Simple Economics for Blizzard

#0 - June 20, 2010, 8:50 p.m.

I'm pretty sure that at least 75% of the Blizzard gaming community (SC and DBII included) have had the same problem.

"All of our representatives are busy. Average wait time is (begin hyperbole) 3 weeks (end hyperbole)."

There 2 different causes of this problem, or some combination of the two.

Cause 1: There are not enough employees available to handle the workload.
Solution: Hire more employees. I'm not sure what the Blizzard finances are like, but there are plenty of unemployed people that would be more than willing to handle phonecalls. This is also easy to outsource to other countries to save labor costs. Chose your own morals, but those are two simple fixes.

Cause 2: There are too many users calling in.
Solution: Edit the game and the online mechanics to be more user-friendly. Provide more self-service options so that we don't have to go to a GM or a phone operator everytime we need something. Yes, there are plenty of idiots that play this game that may over look simple functions, but those errors should be easily handled in a short phone call.

Aredek

#3 - June 20, 2010, 10:11 p.m.

I made a post a couple months ago that touches on these very issues, Stylth. I encourage you to take a look:

Q u o t e:
We have more Game Masters now than we've ever had before. We also assist with more issues than we ever have, and have more petitions submitted as a result. That being said, we're constantly looking to bring fresh faces onto the Game Master staff and will continue to do so in an attempt to provide you all with the epic customer service you would expect to be provided with a Blizzard product.

In addition to hiring new Game Masters, we're also looking for ways to reduce the need for you to spend your time contacting a Game Master rather than taking advantage of an in-game system or something similar. If you have any specific ideas on how we can quell the need for you to open an in-game petition, please be sure to let us know by posting your ideas on the Suggestions Forum!

Thank you for your patience, everyone. We truly look forward to assisting you as quickly as possible.

While this post was made in regards to Game Masters, it applies to our entire customer service department. I realize that it may seem like an easy issue to resolve, but both of these "solutions" require a lot of time. There are a number of logistical hurdles that we must overcome, but rest assured we're doing everything we can to improve the quality of service we provide.

I greatly appreciate your post and hope you begin to notice improvements in our service level. Thank you for your patience despite the extended wait times!