efforts/money on low "dollar earned / cost spent ratio". Getting angry customers may not hurt one's business. As long as they are not so angry to leave you or reduce their trade volume here, you are fine. The "new feature poll" should not be cost-effective. It might be a loss on its own.
Evilly speaking, you may even try to use more dirty tricks and gimmicks in order to raise the revenue. It is evil, but it works if you know how to use wisely. You may not need to be liable to any criminal responsibilities. Sad but true. That's why there are still many con-man in the world.
But I don't think this is the way people should do business. After all we are not just pursuing money. We will not do something even if they can help me earn more money when it is against our social norms, morals, conducts, conscience etc.
After all, there should be a balance between money and other things.
Probably I sound like a preacher. Talking too much morals in the economic world.
PS: I am not saying you are always pursuing money (or agree others to be money slaves). There is no such implication.
Not most, man.
Eg: one question about Lloyd's Insurance
Also sometimes it is good to hear more recent responses (eg stability problems at earlier times may have been fixed now).
solving your issues with that kind of attitude. If you want someone to "WORK FOR YOU", then sign up with a full service broker on call 24 hours per day (and get dinged $100/trade).
If you're not happy, then exercise your right as a consumer and take your business elsewhere. :eek:
...and don't bother with a response to this string, Ms Grumpy.
If you're not happy, then exercise your right as a consumer and take your business elsewhere. :eek:
...and don't bother with a response to this string, Ms Grumpy.
Customer Service is the environment for which the expression "you can't please all the people all the time" was probably coined. IB's customer service is NOT perfect. But it's imperfection is not related to the fact that we don't spend time and $$ on it. Consider the following:
- the quantity of data each CSR must know is HUGE. We are not running a Sears appliance support where there may be 20 questions covering 99% of the inquiries. No other broker anywhere has the diversity we offer and must support. Our website, which has as much info as we can get out, itself only covers a fraction of the inquiries we get on a daily basis. Imagine you had to know everything about: 6 asset classes, 57 different exchanges in 14 countries, thousands of different products, 25+ order types, risk management, margin rules, SMA, all our account types, security issues, liquidation systems and practices, market data issues, all the functionality of the TWS, etc. And I haven't even touched on the banking items like ACATS, ATON, ACH, etc or the thousands of variations on trade problems. The fact is not all of our CSRs are equally expert on all topics. We are still working on our inquiry routing systems which will optimize the pairing of the topic with the CSR who is both available and most knowledgeable on that topic.
- Traders want answers NOW, not in 15 minutes. sometimes a CSR who is 90% confident of his answer will give it because the delay to get that certainty up to 99.9% is unsatisfying to our clients. We try to give the best answers as fast as possible but how long are you willing to wait to get a more perfect one?
- Inquiry volume is not smooth. When something goes wrong, 10'000 people call all at the same time and 9900 of them will be upset because they have to wait. Then it will be quiet and we get to the answers in seconds. Suggestion: if the issue is not urgent, time your call to midday (1100-1400) in the time zone of the market you are trading, or IB desk you are calling.
- Suggestion: don't send email. Aside from the fact that it is being desupported in a few weeks, it is the lowest priority for us. Use the web ticket system. I hear some complaints in this thread about these 'disappearing'. Look on the 'Inactive' tab. Try logging in to acct mgmt again. If there really is a problem, PM me because so far we have never seen a case of true disappearance. BTW, the web ticket system is the only system we are investing effort in.
- We have suggestions on how to contact us for various topics. http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/contact/bestService.php
- Courtesy: Used to be a big problem. I think it has improved dramatically. People here agree, others don't. Let's not mix up being direct with being courteous. I have set the policy for CS to talk straight, directly and to the point. Answer the question and try to make yourself available for other clients. We get clients who want to meander through the service interaction like a Sunday walk, pleasant but without direction or purpose. IB does not support this, sorry. But let's be clear: I have zero tolerance for rudeness; efficiency and rudeness are not related.
- Feedback: at the end of every Web ticket or chat interaction, clients are given the opportunity to rate the service experience. We are sending emails asking clients to rate specific recent service experiences. DO IT! Whether it was great, middling, or poor, tell us. That is the best way to improve things. Griping here on E-T will change little. Rating us from an emotional position is also not so useful. If it took too long but the answer was appropriate, make sure to distinguish what was good and bad. Rate us, good and bad. Then come back to this thread in 1-2 months here and see the reaction.
* go first to our website for answers (the search is easy to use)
* check your own understanding of issues. Make sure you have all the facts and are prepared to be accurate with them and specific.
* THEN call/write us.
LASTLY, We are open to suggestions. If you have ideas or suggestions about our service channels (web-ticket, chat, or phone), you can email me via E-T or even add them to the IB suggestion system on our web site.
AND RATE US via the feedback systems.
IBJ
I am in charge of Client Operations for IB. Our entire business model is self-help, targeted to people who know are independent in both their trading and their support needs as much as possible:
* go first to our website for answers (the search is easy to use)
* check your own understanding of issues. Make sure you have all the facts and are prepared to be accurate with them and specific.
* THEN call/write us.
well there you go, guess you better have your act together before you wake the staff at IB.
* go first to our website for answers (the search is easy to use)
* check your own understanding of issues. Make sure you have all the facts and are prepared to be accurate with them and specific.
* THEN call/write us.
well there you go, guess you better have your act together before you wake the staff at IB.
Excellent.
Guys, use the webtickets then IB can monitor, manage and improve it's performance and tell IBJ if you really have a problem.
Good to see the choice to make customer service "talk straight, directly and to the point." I was once involved in research on this for a Telco and there were two major groups of customers on this axis: retail customers who wanted a warm friendly slightly slower experience and business customers who want it straight, business like and quick.
Come on traders. Which are you: running a business or hobbyists who need the warm retail experience?
(hint: if you want a warm cuddly full service environment then find a broker who wants $30 a round turn and will give you that experience)
Quote from Trader_Herry:
In my viewpoint, it doesn't need to cost much to be courteous or friendly to others. Take your case as an example, if the person had said "So sorry, but people wearing jeans could not get into the club", it would have been much better for both parties.
At least it can lower the chance for people getting pissed off and scold them.
What's more, how much does it cost to change your wording, and tune down your voice? Really nothing.
Saying "thank you" does not cost you tons of money.
Talking about doing business, if one is solely business- or money-wise, it may simply do the following:
- there's no point to treat every customer more or less equal.
- different levels of treatment should be applied to different classes of customers to maximise profits.
- If a customer trade at very low volume, it might waste their time to even support them or listen to their requests. They'd better allocate their time to their most wanted VIP.
- Every time these kinds of customers turn to customer service, an automatic reply will be received. "Please leave. We don't listen or support customers who trade at low volume"
The dollar earned / cost spent ratio is simply not high enough. One should focus its efforts on its most "dollar earned / cost spent" ratio.
By the same token, one should not spend efforts/money on low "dollar earned / cost spent ratio". Getting angry customers may not hurt one's business. As long as they are not so angry to leave you or reduce their trade volume here, you are fine. The "new feature poll" should not be cost-effective. It might be a loss on its own.
Evilly speaking, you may even try to use more dirty tricks and gimmicks in order to raise the revenue. It is evil, but it works if you know how to use wisely. You may not need to be liable to any criminal responsibilities. Sad but true. That's why there are still many con-man in the world.
But I don't think this is the way people should do business. After all we are not just pursuing money. We will not do something even if they can help me earn more money when it is against our social norms, morals, conducts, conscience etc.
After all, there should be a balance between money and other things.
Probably I sound like a preacher. Talking too much morals in the economic world.
PS: I am not saying you are always pursuing money (or agree others to be money slaves). There is no such implication.
Yep. I agree with your post. (But again, I've had nothing but good experiences with IB customer service. That's not to say that some may have had bad experiences.)
Though IBJ's post... the part about the Sunday walk thing... had me in stitches. LOL.