Google: We Can't Have Customer Service Because...

Aug 24, 2011 - 9:19 am 139 by
Filed Under Misc Google

Google Webmaster Help Groups TeamGoogler, DeWitt Clinton, shared his "thought of the day" on why Google can't technically do customer support.

He shared it on Google + saying:

If you have a billion users, and a mere 0.1% of them have an issue that requires support on a given day (an average of one support issue per person every three years), and each issue takes 10 minutes on average for a human to personally resolve, then you'd spend 19 person-years handling support issues every day.

If each support person works an eight-hour shift each day then you'd need 20,833 support people on permanent staff just to keep up.

That, folks, is internet scale.

Now, of course, many people are thinking for a company that has more cash on hand than most governments in the world, what is the big deal with hiring a few more people.

But truth be told, Google has tons of Googlers who are out there just to help others. They can't do phone calls but they are in the support forums, they do spend time on blogs, they do go to social media sites and they do respond to emails when possible.

Here is a picture of some of those Googlers from 2008:

Google Webmaster Help Groups Team

Anyway, if you want to rant about it, the Google + post is public for all to chime into.

Forum discussion at Google +.

 

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