Improve Support Process (esp. Information Flow)

[allskillz]

Hello All,

before posting my idea, I would like to first walk you through the process I experienced today which leads to my ideas.

Just to be sure: I love Spotify, been with you forever. Never considered leaving. But: I know you can do better.

Today, I opened a support chat about my missing Spotify Lyrics feature which was rolled out last year. I can't use the feature, even after reloading the app and updating everything sensible one can think of regarding this issue. My phone, operating system version and Spotify app version should easily execute the feature.

The friendly lady who helped me told me the following (the conversation was in German so a direct quote isn't possible, but here's my whack at a translation): "I have reported your issue. You should be able to use the feature in 5-7 working days again".

At first, I was satisfied. Then, I thought about it. Not about the 5-7 working days needed to solve this issue (I really don't understand why it takes that long and it's quite frustrating, but that's not the purpose of this post), but rather about questions like:
- How do I know exactly WHEN it will work again? Example: When does the support worker hit the "implement" button and expects it to work? Otherwise I'll be senselessly refreshing the app and be stuck in limbo without any info.
- Do I get an e-mail that a service ticket was opened? (I'd like to track the progress and refer to my issue in case I have further questions and/or my issue doesn't get resolved)?
- Do I get a transaction number / issue tracking number? 

I asked the "e-mail" question. Answer: Nope.

After denying, she told me to "be sure to re-install the app and restart your phone". That's annoying because then I have to re-download my whole library. I still did, though, I wanted to give the support system the benefit of the doubt.  I gave her a short info that her recommendation didn't help, I still can't use the lyrics, just as a 'by the way' info for her. She then told me, "you should do that shortly before the 5-7 working days. Not necessarily before". Imagine my frustration. 

I then asked the "issue tracking number" question. After several other answers, I got a number. At least that. Though I have reason do doubt that number will help in any way. Read on.

She continued to tell me that I don't get any more info. I told her how I feel left in the dark. To no avail. I'll save you the rest of the frustrating conversation. Except this question I asked:

"What happens if the issue isn't fixed after 7 days and the Lyrics don't work?"

She replied, "Gladly contact us again". 
I asked, "How will you know I already had the issue? Or will you simply tell me to wait 5-7 working days again and to restart my phone and re-load the Spotify app?". She couldn't really answer that to my satisfaction.

Do I have to explain how utterly disappointing this experience was? I love Spotify, been with you forever. Never considered leaving. I know you can do better.

Long story short, here are my concrete improvement ideas:

- Please send a support e-mail for EVERY issue which gets opened including an issue tracking number EVERY time

- Please send updates about the status. In a proactive manner, please. 

- Please improve the information flow for your support workers. 

- Please improve the information flow to your customer (us).

- Please update your general support system to enable these wishes (I know it's probably quite a huge fix. Don't you think it's more consumer-friendly?)

- Perhaps my ideas are outdated and there's a better way to achieve all of this, I'm open to it, the current user experience in support according to my experience is not good

If need be, I can be contacted to screenshots of the convo and/or further information.  

Thanks for reading, understanding and considering!

Best,

Danko 

[Ver]

Hey @allskillz,

Thanks for posting here in the Community.

We went ahead and passed your concerns on to the right team.

The Community is here for you if there's anything else!

[Ver]

Hi @allskillz,

we've heard back from our CS team and they want to say sorry they weren't able to help more.

Unfortunately, there's currently no way to follow up on these requests, due to how the system responsible for the lyrics display works. CS actually doesn't have visibility when it has refreshed the lyrics feature on a given account. Otherwise, they'd love to offer a follow up. This can be seen more as a quick fix, than a full on solution built from the ground up, to ensure the millions of users on Spotify can get lyrics as fast as possible if there's an issue with those in the first place. It's not ideal, usually it even gets lyrics running faster than the timeframe CS provides, but the buffer is there due to said lack of visibility.

In any case, the feature should just become available on the account and will become noticeable as promised and if there's an issue, getting back to CS will prompt getting teams to try and understand why it's not working. We hope you understand and that you'll soon be enjoying lyrics on all your devices.

Take care