21:17 As someone who's worked in call centers for several years if you hear a agent breathing or can hear background noise, please advise them in a friendly way as generally we don't often have a way of telling if our mics or other hardware need to be adjusted. Call centers often use budget gear vs whats used in studios broadcast, so it makes things worse. Nothings worse than going through a whole call or even several and then being told about it, often breathing issues are just the mouth piece being too close so easy to fix by moving it away unless its a crappy af headset
The real paranoia is wondering just how long it's happened, too. Once you hear it once you're paranoid forever about it. Fortunately the one I'm at now has a way to review calls and I will sometimes to confirm details when I leave notation (medical, so we *have* to notate everything significant) but I also know a lot don't have that fortune, let alone the time to even look back at calls at some places.
@@CheeseManFuu if you can, try to do playback at the end of each shift. Your director has heard most of the calls of the day so they can find the funny ones and it makes for a good team building exercise. At least this way you can laugh about all the rude ass people telling you to unalive yourself.
When I worked at a call center, our software had a meter on screen so you get a direct 1:1 visual representation of what your voice sounds like. If you see it spike when you're exhaling, then adjust the mic until it isn't anymore. It was just convenient way to properly adjust your mic. Edit: Plus our mics had foam windscreens on them and I never heard my breath like that even when it was right under my nose.
I work for Dell and can tell you that "we can't be this bad the next time Linus makes a secret shopper video" was a point raised in at least one meeting
@@axef I've since quit the company, but I have fmcomplained internally about the same thing. The response that I got was "if you want to go to the limit, you should be buying Alienware"
@@nerd_mor funnily enough i did go alienware after my G5 proved to be a waste of money - apparently a 10900F with one exhaust fan and a casefan strapped to a heatsink posing as an aircooler is "the limit" for them? regardless thanks for the reply, i've started recommending everyone i know to avoid dell at all costs
I personally like that they did not try to close the deal on the phone. I often feel pressured when interacting with a sales person and kind of feel a bit obligated to make the transaction. I prefer to have a bit of time off the phone to think about everything and do the final step with a clear mind. I would feel more at ease buying a computer from those companies.
thats the point tho ...closing the sale isnt to benefit the customer its to benefit your business. edit : no its about who provides the best overall experience... customer service is just one component (important component ) hence why linus was calling them out for their business model. to play devils advocate what if customer cant find the agreed product and isnt competent in navigating their website ..could end up with the wrong product or nothing altogether.
Yeah totally I'm glad it's shifted away from closing the deal. As a business person Linus wants those sales hence his line for closing the deal, as a Customer most of us want to do things at our own time without pressures.
@@DeterminedFC probably from the wrong field, but as a PC Tech consumer/buyer and retail worker - the best costumer for business isn't the one that buys one thing, its the one that feels non-pressured and supported and comes back multiple times. I have several stores I avoid like the plauge despite their deals, and I have multiple costumers that daily my store despite the occasional mishap and price differencal.
That HP rep was genuinely over the moon happy to not have another demanding jerk on the line. I don't even think the discount she offered is something they'd offer to anyone, Shea just made her day and it was a beautiful human interaction.
You end up getting a lot of these kinda things if you're friendly to sales reps online and foster a semi-personal (brief, obviously) connection. Being receptive, etc.
It's crazy how much better all these companies have gotten. The difference between Secret Shopper 1 and 2 and this one is massive. I hope you guys continue this series and continues to raise the bar
@@kaisersoymilk6912 Considering many of these companies have *dedicated* departments for sales service, including calls, you'd be ignorant to think not many people do-maybe not a large percentage of the whole population, but certainly enough individuals to justify these departments existing.
@@kaisersoymilk6912 Who teaches all of their customer service staff to look out for a slightly suspicious customer who could be from Secret Shopper, especially when the last episode was 2 years ago? That's completely unreasonable and unrealistic.
@ the HP rep, having worked in a technical support call center basically, I would also thank this customer for being kind. Y’all would be shocked how literally NO ONE is this kind.
Had to ring the UK Ankle Monitor Tracking Centre on behalf of a friend as he lost his charger. When I said “thank you have a goodnight” she started stammering like she was in shock and was really happy with her response. It must be hard to deal with people all day
Technical support call center is the worst you can imagine. The product is bad, you are at fault and the costumer/caller is the victim and did nothing wrong.
Sadly that's what 1st level support is all about. People don't call because they are happy, they call because the are pissed and you happen to be the face or rather voice of the thing that pisses 'em off. Also doesn't help that half of the script you have to work from is less than calming to even the kindest person.
The interpersonal skills and customer service instincts from that HP rep are some of the best I've seen in this series. She's so sincere and a pleasure to talk to. It's a shame that HP is doing such a disservice to her in terms of training about the technical aspect. Hope she can eventually land somewhere that better leverages her talents!
@@HackAcadmey my original comment meaning the girl in this case was likely filipino, indonesian accent is very telling but so is filipino + attitude in this case especially
Regarding "Closing the deal", I think this comes down to the vibe the customer gives the rep as well. I think that subtle hints can influence whether or not they will stay on line with the customer and Notalie often ended the call in a way that suggested she wants to do the checkout on her own, so the reps did that. I don't think they did anything wrong by not staying on the line and making sure the deal is closed.
Maybe they edited it out, but even if she indicates she can check out online, it seems a little odd not to offer, "Would you like me to complete the transaction for you as long as we're talking? I have the model we discussed ready to check out."
As someone that has worked in a call center selling computers, you need to close it on the call. You don't have to be pushy about it, it can be as simple as saying, "I am happy to wait on the line as you checkout in case any problems or questions come up". If they leave without buying there is a 50% chance that that person gets distracted and moves on to something else.
@@kuebby As far as the customer support rep completing the transaction on their end, there are many companies that have moved away from that due to liability. At my employer (which is a fairly large retail clothing company) we aren't even able to key in card numbers if we wanted to because the company decided the risk of employees stealing information was more dangerous than the risk of pissing off the occasional rare customer that wants to buy something over the phone.
I could imagine if the sales reps are told to close the deal, that would lead to a "sold the most computers" metric that promotes internal competition for selling the most, which would be to the detriment of the customer.
@@DedmenMiller Companies can't stay in business or offer support if they aren't selling, so it is a pretty important step to close. And just like any job there will be people that are good at it and people that are bad. So you are going to have customer complaints regardless. I wouldn't focus on NOT selling, I would focus on training and/or removing people that are good in that role. A support rep may have no sales duties but you can sure as hell find people complaining about the support they get. I don't think the customer satisfaction argument holds any water, personally.
In my experience, customers hate when businesses close the deal like he suggested. People feel as though they're being rushed which brings feelings of being taken advantage of and only cared about for a commission. Personally I think a lot of the reps did really well in that manner.
yep linus moved from customer experience to business man real quick on that one. hes a bit out of touch. if any of them tried to close the sale with me on the phone id hang up on them and then shop a different brand.
AGREED! I don't want to be told or persuaded what to do. In a customer service agent, I want answers to my questions and someone to help me with the transaction if I ask for it. No pressure for me = way better chance of a sale.
I absolutely agree. Closing the deal is usually a bad move for the reason you mentioned. I was about to write the comment myself, and found you already took the letters out of my keyboard.
I think you may be making an assumption about what “closing the deal” means. It does not mean forcing the customer to only order with you over the phone, nor does it mean being pushy in any way. It could be as simple as saying “I’d be happy to help you place that order if it’s convenient for you.” I can pretty much guarantee you wouldn’t “hang up on and shop somewhere else” if someone offered to go through checkout with you after you just spent 20 minutes picking out a computer with them.
When they say “you’re the nicest person to call today” and is grateful for that call…. It just kinda hits you that they’re just a regular person going about the grind 😭 I hope that lady will have a great year tbh.
I felt like Shea implied she did not want them on the phone with her while she did the credit card stuff to "close the deal", and that's why they didn't try to keep her on the phone. I think it's good that they respected that.
I actually like that they weren't pressuring to close the deal. Obviously from a business standpoint you might want to get a for sure sale, but the fact they let their products stand on their own and just let the customer make their own decision was nice to see. I've dealt with pushy sales people and it immediately turned me off from their product. I'm on the phone with you right now, but maybe I want to think about it for a bit before I drop $1500.
@@HangryOneya I don't really know how more "closed" of a deal linus expected them to get after it was clearly stated ok now I'm just going to fill out my purchase info.
@@HazmatGamer9842Yeah that's exactly what I was thinking. Definitely sounds like they don't get commission on sales/have any quota n thus aren't incentivized to really make sure they "seal the deal"- presumably just get paid by the hour to help assist people with anything support related. If that's actually not the case for any of these tho then that would make the customer support even more impressive/surprising!
@@brandobond Doubtful, most of these companys are prioritizing customer support and satisfaction alot more after LTT and other Tech influencers have been doing these secret shoppers, getting a bad one of these can be extroninarily damaging to sales, the loss on some discounts is literally nothing in comparsion too the damage Linus alone can do to their sales if he shows millions of people a poor customer experience.
@@ihateeveryone8161, I do worry about her job a little bit because it probably was against policy. But I agree that it would look very bad for them if they fired her and she put this out on social media, so it's probably not worth it. And I suspect you're correct, because the people watching LTT are very likely to give recommendations to their friends on where to buy their next gaming computer.
HP’s rep was sooo cute. She seems like a really nice person. The starforge email is amazing. Damm, this time customer sales has improved a lot, wow. Nice job guys.
I have got to say, Dell has came a LONG way, and I am sure the HP lady used whatever discretionary savings she can give for Shea for having such an awesome personality.
Yep, either some employee/friend pricing or more likely a weekly/daily~ish discount they are allotted- USUALLY those discounts would be used to upsale and convince a customer to buy something more expensive and seal the deal but this was AFTER the sale, that's just amazing, and will make a customer always remember that and WANT to come back to HP next time. Instead of a greed-driven tactic from corporate, this spread some much needed humanity :) (And I hope that HP realizes the long-term benefit and encourages this use of it!)
@@VM-lt9wl, yeah, 100% used her friends and family discount. It always pays to be nice to customer service staff. I really hope she doesn't get in trouble for this...
I love how the reps have different problems this time around! Compared to the up-charges in past Secret Shopper rounds, "Close the sale!" is a good problem to have.
As someone who was a rep of HP (but on printers), I do agree that she needs more internal resources. The reference that we have are the same as the customer's, and the training that we receive is lacking. When it comes to getting help from others, it's a hit or miss. Kudos to the HP rep for helping Shea out on what computer she really needs despite of lacking resources. And just like last time, they reached a Filipino/a rep. Mabuhay, Philippines!
you should do a whale secret shopper, buying at like $4k and seeing what all they try to upgrade, seeing if the upgrades are actually best for the user or if they’re just taking advantage of the higher budget and pushing upgrades with bigger margins
I'd like to see other secret shopper series, for TVs (which would be an in person thing), for lower end solutions too - how often will someone push a person to a Chromebook when they need a Windows system, or push them into a slightly more expensive but not proportionally better system?
Lol at that point I would want her to just say UNLIMITED budget but say she just wants to play the same games and see if they try to make her buy a ridiculous PC.
Dell actually didn't mess up yet this time. Origin is the new Dell. HP girl is about to get poached by a therapy practice. NZXT guy is about to get a promotion. Starforge email goes crazy. This is gonna be an interesting series
In fairness to Origin, their stuff isn't cheap, but they definitely could have worded that a lot better 😅 At least they didn't constantly pressure the customer for a warranty, and then just add it on anyways.
@@Lizlodude True I'm just saying that because they didn't do to well on the first round the last times either. Now if they manage that warranty situation HO...LYY
@@Lizlodude could have also discussed increasing the budget and guiding her better to those cheapest options and making the case for them. Not too pushy, but at least helpful.
@@thekwoka4707IMO it would have been better to explain that Origin is a boutique PC builder and that their offerings don't make much sense within those budget constraints. Then, the customer could have been directed towards Corsair PCs, given that they own Origin. Financing could have also been suggested, given that it's an option on their website. The Origin rep's explanation was poor (just like Shea/Natalie, lol) and rather unhelpful. Whether it's on the rep or on the business, it's not a good showing.
A little surprised that Origin didn't at least mention about the financing options as an possible way to consider to help with the budget. A horrible flash back from when I worked in sales was to always ensure the customer was aware of montly payment options as a way to try to get their budget up a little more to something suitable for thier needs
I can understand why they don't close the deals on the phone actually. Many people today are worried about sharing card information over the phone, it's a lot safer to say "We never take card payments over the phone" to avoid scams. Additionally, it ensures that the customer is satisfied that they are seeing the same deals as everyone else and aren't being ripped off with an over the phone price. I can see a flipside here, whereby customer service says "If you wanted to go ahead and purchase now, I can offer you an online voucher for X% off, or £30 of £300", to incentivise the purchase, that helps close a deal without the "over the phone" hassle.
Closing the deal doesn't necessarily have to mean asking for card information or offering discounts. Even though she said she was already on the site and ready to check out on her own, a simple "I can stay on the line and help you out in case you have any questions or face any trouble while checking out", or even a question like "would you like me to hang around a bit to answer any follow up questions you might have?" go a long way in providing a good sales experience to the customer while also doing good for the business. Both Dell and HP did a decent enough job here.
@MarkElf2204 Good point! But if i was working there, i would probably ask the same thing, Cause if the customer wants 4K gaming, then i would suggest systems with a high-end gpu, same as 1080P. Overall, you gotta learn the customer, And it's definitely hard
@@MarkElf2204 That's not true. Marketing has passed 1080p years ago. There's more computer noobs with 4K or QHD screens I know than tech savy people with them. They just buy a monitor that gets a lot of advertisement regardless of any specs.
@@WhirlwindHeatAndFlash That's outsourced call centers for you. "Nice," but otherwise useless because the CSRs are hamstrung by policy and disincentivized to go above and beyond protocol. The worst part is: this is _by design._
30:05 Actually, because she mentioned Minecraft, Minecraft (Edit: Java edition) specifically is limited by single thread CPU performance, so upgrading CPU to one with a higher clock speed is _exactly_ the right answer for her specific requirements 😊
Actually, I think nowadays, Minecraft is multi-threaded, but I could be wrong. With that said though, if you're gonna play older versions of Minecraft like 1.12.2, then yeah, it doesn't matter, you'll need high single-threaded performance.
@@arnox4554 Minecraft will definitely use more than one thread but on the client those are just for turning chunks into meshes for the GPU. If you're playing singleplayer it'll use threads for chunk generation too but most of your CPU work for a given tick happens on a single thread and you'll hit the limit of what that single thread can process well before you run out of cores for the side stuff so long as you have at least 4 cores.
that sounds nice. my friend said minecraft mostly relies on good ram. the more u got the more u can mod around. i had a rig with 4gb. and it kept crashing. until my friend slapped in 16gb. and suddenly no more crashes :D
@@ShallowThought it took me 1 month to learn the processes perfectly, but 8 months to finally be empathetic and sympathetic with the customer, because oooh boy, is it hard to stop being sarcastic.
Manipulative is a better word. I don’t get fooled by that talk. She is just in it for the money. I’ve had enough experience with gold diggers to know a leech when I hear one.
I'll be honest, Dell has surprisingly improved this time. I mean the bar was already on the floor, but kudos for not pushing to upsell financing plans or warranties like before.
@@GH0STST4RSCR34MWe still don't know if they still put 2 warranties on the product even though they said no, like last time. There's still time for them to fail hard.
Take it from me , someone who has been a salesperson for the last 6 years, cyberpower got it bang on , as it doesn't pressure the customer, and then causes possible complaints or returns . Especially when its over the phone sales. But again LTT group. Amazing work thank you (Btw I'm based in the UK ) 😅
I love that the industry seems to be listening to the feedback. I still remember the awesomeness of the good calls from the 90s and 2000s. Honestly, I went with Dell for a long time because I lucked into talking to a rep who was clearly an enthusiast and talked me through everything. These calls make a difference to noobs. I do think it's smart that they offer to complete an order while they have you as long as it's not high pressure. And I prefer that they are erring on the side of lower pressure.
i know multiple people that work at dell and own dell systems themselves (due to discounts) but you could not force me to ever own one myself. love their monitors, but their desktop pcs are an art in corner cutting. proprietary rubbish and poorly designed.
@@iris4547 I mean fair enough dell is shit but it's just completely useless point of mine was because I just wanted to see if it was ment to be a comment or a reply because a comment makes sense but a reply dont
@@teetehi He is very clearly replying to the specific topic of Dell's Alienware line of desktop PCs. It has the same effective phrasing as "Hey, I understand that you love Dell - I have many friends who own Dell desktops, and I too own Dell monitors. However, Dell's current market strategy is anti-consumer; with the Alienware line being laden with Proprietary and Cheap parts that leads to an insufficient customer experience." However, that would be a rather wordy comment, and his summary was concise enough to aptly send the point across. Your seeming inability to understand that is rather indicative of your own lacking intelligence, and not to that of Iris4547. Perhaps, you should graduate secondary school before making such a snide remark?
The HP rep really needs to have a great boss that realize and help her grow her potential. She is one of those people that can make anyone have a great day and she just needs to be put in a situation where she can keep that enthusiasm and also get the technical training and tools to complement it!
That HP employee is manipulative at best. I don’t have the time or patience to listen to golddiggers try to pry money from my wallet. Too many Broads do that these days.
@@GardenGuy1942oh you’re actually commenting that vitriol on multiple threads huh. Did you order a mail order bride and got scammed or is this regular ole racism?
@@miggywiggy Honestly i would be annoyed with that too. She clearly does not know what she is talking about but she is filling so much time with "sweet talk" but im not here for mental support, im here for actual advice.
I did my internship with Bosch in the UK, I did a stint in their tech support department. Part of that involved giving advice on what model of boiler is best for the customer. I never realised how good their training & support structure is until seeing you do secret shopper for PCs. Even as someone with no interest in boilers or heating I was able to get support and use their systems to give advice or get someone to call back if needed.
Yeah, quite easy. You need to know your product, and if you ain't self tought it is up for the guide to give the answers. I bet bosch had some quite good ones, have used their car diagnostics and that has been good times.
I think it's good that they're not closing the sales. For one it means they're not getting commissions to sell you overpriced junk, and also you don't have to dictate your payment info to someone you don't know through a phone. I'd much rather do my payments through a payment portal with TLS
I loaded up this video expecting some companies not learning from previous Secret Shopper episodes... I did not expect the mass chain of great customer support until the end. Awesome!
someone needs to find the hp rep lady and give her a bonus and more internal resources!! Its awesome to hear someone who really cares about not only helping but making sure you're happy all the way through!
32:51 I recall from previous secret shopper series that Linus did suggest taking the attitude of "you can't afford it"... Interesting to see his reaction after Origin actually took that advice.
I agree, i was thinking that too glad to see someone else point it out. I wish Linus had mentioned that, i think thats the best approach. Id much prefer to be politely told you dont have anything within my budget than to get something that sucks. Gives me the immediate option of continuing to save or go somewhere else.
Linus said on the WAN show that after the last secret shopper, several of the companies emailed him and said they had completely revamped the training of their support staff. If so, it's good to see that videos like this can actually improve things for other customers.
It seemed like they all did much better this time with how they talked to Shea. With Origin PC, I do have to give them credit for being honest and not wasting her time as Origin PC is one of the most expensive Pre Built companies and they pretty much only cater to the high to very high end market.
I would love to see a secret shopper where you approach the sales person with a more unique usecase, such as CAD modelling or video rendering, and seeing if reps are able to adapt or if they are just selling the gaming pc that most alligns with the given pricepoint
@@Thiscave37013 Its like driving a car, some people are great drivers but know nothing about engines. I work with CAE, lots of people that knows everything about our software but nothing about the hardware, "That is a problem for the IT people not us".
@@Thiscave37013There is a substantial number of people who are software literate but not hardware literate. Don't underestimate people who stay in their own lane.
I feel like this would be a weak point across the board. I work for an MSP and when our clients request systems for those uses they almost always either just email us a copy of the reccomended system requirements for the software they want to use, or they list the top 2 or 3 items from that same sheet. I can only imagine these sales lines get that same thing in most calls which means they can just use a filter on the webpage to find something that matches what the customer requested making it an easy point to skip training/resources.
I work in a similar customer care and I understand sometimes customers call us to help them buy a product or just search through the website. I literally spent an hour helping a guy get a gaming setup, from the chair, table to headset. And there was nothing extra for me. Instead I was actually called out by my manager for taking such a long call and not wrapping it up in under a few minutes.
HP has a great employee who just needs some training. She'd be every manager's dream if she had the technical knowledge support to go along with her approach.
Having been an IT guy to Filipino call centers before, the HP rep was probably from one. That kind of almost bubbly friendliness and rapport building (especially the chitchat when trying to buy time when she's looking stuff up) is usually what Filipino BPOs want out of their reps (execution may vary, though), and her accent also reminds me of the accents of a lot of people I know when speaking English.
Seeing as starforge is owned by streamers, and is almost completely advertised through their streams, it would make sense that any customer contacting them and mentions streaming to be a part of what kind of computer they need, for the sales dude to go "hey if you're serious about pursuing streaming you can get something that much better fits your needs for 300 more"
Rooting for HP support rep getting proper training and additional point for wholesomeness. UPDT: dudes from those companies - buy your staff headphones with feedback like Jabra, they clearly let you know if you blow into the mic
Yeah but jabra headsets also whine at you when you have this feature on. I already have tinnitus, I don’t need it whining in a slightly different frequency too.
yeah the guy blowing in the mic would if thats my call to support hang up... if u cant afford a decent mic for your workers. you know the tool that they mostly use. then i can already assume the service could be shit as well.
As someone who works in a call centre, I can feel the HP girl's pain when she said that Shea was the nicest customer of the day... Because usually customers are dry, direct and sometimes aggressive if you answer or talk in a way they don't like, getting these calls all day drives us crazy! So getting an understanding, calm and open to suggestions customer is a dream come true! She was a sweetheart even tho she lacks the knowledge about computers (and funny enough, the computer was a beast), and you could see that she was trying everything in her power to make Shea happy with that discount at the end, she was probably asking her supervisor or someone if she could do that, because i know i would do that! 😆
Really one of my favorites series of anything on YT. This edition seems amazing, Shea is perfect for the role! Episode 1 and we can already see how your videos must have made an impact on the user experience ordering from those companies.
I actually really like them not closing the sale on the call. Maybe I’m just an overly anxious person, but it always made me uncomfortable, because now my sale is being waited on, and ends the interaction in a more sour note (in my head at least).
totally agree. I prefer when the sale is made on the site, because I don't feel like the rep is just telling me whatever s/he needs to make their commission. The rep can just give me the best advice they're capable of, without feeling like I'm being milked.
Of course you do, because like me, you’re a consumer. We don’t want to be pressured into a sale. Linus is meant to be a consumer focused channel, so I don’t know why he’s advocating for them to close the sale on the phone, just because it’s a “good business decision”. He’s forgetting whose side he’s meant to be on here. laws, and regulations to protect us from these massive corporations.
I think in a situation where the customer didn't express a desire to sleep on it or explore other options, trying to close to sale on the call is probably good. If Shea had said "thanks, I'll look at that, I'm gonna think about it some" pressuring her past that point would have been scummy, but closing the deal when the customer seems to be going along with it is both 'good business sense' and also good support; sometimes people run into issues in the checkout process or have questions that come up right as they're about to click purchase. "oh, how will shipping work, I'm deployed overseas in the us military"/"oh, how do you handle warranty support"/"oh, I think I actually need more hard disk space" etc.
Right, but now what I'm going to do is not buy that computer until I open a bunch of other tabs and use it as comparison and try to find somebody else that has the same thing or something that looks closed for a cheaper price. You should probably not what you want me to do is business. You want me to buy you anything. She should make at least one attempts to get me to go ahead and close the sale and then back off if I object
NZXT guy recommending the CPU upgrade actually makes a lot of sense for Minecraft. Java Edition is extremely CPU-bound, especially with mods. Every little bit helps.
I honestly wasn't expecting this much improvement from Dell. Kudos to them. The HP rep was sweeter than candy and so many sounded great to talk to that I'm genuinely impressed. I know these are a lot of extra work. Thank you LTT crew!
dell and hp where i live are kinda shit. and looked at as a ''business boomer'' most people buy stuff from acer lenovo asus laptop wise. as u get way better for your buck laptop wise. as for cases. almost everyone buys custom builts i know cuz 2 of my friends work in the branch. and they say usually u can save a few hundred doing customs. recently had my own pc built for under 1500 ish. this is a beefy cpu. like 2nd or 3rd best. 3070rtx 144hz monitor. and i even had a little for a 60 euro mouse.
@@miciso666 You don't really buy from dell because you want to get a good deal, you buy from them because they can get you 200 office desktops the next day and if something is broken you will have a service technician on site the next day.
That HP rep is so likeable even if you're doubting about the deal you'd buy the computer simply because she's so nice. I'm also very excited about this specific secret shopper season, because the lmg labs can thoroughly test these systems
@@kqzo I thought the comments would all be talking about Monk. Man I did NOT expect that then I heard the first 2 seconds and saw his hair and smiled so much. I can't believe it
i love this series, i know you cant do it often but i cant wait for the next parts. Starforge offering the higher end isnt a bad thing, they are just saying “hey, if you stream you may wanna save up for this instead but heres also one in your current budget.”
I can see the feedback for the company's success of closing the detail businessman to businessman. As the customer, I don't like sales people and their willingness to leave me alone at the end makes me less likely to wonder if I was pressured into a poor choice once I hang up. I like them saying good bye when I sound like I have gotten what I wanted them to give me: advice/guidance.
Nearly nobody likes the hard sell, but not all closing has to be like a hard sell. My guess is they're trying to get off the line to move to the next call in the queue based on pressures from management. Ideally if they want to sustain the soft sell, they'd at least offer to stay on the line until their order on the site is complete.
I worked a short while for the tech retailer in my country that keeps winning some yearly "Best Customer Service" award. And the MO was always to TEACH the customer how to do things by themselves. How to use our website, our tools, how to make purchases, basically everything so they would feel like they'd never have to call again - because we've taught them something. So, "closing a deal" was never on the agenda. Only thing that mattered was that the customer felt well informed and well met. And I think that is a huge reason why this specific company is considered the go-to for anyone interested in tech. Be it a seasoned veteran or a complete newbie.
Yeah, when I worked technical support for telecom they really wanted us to teach the customer to never need assistance again. Some folks didn't like that - they wanted personalized care. I get that. But for sales especially, I want to be left alone. My assumption is always that whether the individual wants a commission or their company's training wants money, they are trying to pressure me out of losing more of it. Regardless of whether the product they sell me will better meet my needs, I do not have the money to best meet my needs; I want to be left alone to consider the needs of my wallet at the final hour, not just what I want from a product or service. @@tradingelk6914
Just a side note. As someone who worked in sales/retail for years when I was younger, she SCREAMS I AM A SECRET SHOPPER. She was great but too much sounding off a script.
Yes! Been waiting for this! I actually think it was smart of those companies that didn't push through the sale, most people are wary and turned off by forceful salespeople and scammers these days, what they are doing gives a much better feel to the transaction and makes them more likely to be recommended by word of mouth, which is the hardest and most important recommendation of all.
But the sale is already decided on and there is nothing to push. This wasn't a case of where she said she would think about it. A simple, "since we are on the phoen already, I can take your details and put the order through" can be quite helpful. It reduces teh actions required by the customer, especially with people not confident about what they are ordering to ensure they don't make any mistakes on the website (which is generally the type of people who would be phoning the sales line for this type of product). I can totally see peopel getting frustrated or nervous going thought those customizers to finalize the sale. And during that process they will likely get pushed more add-ons, so closing it on the phone is likely to be less pushy.
1) She made the customer happy. 2) If you were paying attention to the video, she actually gave her one of the ( if not THE ) best deals out of every rep they spoke to. 3) They clearly have a system in place so that she doesn't have to be intimately familiar with technology to give customers a good deal l. 4) See number 1. You're assertion that she did a "shit" job is just flat out false.
In fairness to Starforge, they made it clear in the email that the Ultra was a better choice IF she was serious about streaming. A user who plans to frequently do simultaneous gaming and streaming would probably do well saving a bit more for a few months to get the beefier one.
We all know someone who will buy a pre build. Dell and HP operate globally. NZXT does operate in Europe. We can share this video for those friends when the time comes.
Nah, I got old and ordered the custom one from internet. Don't have time to hassle with cables and maybe I could drop CPU and bend the pins. I used to do it myself in old days from AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1 GHz to AMD Barton 2500+ and so on. Later got lazier and simply bought laptop, and got AMD Deskmini recently from shop. And if my dad need new computer, I don't want fix it because I bought it for him. Warranty is actually quite cheap considering for the your time spending on it.
Working on sales, I understand the importance of closing the deal (without pushing too much). As a customer tho, I *really* like this kinda newer approach of "alright I gave you some advice, you can buy it (or not) later when you feel like it". 👍
Yea, it's much better in customer perspective since you can take your time to examine all the options. I tend to buy in shops that don't try too hard to close the deal.
What part of 'what model of video card do you want' as a fake non-answer to 'I want a basic gaming computer' do U find helpful? That's asking somebody what kind of screw they want at a hardware store when somebody says I need something to fit this but I don't know the size' = TOTALLY INCOMPETENT EMPLOYEES!!
@@Deathrape2001 What's the problem with that? what if they specifically need an AMD gpu or they already know what range of cards do they want? You can just say no instead of playing a guessing game over the phone what a customer means by "basic gaming computer". If a waiter asks if you're allergic to anything do you get offended by that because you assume that anyone with allergies would've already told them that?
My dad actually loves Dell's warranty. To their credit, the 2 times he's needed it so far he got on-site service within a day somewhere in rural central Europe. If you got the money and run a small business that needs a working PC with as few interruptions as possible, i can see someone choosing Dell specifically for their overpriced warranty.
to be fair, the dell warranties, at least the support they give businesses, is some of the best in the biz. i asked them to ship me parts like a battery and a back panel TO MY HOME and let me fix it MYSELF and they did it without much hassle.
Yeah, Dell warranty for business is great. I’ve consistently had issues with some of their XPS laptops at my job (I’m IT) and the fact they come to you to fix the problem within 2 business days is awesome. However, I’ve had enough of their shitboxes and all our laptop Windows PC’s (unless we need a ridiculously high-end one) will soon be running on either 13” or 16” Framework laptops.
@@matthewmspace it's nice that you're in a position to do so. for business fleet pc's i worry how well a modular pc is gonna hold up to "normie" things like drops. i also happen to be in IT (well, infosec) but i was blown away that while in this case, i was the normie end user, just by asking and telling them that yes I was confident in repairing the machine, they shipped parts to my home, NOT the business under warranty. think about that - most products have a warranty VOID sticker if the machine is even opened, let alone KNOWING i mucked around inside, and instead this company is trusting an end user with mucking around inside a machine and parts they might not be familiar with, and still keeping the laptop under warranty. i just want to drive home what a drastic departure that is from say, microsoft and an xbox.
I was a secret shopper for a gigantic hotel chain for 5 years. I've seen it all, heard every sales pitch and travelled the world for free. Best job I had in my early 20s. Some of the reps here did an amazing job! It was just being paid to be a travel blogger, write a couple of reports a week and staying in 5 star hotels all year. Occasionally you'd have to break character and make yourself known if there was anything illegal or completely out of line, though they are few and far between. I highly recommend it.
Holy crap man that's like the definition of a dream job! What people think of doing after retiring from a monotonous line of work is what you were doing for work already!
This is my 2nd favorite series behind scrapyard wars. It's pretty amazing to me how much it seems EVERYONE has improved. Like last time was constant face palms with warranty requests, this time was NONE of any of that nonsense. A bunch of nice people with much better scripts.
Monk was usually good as long as they didn't get extremely goofy. Marginally goofy was reasonable. Scary thing is, Monk became our avatar for 2020-2022.
Well I’m blowed, none of these made me angry! They’ve stepped up their game significantly since last time, and I think this series deserves its share of the credit, well done LTT!
what a fun video to watch! Shae did an AMAZING job. I am pleasantly supprised with most of the vendors. Nothing seamed to be a straight ripoff. The HP lady was very sweet but oh gosh she needs some training. My heart broke when she said that Shae was by far the nicest customer today. Can''t imagine how this poor girl gets treated if someone with at least some hardware knowledge talks to her.
Working in the BPO industry (call center basically) We receive a lot of people complaining about their purchase or the product, I could tell that she was working under a call center agency that HP has 'hired' (Im sorry, don't know the better term). and its really a breath of fresh air when a caller is polite and isn't another complaint ticket again. hahaha
@@xerxesYt123 the word you're looking for might be "outsourced". That's when a company sends a project or a specific job to a different more specialized company.
I've been waiting for 3 months for all 4 parts to release before watching any SS so I can binge them all in one go. The time has come, I'm SO glad I held off until now, so much content!
As a sales person I can say that saying anything about closing the deal comes off as pushy to customers, so I wouldn’t harp on that. It can be done but it’s usually most effective to make the customer feel like you’re giving them all the best option(s) and to decide for themselves before going to point of sale. Stopping them from buying online to take their credit card over the phone would be bad as would giving them instructions to complete their check out.. always let the customer decide to pull out the card. But then again, I live in a rural southern area.
nope youre totally right. instant loss of sale if they try to close on the phone. theres enough competition out there id move straight on to the next company.
I had a job in sales when I was a bit younger and I don't agree with this, it has to be done if you want to make it as a salesperson. That being said, it does require you to have some tact and going at it so directly usually has, like you stated, the opposite effect. If you have tact, it's fine. Over my years there, people that wouldn't push to close would usually leave after a month or two. It's also worth noting most companies have temp jobs with objectives, so if you don't sell, you get fired, you're pretty much forced to do it. This leads to high competition and fraud which was the reason I never touched sales again. Because others are doing it on the extreme those objectives are raised to unachievable levels if you do the job properly and have respect for the customers basically. The amount of bs I saw people doing and getting away with was insane and they justified it with "well if I don't do it I'll get fired". Things from making contracts in the name of dead people to making up information, to and most commonly call them from a personal phone to bs without being recorded. I'm very surprised noone regulates this properly, even when people like me go to the trouble of complaning and giving proof
I haven't worked in sales so I'm really talking out of my ass here, but I feel like there could be very approachable ways to mention it as an *option* without giving the customer any pressure such as "if you would like, I can take your payment information to place the order for you, otherwise you can complete your order online at any time when you are ready" or at least "if you would like, I can stay on the line with you if you have any questions while you place your order online" or something of the sort.
No, that's just dum = giving them 'all the best options' =)) U need 2 give them 1 or very few options that U reccommend, otherwise they just get confused & think U R stupid & go buy from somebody else who has the guts 2 say 'this is exactly what U need' blabla.
@@TorvicIsSantaA good sales person can apply pressure without the customer knowing that they are applying pressure. If you, as a customer, ever feel like it's turned into you against the sales person, they are not doing their job right. Go watch the beginning of _The Wolf of Wall Street._ Specifically the scene where Leo sells his first penny stocks. It's a bit oversold, but it absolutely gets the point across. You will NEVER know when someone that is good at their job just sold you something. _You will think you made the choice yourself._ You didn't. We used to put different products on higher commission. I didn't push those products, I _sold_ them. Didn't matter what the customer wanted. If one product was 5% and the other was 14%, I was going to sell you the 14% basically no matter what. Not only that, but you would think it was all your idea and that I had nothing to do with it. And I'm not even that good at it. I just followed the system. The guys that were really good, shit... Edit: typo
@@desertsandfly2277 Why? They address higher paying customers by offering a better experience rather than a value product. They are the only ones that ship in crates, rather than standard box shipping to lower chances of problems that might appear in shipping. Support doesn't sound outsourced (like Dell's) and it is probably better trained so it costs more. All of these costs are covered by the product's price. What you are saying is equivalent to calling entry level offers of luxury/premium brands like Audi, Mercedes or BMW rip-offs because they cost more than a Toyota or Renault of same class and performance.
The HP girl was so cute and wholesome ;_: i could totally relate from being a shy girl myself and i worked in customer service for internet providers, it felt to me like she wasnt neccesarily uneducated in the field, but rather in HP's script or their specific boxes, i think she was just new, had a stressful day and was glad to finally get somebody calm and open to her ideas on the phone, i hope she's doing great i know that job can be stressful and people can be very rude.
Definite new, she sounded like she was having a genuinely good time talking to a customer and has not been emotionally bodyslammed for years yet. She had a fantastic attitude but she also clearly knew nothing at all about computers. Like they said in the vid, that falls on training and her managers, not the employee herself.
As someone who builds on commission small time around town, I say the fist question should always be what the user plans to do with the computer on the day to day. Those who want someone else to build for them prefer the convenience and maybe don't have the time to do the research. I don't expect them to have an answer that details any computer part or spec. My question list is usually: What do you plan to do on your PC? If gaming: What games do you plan to play? If gaming: Do you want to stream on it as well? Do you prefer an average size tower or a small machine? On a scale of 1-10, how flashy do you want it to look? What's your budget?
Just finished the video and man I need to say, the experience across the board seems to have improved dramatically in the last few years! And wow those systems seem much closer together in performance than past years. I wonder how much of that is due to secret shopper? Probably not most of it, but some I bet. I think gaming becoming more mainstream and more common has probably made a big impact and is making the prebuilt business more sustainable and less cutthroat and toxic. Either way I’m very hopeful that all these systems come in fully working and competitive against each other. Hell ya!
I've heard directly that secret shopper has been a catalyst for change. It's hard to say exactly how much of it would have happened anyway, but this seems to be one of the ways we can directly impact the customer experience buying tech. We plan to keep doing it. - LS
@@LinusTechTips someone suggested about you guys building a PC within the same budged and compare it to the units bought from them. Please take that idea into consideration. (I'm personally insterested in that)
I hope the sales rep from HP does well, after working in customer support I understand how awful it can be to work in a call center. Hopefully HP do their part and equip her with the knowledge and training to thrive.
I don't think the more expensive PC linked by starforge was a bad suggestion. They Specifically implied that "if you wanted to go full pro with your streaming, then realistically you would need something like this". the only thing they didnt mention was that they understood that it was out of her budget.
yeah i agree theres SUCH a difference between playing a game and streaming a game that most people dont understand. I feel like its a fair disclaimer to be like "if you want your stream to not be horrible this is realistically what you need to spend" but the atarforge employee typed like they had a word limit so who knows
Same. A suggestion was given that fits the budget and a second suggestion was given in case there's flexibility with the budget and the buyer can be tempted. That's just sales being sales and you're going to find that just about anywhere. No different than anyone suggesting a warranty plan or add-ons like headsets or keyboards.
The Starforge upsell is particularly egregious because they have a SKU between the Prime and the Ultra (Horizon II Super) for ~$1700 that they didn't even mention. Went for the crazy upsell!
I love these For nzxt it sounds like a tech support guy helping out a person, as opposed to a sales trained rep. That was cool. In my opinion for all the sites they are sending people to, reps should have a " discount code " and offer it per call , this would give like " 5% off " at checkout or something. Then they could track sales per rep by those codes. Would be a good way to ' close the deal' without having to have the rep actually do it on their end.
I didn't realise he was imitating monk untill he said he wanted to go somewhere cleaner, and did similar body language, I loved that show. Great job guys.
This is a wild improvement across the board compared to earlier years, apparently public shaming works 😂. All the reps were passing grade at least, and most were excellent 👍
As someone who sold CE for just under 10 years (and cars for a couole sfter that), Im actually ok with the sales people not closing. I think thats a business decision to stop bad sales people pressuring customers into anything especially the high call center turn over
Linus is a businessman, most of his fans aren't. Its clear allot of these companies don't have a thorough sales process. If you have a good sales process and presentation, the close is easy and doesn't feel like pressure. Asking for someone's business is better than not, its that simple.
i love you guys. this was so heart warming. and to be honest it was nice to see it wasn't all corporate pilfering and nasty. Couple of em needed training sure, but they were trying. Not trying to rob you. How many people are getting overcharged by old web contracts or buying new hardware - especially when you go in ernest, asking a lot and clearly knowing 'less'. I love how you set up these things and rock em... and I love how often the news isn't always bad :P I kinda needed that.
I like that they don't close the sale and let you take your time and chose it's better I think. Cyberpower was great. Emotionally, the HP girl was the best by far. Even if you know nothing she'll make the experience great for you! ( And to be fair at 1500$, a balanced system can do most things you'd want...) Ibuypower sounds like the one who'll teach you most about what you really need. Maingear cared about the value of what you got which is really good. For the NZXT guy, I think he deals with customer issues so often that he just knows what is an issue with orders and so he can fix it. x)
I agree, I understand why it's a better business decision to close but I'm really surprised Linus was suggesting that they do, it's a much better customer experience if they don't
I would be way less likely to buy from them if they stayed on the line to try force me to buy from them after just asking for information in the price range for 5 to 10 mins
From a business side I can see that you absolutely want to close the deal. From the consumer side, I would rather have them either set up an online shopping cart, or talk me what system to buy.
I'm glad Origin just flat-out said, "Sorry, we don't make anything in your budget." Very direct, to the point, no wasted time. It's always a bit of an awkward interaction but it's better than them trying to spend time convincing you to spend more money.
I 100% believe that sweet lady on the hp hotline is either on her very first day taking calls or she's within the first weeks of the calls and still has hope the vast majority of customer support calls are NOT going to be people who are already pissed off before she even pick up the phone. No way she can have done this job long enough to know what it's and still be this joyful and (over-)motivated! 😅
@@Lord_LindaThePhilosopher Shes definitely relatively new but after working in call centers for years you'd be surprised how many people call in with a pissy attitude or acting like it's a medical emergency over something like their tv going out and it takes skills to bring them back to earth. Especially tech support when 60% of the time it's an issue they caused. When certain people hear a sweet person on the line like her the try to bully and berate them especially if they can tell you are new or simply don't know what you're doing
I worked at a call center and I considered it my sworn duty if someone called in grumpy I had to make them laugh.( if they had a good reason to be of course. people just mad for no good reason got the quick calls)
21:17 As someone who's worked in call centers for several years if you hear a agent breathing or can hear background noise, please advise them in a friendly way as generally we don't often have a way of telling if our mics or other hardware need to be adjusted. Call centers often use budget gear vs whats used in studios broadcast, so it makes things worse.
Nothings worse than going through a whole call or even several and then being told about it, often breathing issues are just the mouth piece being too close so easy to fix by moving it away unless its a crappy af headset
The real paranoia is wondering just how long it's happened, too. Once you hear it once you're paranoid forever about it. Fortunately the one I'm at now has a way to review calls and I will sometimes to confirm details when I leave notation (medical, so we *have* to notate everything significant) but I also know a lot don't have that fortune, let alone the time to even look back at calls at some places.
Seriously, a heads up is appreciated. Nobody wants to pickup a phone to help a customer while sounding like Jigsaw.
@@CheeseManFuu if you can, try to do playback at the end of each shift. Your director has heard most of the calls of the day so they can find the funny ones and it makes for a good team building exercise. At least this way you can laugh about all the rude ass people telling you to unalive yourself.
When I worked at a call center, our software had a meter on screen so you get a direct 1:1 visual representation of what your voice sounds like. If you see it spike when you're exhaling, then adjust the mic until it isn't anymore. It was just convenient way to properly adjust your mic. Edit: Plus our mics had foam windscreens on them and I never heard my breath like that even when it was right under my nose.
That makes a lot of sense, but I'm curious why you wouldn't have a monitor of that or regular check ins? Potentially ignorant question ^^;
I work for Dell and can tell you that "we can't be this bad the next time Linus makes a secret shopper video" was a point raised in at least one meeting
can you please also explain why every dell pc i've ever used has had the worst cooling possible pretty please
@@axef I've since quit the company, but I have fmcomplained internally about the same thing. The response that I got was "if you want to go to the limit, you should be buying Alienware"
What if I don't want the LED lights? Can I take the $200 off the price tag then?@@nerd_mor
@@nerd_mor thats gotta be the worse answer ever, but sadly not surprised by it at all xD
cheers for the insights
@@nerd_mor funnily enough i did go alienware after my G5 proved to be a waste of money - apparently a 10900F with one exhaust fan and a casefan strapped to a heatsink posing as an aircooler is "the limit" for them? regardless thanks for the reply, i've started recommending everyone i know to avoid dell at all costs
I personally like that they did not try to close the deal on the phone. I often feel pressured when interacting with a sales person and kind of feel a bit obligated to make the transaction. I prefer to have a bit of time off the phone to think about everything and do the final step with a clear mind. I would feel more at ease buying a computer from those companies.
this, completely agree!
thats the point tho ...closing the sale isnt to benefit the customer its to benefit your business.
edit : no its about who provides the best overall experience... customer service is just one component (important component )
hence why linus was calling them out for their business model.
to play devils advocate what if customer cant find the agreed product and isnt competent in navigating their website ..could end up with the wrong product or nothing altogether.
@@DeterminedFC but isn't this series about who provides the best customer experience?
Yeah totally I'm glad it's shifted away from closing the deal. As a business person Linus wants those sales hence his line for closing the deal, as a Customer most of us want to do things at our own time without pressures.
@@DeterminedFC probably from the wrong field, but as a PC Tech consumer/buyer and retail worker - the best costumer for business isn't the one that buys one thing, its the one that feels non-pressured and supported and comes back multiple times. I have several stores I avoid like the plauge despite their deals, and I have multiple costumers that daily my store despite the occasional mishap and price differencal.
That HP rep was genuinely over the moon happy to not have another demanding jerk on the line. I don't even think the discount she offered is something they'd offer to anyone, Shea just made her day and it was a beautiful human interaction.
You end up getting a lot of these kinda things if you're friendly to sales reps online and foster a semi-personal (brief, obviously) connection. Being receptive, etc.
I Work For HP
@@MrwhoosethebossTechTipsgonna elaborate?
@@ashryver3605 yeah seriously. even if you are super pissed off you still need to be a nice person. it works well 99% of the time.
Yeah, shoutout to Amy! She was great.
I'm pleasantly surprised, everyone did so much better than last time. Also that HP rep was so sweet I almost got diabetes hahahah.
She sounds a bit young and just started working there, but she's very nice :)
😂😂
@@23Shadowfox23He soul hasn't been crushed yet. Hopefully she finds a better job before they corrupt her faith in humanity.
bruh she sounds like a filipino
@@philcabauatan9089 huh someone else chaught on the accent when she was mentioning the model names huh? :D I thought the same thing.
It's crazy how much better all these companies have gotten. The difference between Secret Shopper 1 and 2 and this one is massive. I hope you guys continue this series and continues to raise the bar
I hope they raise a bear.
I think they smelled them out. How many people buys computers blindly on the phone? Seriously.
@@kaisersoymilk6912 Considering many of these companies have *dedicated* departments for sales service, including calls, you'd be ignorant to think not many people do-maybe not a large percentage of the whole population, but certainly enough individuals to justify these departments existing.
@@kaisersoymilk6912 Who teaches all of their customer service staff to look out for a slightly suspicious customer who could be from Secret Shopper, especially when the last episode was 2 years ago? That's completely unreasonable and unrealistic.
@@kaisersoymilk6912extremely out of touch question. I know a lot of people who do it.
@ the HP rep, having worked in a technical support call center basically, I would also thank this customer for being kind. Y’all would be shocked how literally NO ONE is this kind.
Im always nice wym :( always saying thank you and being polite n shit lol
Had to ring the UK Ankle Monitor Tracking Centre on behalf of a friend as he lost his charger. When I said “thank you have a goodnight” she started stammering like she was in shock and was really happy with her response.
It must be hard to deal with people all day
Technical support call center is the worst you can imagine. The product is bad, you are at fault and the costumer/caller is the victim and did nothing wrong.
Sadly that's what 1st level support is all about. People don't call because they are happy, they call because the are pissed and you happen to be the face or rather voice of the thing that pisses 'em off. Also doesn't help that half of the script you have to work from is less than calming to even the kindest person.
@@1989DieJay try credit card or anything essential to people. The more something is needed the greater the anger.
The interpersonal skills and customer service instincts from that HP rep are some of the best I've seen in this series. She's so sincere and a pleasure to talk to. It's a shame that HP is doing such a disservice to her in terms of training about the technical aspect. Hope she can eventually land somewhere that better leverages her talents!
The difference of offshore Indian call centres vs Filipinos or Indonesians from SEA.
@@ashryver3605I thought she was Indian too, very northern Indian accent.
@@ashryver3605 dell , hp sounds very Indian/pak
@@HackAcadmey my original comment meaning the girl in this case was likely filipino, indonesian accent is very telling but so is filipino + attitude in this case especially
@@Paras-ot2qo absolutely filipino believe me haha. im from philippines
Regarding "Closing the deal", I think this comes down to the vibe the customer gives the rep as well. I think that subtle hints can influence whether or not they will stay on line with the customer and Notalie often ended the call in a way that suggested she wants to do the checkout on her own, so the reps did that. I don't think they did anything wrong by not staying on the line and making sure the deal is closed.
Maybe they edited it out, but even if she indicates she can check out online, it seems a little odd not to offer, "Would you like me to complete the transaction for you as long as we're talking? I have the model we discussed ready to check out."
As someone that has worked in a call center selling computers, you need to close it on the call. You don't have to be pushy about it, it can be as simple as saying, "I am happy to wait on the line as you checkout in case any problems or questions come up". If they leave without buying there is a 50% chance that that person gets distracted and moves on to something else.
@@kuebby As far as the customer support rep completing the transaction on their end, there are many companies that have moved away from that due to liability. At my employer (which is a fairly large retail clothing company) we aren't even able to key in card numbers if we wanted to because the company decided the risk of employees stealing information was more dangerous than the risk of pissing off the occasional rare customer that wants to buy something over the phone.
I could imagine if the sales reps are told to close the deal, that would lead to a "sold the most computers" metric that promotes internal competition for selling the most, which would be to the detriment of the customer.
@@DedmenMiller Companies can't stay in business or offer support if they aren't selling, so it is a pretty important step to close. And just like any job there will be people that are good at it and people that are bad. So you are going to have customer complaints regardless. I wouldn't focus on NOT selling, I would focus on training and/or removing people that are good in that role. A support rep may have no sales duties but you can sure as hell find people complaining about the support they get. I don't think the customer satisfaction argument holds any water, personally.
In my experience, customers hate when businesses close the deal like he suggested. People feel as though they're being rushed which brings feelings of being taken advantage of and only cared about for a commission. Personally I think a lot of the reps did really well in that manner.
yep linus moved from customer experience to business man real quick on that one. hes a bit out of touch. if any of them tried to close the sale with me on the phone id hang up on them and then shop a different brand.
AGREED! I don't want to be told or persuaded what to do. In a customer service agent, I want answers to my questions and someone to help me with the transaction if I ask for it. No pressure for me = way better chance of a sale.
For real, just wanted to yell stfu at Linus about that
I absolutely agree. Closing the deal is usually a bad move for the reason you mentioned. I was about to write the comment myself, and found you already took the letters out of my keyboard.
I think you may be making an assumption about what “closing the deal” means. It does not mean forcing the customer to only order with you over the phone, nor does it mean being pushy in any way. It could be as simple as saying “I’d be happy to help you place that order if it’s convenient for you.” I can pretty much guarantee you wouldn’t “hang up on and shop somewhere else” if someone offered to go through checkout with you after you just spent 20 minutes picking out a computer with them.
That HP sales rep was so nice. It's the highlight of the video. She is so friendly and nice you can't help but smile. Love that
All the HP sales reps in this series have been great actually.
sales rep people are really calm for how much crap they get ngl. Props to her for staying nice after such a day
Definitely ❤
I almost feel like the discount that appeared at the end was just because she liked Shea.
@@kuebby entirely possible! Maybe the Rep "bought" the computer for Shea using her employee discount as a thank you for talking to her.
When they say “you’re the nicest person to call today” and is grateful for that call…. It just kinda hits you that they’re just a regular person going about the grind 😭
I hope that lady will have a great year tbh.
I felt like Shea implied she did not want them on the phone with her while she did the credit card stuff to "close the deal", and that's why they didn't try to keep her on the phone. I think it's good that they respected that.
That, and also unlike the larger name brands such as HP, their job is to assist the customer in finding an ideal PC, verses selling a PC
Yea, I had the same thought
I actually like that they weren't pressuring to close the deal. Obviously from a business standpoint you might want to get a for sure sale, but the fact they let their products stand on their own and just let the customer make their own decision was nice to see. I've dealt with pushy sales people and it immediately turned me off from their product. I'm on the phone with you right now, but maybe I want to think about it for a bit before I drop $1500.
@@HangryOneya I don't really know how more "closed" of a deal linus expected them to get after it was clearly stated ok now I'm just going to fill out my purchase info.
@@HazmatGamer9842Yeah that's exactly what I was thinking. Definitely sounds like they don't get commission on sales/have any quota n thus aren't incentivized to really make sure they "seal the deal"- presumably just get paid by the hour to help assist people with anything support related. If that's actually not the case for any of these tho then that would make the customer support even more impressive/surprising!
I hope HP sees this and gives that rep the support she needs and a raise cuz she deserves it, in the effort she puts in.
They will probably fire her for discounting the computer after the sale was closed! But hopefully I am wrong.
@@brandobond Doubtful, most of these companys are prioritizing customer support and satisfaction alot more after LTT and other Tech influencers have been doing these secret shoppers, getting a bad one of these can be extroninarily damaging to sales, the loss on some discounts is literally nothing in comparsion too the damage Linus alone can do to their sales if he shows millions of people a poor customer experience.
@@ihateeveryone8161, I do worry about her job a little bit because it probably was against policy. But I agree that it would look very bad for them if they fired her and she put this out on social media, so it's probably not worth it.
And I suspect you're correct, because the people watching LTT are very likely to give recommendations to their friends on where to buy their next gaming computer.
@@brandobond
yeah, imagine getting fired for selling and doing the stuff you're supposed to do 😑
"Sorry, Cogito says you didn't empathize 6 times; you're fired"
Never in a million years would I ever expect not just a Monk reference, but an entire Monk-themed episode. One of the best shows of all time.
YES my favorite detective show!!
I thought so man monk was good
I was just watching Monk lol
It was a good show. I remember watching it years ago on TV
Techlinked regularly has monk joked
Salesperson: “hi how are you doing today?”
Linus: “that’s a REALLY good question”
Outside of the old scrapyard wars the secret shopper series is my favorite type of content you guys do.
They need to do a modern day scrapyard
@@joelireland5477oh man do i have news for you
@@joelireland5477 True, now that GPU prices are back to sanity after the near all-hope-is-lost 2020-2021 period.
@@nateg452 he also just said on wan show 2 weeks ago that they are planning a reboot
Ive been thinking this for a long time now@@joelireland5477
HP’s rep was sooo cute. She seems like a really nice person.
The starforge email is amazing.
Damm, this time customer sales has improved a lot, wow. Nice job guys.
I think Starforge has Charlie himself working email support.
@@theatlastech8792 tbh its easy to read it with his voice in mind xD
too bad HP is terrible at warranty claims
Cute voice but objectively she was the least knowledgeable of all the reps.
Mannerism and speech pattern sounds like she's from the Philippines
I have got to say, Dell has came a LONG way, and I am sure the HP lady used whatever discretionary savings she can give for Shea for having such an awesome personality.
Yep, either some employee/friend pricing or more likely a weekly/daily~ish discount they are allotted- USUALLY those discounts would be used to upsale and convince a customer to buy something more expensive and seal the deal but this was AFTER the sale, that's just amazing, and will make a customer always remember that and WANT to come back to HP next time.
Instead of a greed-driven tactic from corporate, this spread some much needed humanity :) (And I hope that HP realizes the long-term benefit and encourages this use of it!)
I still wouldn't buy one, but definitely an improvement.
@@VM-lt9wl, yeah, 100% used her friends and family discount. It always pays to be nice to customer service staff. I really hope she doesn't get in trouble for this...
her name is amy
No here name is *BEEP* lol
They confirmed in part two that this was a "friends and neighbors" discount. Cool!
I love how the reps have different problems this time around! Compared to the up-charges in past Secret Shopper rounds, "Close the sale!" is a good problem to have.
As someone who was a rep of HP (but on printers), I do agree that she needs more internal resources. The reference that we have are the same as the customer's, and the training that we receive is lacking. When it comes to getting help from others, it's a hit or miss. Kudos to the HP rep for helping Shea out on what computer she really needs despite of lacking resources.
And just like last time, they reached a Filipino/a rep. Mabuhay, Philippines!
Called it, i could instantly tell from the accent haha, Lesgooo, Mabuhay!
Mabuhay Sir!
Mabuhay ang Pilipino! Instantly knew with her accent and the way she said “Shea” lol
Ah yes! I knew she was Filipino from how she spoke too!
I had a hunch that this might be Filipino because how kind and nice she talks to the customer.
you should do a whale secret shopper, buying at like $4k and seeing what all they try to upgrade, seeing if the upgrades are actually best for the user or if they’re just taking advantage of the higher budget and pushing upgrades with bigger margins
OMG love it!
Absolutely. Maybe reduce that a bit and go for 3k for more competition and let them talk you back up to 3.5k
I'd like to see other secret shopper series, for TVs (which would be an in person thing), for lower end solutions too - how often will someone push a person to a Chromebook when they need a Windows system, or push them into a slightly more expensive but not proportionally better system?
Lol at that point I would want her to just say UNLIMITED budget but say she just wants to play the same games and see if they try to make her buy a ridiculous PC.
As I’d such a customer wouldn’t want a tacky flashy system lol. If they don’t, there are many other regular high end systems
Dell actually didn't mess up yet this time. Origin is the new Dell. HP girl is about to get poached by a therapy practice. NZXT guy is about to get a promotion. Starforge email goes crazy. This is gonna be an interesting series
In fairness to Origin, their stuff isn't cheap, but they definitely could have worded that a lot better 😅
At least they didn't constantly pressure the customer for a warranty, and then just add it on anyways.
@@Lizlodude True I'm just saying that because they didn't do to well on the first round the last times either. Now if they manage that warranty situation HO...LYY
@@Lizlodude could have also discussed increasing the budget and guiding her better to those cheapest options and making the case for them. Not too pushy, but at least helpful.
@@thekwoka4707IMO it would have been better to explain that Origin is a boutique PC builder and that their offerings don't make much sense within those budget constraints. Then, the customer could have been directed towards Corsair PCs, given that they own Origin. Financing could have also been suggested, given that it's an option on their website. The Origin rep's explanation was poor (just like Shea/Natalie, lol) and rather unhelpful. Whether it's on the rep or on the business, it's not a good showing.
I have a feeling Starforge might be the new Origin in the $1500 PC market.
A little surprised that Origin didn't at least mention about the financing options as an possible way to consider to help with the budget. A horrible flash back from when I worked in sales was to always ensure the customer was aware of montly payment options as a way to try to get their budget up a little more to something suitable for thier needs
I can understand why they don't close the deals on the phone actually.
Many people today are worried about sharing card information over the phone, it's a lot safer to say "We never take card payments over the phone" to avoid scams. Additionally, it ensures that the customer is satisfied that they are seeing the same deals as everyone else and aren't being ripped off with an over the phone price.
I can see a flipside here, whereby customer service says "If you wanted to go ahead and purchase now, I can offer you an online voucher for X% off, or £30 of £300", to incentivise the purchase, that helps close a deal without the "over the phone" hassle.
Can also be to reduce the queue times on phone
Closing the deal doesn't necessarily have to mean asking for card information or offering discounts. Even though she said she was already on the site and ready to check out on her own, a simple "I can stay on the line and help you out in case you have any questions or face any trouble while checking out", or even a question like "would you like me to hang around a bit to answer any follow up questions you might have?" go a long way in providing a good sales experience to the customer while also doing good for the business. Both Dell and HP did a decent enough job here.
@@DarthSidious7 you make a fair point! 🌟🫡
uhhh what? She was on the website and all that reps need to do is to make sure that she just bought the computer lol
Also, that discount could be a code unique to the sales rep. Would track how well they are doing.
Dude from NZXT had the best point of mentioning the resolution!
It's a good question but anyone having to call customer support more than likely has a 1080p monitor.
@@MarkElf2204 not really, people can be editors or graphic designers, so they may have good monitors but not really be tech savvy
@MarkElf2204 Good point! But if i was working there, i would probably ask the same thing, Cause if the customer wants 4K gaming, then i would suggest systems with a high-end gpu, same as 1080P.
Overall, you gotta learn the customer, And it's definitely hard
@@MarkElf2204 That's not true.
Marketing has passed 1080p years ago. There's more computer noobs with 4K or QHD screens I know than tech savy people with them. They just buy a monitor that gets a lot of advertisement regardless of any specs.
Yeah for sure, that question is overlooked too often.
I love that HP rep! She had no clue about computers but she NAILED that customer service! Awesome person! Great job, you! :)
her name is amy
@@weenusdeletus8068 and HOW do you know this, and WHY do you feel the need to tell people on here?
If I could tip people over the phone I'd tip her.
@@AC3handle She probably said it when she answered the phone, genius
@@sporemaster97 its blipped out both times the name was called, but yeah, it does sound like "Amy"
The HP girl is a good employee. She sounded like she was excited to help the person on the phone. Need more people like her.
For real. The HP segment was just so unbelievably adorable. I want to give that HP girl a hug for just how good of a mood she put me in.
id rather have someone competent at what they do than waste my time with someone "nice" but incompetent.
@@WhirlwindHeatAndFlash That's outsourced call centers for you. "Nice," but otherwise useless because the CSRs are hamstrung by policy and disincentivized to go above and beyond protocol. The worst part is: this is _by design._
30:05 Actually, because she mentioned Minecraft, Minecraft (Edit: Java edition) specifically is limited by single thread CPU performance, so upgrading CPU to one with a higher clock speed is _exactly_ the right answer for her specific requirements 😊
Actually, I think nowadays, Minecraft is multi-threaded, but I could be wrong. With that said though, if you're gonna play older versions of Minecraft like 1.12.2, then yeah, it doesn't matter, you'll need high single-threaded performance.
@@arnox4554 Minecraft will definitely use more than one thread but on the client those are just for turning chunks into meshes for the GPU. If you're playing singleplayer it'll use threads for chunk generation too but most of your CPU work for a given tick happens on a single thread and you'll hit the limit of what that single thread can process well before you run out of cores for the side stuff so long as you have at least 4 cores.
that sounds nice. my friend said minecraft mostly relies on good ram.
the more u got the more u can mod around. i had a rig with 4gb. and it kept crashing. until my friend slapped in 16gb.
and suddenly no more crashes :D
@@miciso666 Modded anything seems to be extremely RAM-intensive (cough Terraria), but I have noticed good RAM helps a lot in Bedrock in some cases
@@RealAmaranth Got it. Thanks!
That HP rep was so sweet :')
She definitely needs more training and knowledge on the PCs she recommends but she's done great.
The knowledge is easy personality in lifelong training
@@ShallowThought it took me 1 month to learn the processes perfectly, but 8 months to finally be empathetic and sympathetic with the customer, because oooh boy, is it hard to stop being sarcastic.
Manipulative is a better word. I don’t get fooled by that talk. She is just in it for the money. I’ve had enough experience with gold diggers to know a leech when I hear one.
@@GardenGuy1942 Yikes..
She was sweet with no knowledge because she was new. She wont be like this in a year, believe me. Customer service will change you...
I'll be honest, Dell has surprisingly improved this time. I mean the bar was already on the floor, but kudos for not pushing to upsell financing plans or warranties like before.
@@GH0STST4RSCR34MWe still don't know if they still put 2 warranties on the product even though they said no, like last time. There's still time for them to fail hard.
Take it from me , someone who has been a salesperson for the last 6 years, cyberpower got it bang on , as it doesn't pressure the customer, and then causes possible complaints or returns . Especially when its over the phone sales.
But again LTT group. Amazing work thank you
(Btw I'm based in the UK ) 😅
I'm so sorry to hear that you're in the UK. I hope you get better soon.
@@wta1518 afraid its terminal mate, id know
I love that the industry seems to be listening to the feedback. I still remember the awesomeness of the good calls from the 90s and 2000s. Honestly, I went with Dell for a long time because I lucked into talking to a rep who was clearly an enthusiast and talked me through everything. These calls make a difference to noobs. I do think it's smart that they offer to complete an order while they have you as long as it's not high pressure. And I prefer that they are erring on the side of lower pressure.
i know multiple people that work at dell and own dell systems themselves (due to discounts) but you could not force me to ever own one myself. love their monitors, but their desktop pcs are an art in corner cutting. proprietary rubbish and poorly designed.
@@iris4547what's the point of your comment?
@@teetehi trash talking dell, whats the point of yours?
@@iris4547 I mean fair enough dell is shit but it's just completely useless point of mine was because I just wanted to see if it was ment to be a comment or a reply because a comment makes sense but a reply dont
@@teetehi He is very clearly replying to the specific topic of Dell's Alienware line of desktop PCs. It has the same effective phrasing as "Hey, I understand that you love Dell - I have many friends who own Dell desktops, and I too own Dell monitors. However, Dell's current market strategy is anti-consumer; with the Alienware line being laden with Proprietary and Cheap parts that leads to an insufficient customer experience."
However, that would be a rather wordy comment, and his summary was concise enough to aptly send the point across. Your seeming inability to understand that is rather indicative of your own lacking intelligence, and not to that of Iris4547. Perhaps, you should graduate secondary school before making such a snide remark?
The HP rep really needs to have a great boss that realize and help her grow her potential. She is one of those people that can make anyone have a great day and she just needs to be put in a situation where she can keep that enthusiasm and also get the technical training and tools to complement it!
That HP employee is manipulative at best. I don’t have the time or patience to listen to golddiggers try to pry money from my wallet. Too many Broads do that these days.
@@GardenGuy1942 Who hurt you?
@@visualdarkness look at that clown's other comments 💀
@@GardenGuy1942oh you’re actually commenting that vitriol on multiple threads huh. Did you order a mail order bride and got scammed or is this regular ole racism?
@@miggywiggy Honestly i would be annoyed with that too. She clearly does not know what she is talking about but she is filling so much time with "sweet talk" but im not here for mental support, im here for actual advice.
I did my internship with Bosch in the UK, I did a stint in their tech support department. Part of that involved giving advice on what model of boiler is best for the customer. I never realised how good their training & support structure is until seeing you do secret shopper for PCs. Even as someone with no interest in boilers or heating I was able to get support and use their systems to give advice or get someone to call back if needed.
Yeah, quite easy. You need to know your product, and if you ain't self tought it is up for the guide to give the answers. I bet bosch had some quite good ones, have used their car diagnostics and that has been good times.
That HP rep needs a bonus, but also a weeks training on gaming PCs. They were great, I was even smiling on how good of a rep they were
Wow, none of those OEM buying experiences outright pissed me off this time. Progress!
What? You didn't like to get financing for your financing for your extra support from Dell?!
I think it's good that they're not closing the sales. For one it means they're not getting commissions to sell you overpriced junk, and also you don't have to dictate your payment info to someone you don't know through a phone.
I'd much rather do my payments through a payment portal with TLS
They could just offer help to guide the person through the purchase procedures on the website.
@@MuitoDaora Or they could expect the customers to not be NPCs and let the customer ask if they need help
I loaded up this video expecting some companies not learning from previous Secret Shopper episodes... I did not expect the mass chain of great customer support until the end. Awesome!
someone needs to find the hp rep lady and give her a bonus and more internal resources!! Its awesome to hear someone who really cares about not only helping but making sure you're happy all the way through!
32:51 I recall from previous secret shopper series that Linus did suggest taking the attitude of "you can't afford it"... Interesting to see his reaction after Origin actually took that advice.
I agree, i was thinking that too glad to see someone else point it out.
I wish Linus had mentioned that, i think thats the best approach. Id much prefer to be politely told you dont have anything within my budget than to get something that sucks.
Gives me the immediate option of continuing to save or go somewhere else.
Am I crazy, or was this over all much better than any previous secret shopper?
They all did way better, Dell especially but mostly because they sucked so bad last time
Linus said on the WAN show that after the last secret shopper, several of the companies emailed him and said they had completely revamped the training of their support staff.
If so, it's good to see that videos like this can actually improve things for other customers.
@@trapicalwhich wan show
@@FireWyvern870 The last Secret shopper episode was more than 2 yrs ago, so it would be hard for someone to tell which WAN show exactly...
It seemed like they all did much better this time with how they talked to Shea. With Origin PC, I do have to give them credit for being honest and not wasting her time as Origin PC is one of the most expensive Pre Built companies and they pretty much only cater to the high to very high end market.
I would love to see a secret shopper where you approach the sales person with a more unique usecase, such as CAD modelling or video rendering, and seeing if reps are able to adapt or if they are just selling the gaming pc that most alligns with the given pricepoint
Realistically speaking, anyone working on CAD software is going to be computer literate enough to buy their own computers.
@@Thiscave37013 Its like driving a car, some people are great drivers but know nothing about engines. I work with CAE, lots of people that knows everything about our software but nothing about the hardware, "That is a problem for the IT people not us".
@@Thiscave37013There is a substantial number of people who are software literate but not hardware literate. Don't underestimate people who stay in their own lane.
to be honest I'm not sure these sites have enough variety on their product lineup to be so specific
I feel like this would be a weak point across the board. I work for an MSP and when our clients request systems for those uses they almost always either just email us a copy of the reccomended system requirements for the software they want to use, or they list the top 2 or 3 items from that same sheet. I can only imagine these sales lines get that same thing in most calls which means they can just use a filter on the webpage to find something that matches what the customer requested making it an easy point to skip training/resources.
I work in a similar customer care and I understand sometimes customers call us to help them buy a product or just search through the website. I literally spent an hour helping a guy get a gaming setup, from the chair, table to headset. And there was nothing extra for me. Instead I was actually called out by my manager for taking such a long call and not wrapping it up in under a few minutes.
HP has a great employee who just needs some training. She'd be every manager's dream if she had the technical knowledge support to go along with her approach.
Im a manager and I agree with this comment.
100%. You can train the knowledge pretty easily but the attitude is one in a million.
Really? I personally hate overly friendly people like that. I'd prefer a more professional tone.
@@112Haribo Overall people likes friendliness however with technical knowledge she could solve stuff a lot more efficiently
@@112Haribo not everyone's a sour old crumb like you I guess
Having been an IT guy to Filipino call centers before, the HP rep was probably from one. That kind of almost bubbly friendliness and rapport building (especially the chitchat when trying to buy time when she's looking stuff up) is usually what Filipino BPOs want out of their reps (execution may vary, though), and her accent also reminds me of the accents of a lot of people I know when speaking English.
HP rep while she needs to learn a bit bout computers, she was S tier as a sales person. Also, we need more of these kinda videos.
Seeing as starforge is owned by streamers, and is almost completely advertised through their streams, it would make sense that any customer contacting them and mentions streaming to be a part of what kind of computer they need, for the sales dude to go "hey if you're serious about pursuing streaming you can get something that much better fits your needs for 300 more"
Rooting for HP support rep getting proper training and additional point for wholesomeness.
UPDT: dudes from those companies - buy your staff headphones with feedback like Jabra, they clearly let you know if you blow into the mic
Jabra headphones are awesome.
Yeah but jabra headsets also whine at you when you have this feature on. I already have tinnitus, I don’t need it whining in a slightly different frequency too.
yeah the guy blowing in the mic would if thats my call to support hang up...
if u cant afford a decent mic for your workers. you know the tool that they mostly use.
then i can already assume the service could be shit as well.
As someone who works in a call centre, I can feel the HP girl's pain when she said that Shea was the nicest customer of the day... Because usually customers are dry, direct and sometimes aggressive if you answer or talk in a way they don't like, getting these calls all day drives us crazy! So getting an understanding, calm and open to suggestions customer is a dream come true!
She was a sweetheart even tho she lacks the knowledge about computers (and funny enough, the computer was a beast), and you could see that she was trying everything in her power to make Shea happy with that discount at the end, she was probably asking her supervisor or someone if she could do that, because i know i would do that! 😆
Definitely need a full length version of this masterpiece
Yes
yes.
@@sackiskarathanassis9032they meant the intro part
the vid just came out 9 mins ago and you commented 8 minutes ago is it me lacking or you watched a 37min vid in 1 minute
@@waleedprograms😂
Really one of my favorites series of anything on YT. This edition seems amazing, Shea is perfect for the role!
Episode 1 and we can already see how your videos must have made an impact on the user experience ordering from those companies.
Oh my gosh that woman at HP is the best employee ever, she needs more training and a HUGE bonus/raise
True ❤
yeah, she sounds so cute and wholesome
Cute and wholesome voice, so I laughed harder at her name being beeped, cause I assume her name is %{!#£π§
I want her as my best friend lol.
HP is definitely Filipino - source I am Filipino I can tell from the accent.
I actually really like them not closing the sale on the call. Maybe I’m just an overly anxious person, but it always made me uncomfortable, because now my sale is being waited on, and ends the interaction in a more sour note (in my head at least).
totally agree. I prefer when the sale is made on the site, because I don't feel like the rep is just telling me whatever s/he needs to make their commission. The rep can just give me the best advice they're capable of, without feeling like I'm being milked.
Of course you do, because like me, you’re a consumer. We don’t want to be pressured into a sale. Linus is meant to be a consumer focused channel, so I don’t know why he’s advocating for them to close the sale on the phone, just because it’s a “good business decision”. He’s forgetting whose side he’s meant to be on here. laws, and regulations to protect us from these massive corporations.
I think in a situation where the customer didn't express a desire to sleep on it or explore other options, trying to close to sale on the call is probably good. If Shea had said "thanks, I'll look at that, I'm gonna think about it some" pressuring her past that point would have been scummy, but closing the deal when the customer seems to be going along with it is both 'good business sense' and also good support; sometimes people run into issues in the checkout process or have questions that come up right as they're about to click purchase. "oh, how will shipping work, I'm deployed overseas in the us military"/"oh, how do you handle warranty support"/"oh, I think I actually need more hard disk space" etc.
I feel like a best of both worlds solution could be an option on the payment page to put in a rep's name if they helped you
Right, but now what I'm going to do is not buy that computer until I open a bunch of other tabs and use it as comparison and try to find somebody else that has the same thing or something that looks closed for a cheaper price. You should probably not what you want me to do is business. You want me to buy you anything. She should make at least one attempts to get me to go ahead and close the sale and then back off if I object
NZXT guy recommending the CPU upgrade actually makes a lot of sense for Minecraft. Java Edition is extremely CPU-bound, especially with mods. Every little bit helps.
The HP Agent was just amazing!!!
What a nice and warm interaction.
I honestly wasn't expecting this much improvement from Dell. Kudos to them. The HP rep was sweeter than candy and so many sounded great to talk to that I'm genuinely impressed. I know these are a lot of extra work. Thank you LTT crew!
dell and hp where i live are kinda shit. and looked at as a ''business boomer''
most people buy stuff from acer lenovo asus laptop wise. as u get way better for your buck laptop wise.
as for cases. almost everyone buys custom builts i know cuz 2 of my friends work in the branch. and they say usually u can save a few hundred doing customs.
recently had my own pc built for under 1500 ish. this is a beefy cpu. like 2nd or 3rd best. 3070rtx 144hz monitor. and i even had a little for a 60 euro mouse.
@@miciso666 You don't really buy from dell because you want to get a good deal, you buy from them because they can get you 200 office desktops the next day and if something is broken you will have a service technician on site the next day.
That HP rep is so likeable even if you're doubting about the deal you'd buy the computer simply because she's so nice. I'm also very excited about this specific secret shopper season, because the lmg labs can thoroughly test these systems
The voice equivalent of puppy eyes lol (not in a negative way, she really soudns nice)
she kinda reminds me of kelly from the office tv show
her name is amy
A Monk-LTT crossover is not something I ever thought I’d see or knew that I wanted to see, but I want to see more!
anyone else actually noticing it in the comments was not something i was expecting
Tbh, I thought it was Borat before I watched the segment in the WAN show
@@kqzo I thought the comments would all be talking about Monk. Man I did NOT expect that then I heard the first 2 seconds and saw his hair and smiled so much. I can't believe it
@@zodkip3147 i was honestly thinking everyone would be too young to get the reference
i love this series, i know you cant do it often but i cant wait for the next parts. Starforge offering the higher end isnt a bad thing, they are just saying “hey, if you stream you may wanna save up for this instead but heres also one in your current budget.”
The intro singer deserves a raise for doing great work at introducing Linus - neighbor's kid in adult form
I can't believe they got Randy Newman to do their intro song
Its the monk theme :D
I think it was David who sang in the intro, he did a pretty good job
David
Get that vocalist on the Christmas album
I can see the feedback for the company's success of closing the detail businessman to businessman. As the customer, I don't like sales people and their willingness to leave me alone at the end makes me less likely to wonder if I was pressured into a poor choice once I hang up. I like them saying good bye when I sound like I have gotten what I wanted them to give me: advice/guidance.
Nearly nobody likes the hard sell, but not all closing has to be like a hard sell. My guess is they're trying to get off the line to move to the next call in the queue based on pressures from management. Ideally if they want to sustain the soft sell, they'd at least offer to stay on the line until their order on the site is complete.
Amen. I actually disagree with Linus on this. I like the honest helpfulness the salesperson made vs making the sale.
I worked a short while for the tech retailer in my country that keeps winning some yearly "Best Customer Service" award. And the MO was always to TEACH the customer how to do things by themselves. How to use our website, our tools, how to make purchases, basically everything so they would feel like they'd never have to call again - because we've taught them something. So, "closing a deal" was never on the agenda. Only thing that mattered was that the customer felt well informed and well met.
And I think that is a huge reason why this specific company is considered the go-to for anyone interested in tech. Be it a seasoned veteran or a complete newbie.
Yeah, when I worked technical support for telecom they really wanted us to teach the customer to never need assistance again. Some folks didn't like that - they wanted personalized care. I get that. But for sales especially, I want to be left alone. My assumption is always that whether the individual wants a commission or their company's training wants money, they are trying to pressure me out of losing more of it. Regardless of whether the product they sell me will better meet my needs, I do not have the money to best meet my needs; I want to be left alone to consider the needs of my wallet at the final hour, not just what I want from a product or service. @@tradingelk6914
Yes I dont see how it benefits the customer to close the deal on the phone.
The HP sales rep may not have been the most experienced in computers but sure did make one smile.
The feels, man.
Just a side note. As someone who worked in sales/retail for years when I was younger, she SCREAMS I AM A SECRET SHOPPER. She was great but too much sounding off a script.
Either you guys got lucky with good reps this time OR some of these companies actually did improve their customer support! Good start overall!
Yes! Been waiting for this!
I actually think it was smart of those companies that didn't push through the sale, most people are wary and turned off by forceful salespeople and scammers these days, what they are doing gives a much better feel to the transaction and makes them more likely to be recommended by word of mouth, which is the hardest and most important recommendation of all.
To be fair though, it would be smart to at least ask if they'd like to continue on with the purchase.
But the sale is already decided on and there is nothing to push. This wasn't a case of where she said she would think about it. A simple, "since we are on the phoen already, I can take your details and put the order through" can be quite helpful.
It reduces teh actions required by the customer, especially with people not confident about what they are ordering to ensure they don't make any mistakes on the website (which is generally the type of people who would be phoning the sales line for this type of product). I can totally see peopel getting frustrated or nervous going thought those customizers to finalize the sale. And during that process they will likely get pushed more add-ons, so closing it on the phone is likely to be less pushy.
I agree, I'm like a wary deer, you can coax me to the bait but don't shove it down my throat before you stick an arrow in my heart
yeah if ive already decided then butter smooth the sale
i hope they released this video after the pc where ship so they dont get special treatment lol
OMG that HP rep made me AWWWWW out loud. Someone give that lady a raise just for being an awesome human being!
Giving people a raise for being cute in the process of doing shit job isn't a good business practice
1) She made the customer happy. 2) If you were paying attention to the video, she actually gave her one of the ( if not THE ) best deals out of every rep they spoke to. 3) They clearly have a system in place so that she doesn't have to be intimately familiar with technology to give customers a good deal l. 4) See number 1.
You're assertion that she did a "shit" job is just flat out false.
In fairness to Starforge, they made it clear in the email that the Ultra was a better choice IF she was serious about streaming. A user who plans to frequently do simultaneous gaming and streaming would probably do well saving a bit more for a few months to get the beefier one.
Credit where due, SO much improvement over last time across the board. Looking forward to seeing how the actual builds perform.
I love watching Linus do actual realistic reviews for most people even though most of the community is going to build their own anyway
I’m in love with notalie
We all know someone who will buy a pre build. Dell and HP operate globally. NZXT does operate in Europe. We can share this video for those friends when the time comes.
@@lirror4910 fair enough, but personally everyone I know just asks me to build it for them lmao
Nah, I got old and ordered the custom one from internet. Don't have time to hassle with cables and maybe I could drop CPU and bend the pins. I used to do it myself in old days from AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1 GHz to AMD Barton 2500+ and so on. Later got lazier and simply bought laptop, and got AMD Deskmini recently from shop. And if my dad need new computer, I don't want fix it because I bought it for him. Warranty is actually quite cheap considering for the your time spending on it.
it's so we can recommend friends and family to buy pre-built instead of being their tech support
Working on sales, I understand the importance of closing the deal (without pushing too much).
As a customer tho, I *really* like this kinda newer approach of "alright I gave you some advice, you can buy it (or not) later when you feel like it". 👍
Yea, it's much better in customer perspective since you can take your time to examine all the options. I tend to buy in shops that don't try too hard to close the deal.
"Really low pressure, I like that" - Linus
"CLOSE THE DAMN DEAL" - Also Linus
Conveniently, I just rewatched the previous secret shoppers. the improvements of all of these companies is outstanding. way to go for all of them!
What part of 'what model of video card do you want' as a fake non-answer to 'I want a basic gaming computer' do U find helpful? That's asking somebody what kind of screw they want at a hardware store when somebody says I need something to fit this but I don't know the size' = TOTALLY INCOMPETENT EMPLOYEES!!
@@Deathrape2001 What's the problem with that? what if they specifically need an AMD gpu or they already know what range of cards do they want? You can just say no instead of playing a guessing game over the phone what a customer means by "basic gaming computer". If a waiter asks if you're allergic to anything do you get offended by that because you assume that anyone with allergies would've already told them that?
Wait.....Dell actually sell computers with their warranties???
My dad actually loves Dell's warranty. To their credit, the 2 times he's needed it so far he got on-site service within a day somewhere in rural central Europe. If you got the money and run a small business that needs a working PC with as few interruptions as possible, i can see someone choosing Dell specifically for their overpriced warranty.
to be fair, the dell warranties, at least the support they give businesses, is some of the best in the biz. i asked them to ship me parts like a battery and a back panel TO MY HOME and let me fix it MYSELF and they did it without much hassle.
@@reanimationxp this is very true and over looked. Dell warranties for businesses can be a life saver
Yeah, Dell warranty for business is great. I’ve consistently had issues with some of their XPS laptops at my job (I’m IT) and the fact they come to you to fix the problem within 2 business days is awesome.
However, I’ve had enough of their shitboxes and all our laptop Windows PC’s (unless we need a ridiculously high-end one) will soon be running on either 13” or 16” Framework laptops.
@@matthewmspace it's nice that you're in a position to do so. for business fleet pc's i worry how well a modular pc is gonna hold up to "normie" things like drops. i also happen to be in IT (well, infosec) but i was blown away that while in this case, i was the normie end user, just by asking and telling them that yes I was confident in repairing the machine, they shipped parts to my home, NOT the business under warranty. think about that - most products have a warranty VOID sticker if the machine is even opened, let alone KNOWING i mucked around inside, and instead this company is trusting an end user with mucking around inside a machine and parts they might not be familiar with, and still keeping the laptop under warranty. i just want to drive home what a drastic departure that is from say, microsoft and an xbox.
I was a secret shopper for a gigantic hotel chain for 5 years. I've seen it all, heard every sales pitch and travelled the world for free. Best job I had in my early 20s. Some of the reps here did an amazing job!
It was just being paid to be a travel blogger, write a couple of reports a week and staying in 5 star hotels all year. Occasionally you'd have to break character and make yourself known if there was anything illegal or completely out of line, though they are few and far between. I highly recommend it.
Was asking the Concierge if they could help you score some 'party favours' part of the 'inspection'? :)
How did you land that job?
Have been thinking about that line of work, would you now where I could apply?
How do i get the job, willing to kill for it
Holy crap man that's like the definition of a dream job! What people think of doing after retiring from a monotonous line of work is what you were doing for work already!
Monk is literally my favorite TV show and I never expected you to ever even look at monk’s direction
This is my 2nd favorite series behind scrapyard wars. It's pretty amazing to me how much it seems EVERYONE has improved. Like last time was constant face palms with warranty requests, this time was NONE of any of that nonsense. A bunch of nice people with much better scripts.
Monk was usually good as long as they didn't get extremely goofy. Marginally goofy was reasonable.
Scary thing is, Monk became our avatar for 2020-2022.
Well I’m blowed, none of these made me angry! They’ve stepped up their game significantly since last time, and I think this series deserves its share of the credit, well done LTT!
what a fun video to watch! Shae did an AMAZING job.
I am pleasantly supprised with most of the vendors. Nothing seamed to be a straight ripoff. The HP lady was very sweet but oh gosh she needs some training. My heart broke when she said that Shae was by far the nicest customer today. Can''t imagine how this poor girl gets treated if someone with at least some hardware knowledge talks to her.
truly -- sounded so so nice. I hope people are nice to her
HP lady for president of her country
Working in the BPO industry (call center basically) We receive a lot of people complaining about their purchase or the product, I could tell that she was working under a call center agency that HP has 'hired' (Im sorry, don't know the better term). and its really a breath of fresh air when a caller is polite and isn't another complaint ticket again. hahaha
@@xerxesYt123 the word you're looking for might be "outsourced". That's when a company sends a project or a specific job to a different more specialized company.
Shae did do a great job 👏🏻
I've been waiting for 3 months for all 4 parts to release before watching any SS so I can binge them all in one go. The time has come, I'm SO glad I held off until now, so much content!
As a sales person I can say that saying anything about closing the deal comes off as pushy to customers, so I wouldn’t harp on that. It can be done but it’s usually most effective to make the customer feel like you’re giving them all the best option(s) and to decide for themselves before going to point of sale. Stopping them from buying online to take their credit card over the phone would be bad as would giving them instructions to complete their check out.. always let the customer decide to pull out the card. But then again, I live in a rural southern area.
nope youre totally right. instant loss of sale if they try to close on the phone. theres enough competition out there id move straight on to the next company.
I had a job in sales when I was a bit younger and I don't agree with this, it has to be done if you want to make it as a salesperson. That being said, it does require you to have some tact and going at it so directly usually has, like you stated, the opposite effect. If you have tact, it's fine.
Over my years there, people that wouldn't push to close would usually leave after a month or two. It's also worth noting most companies have temp jobs with objectives, so if you don't sell, you get fired, you're pretty much forced to do it. This leads to high competition and fraud which was the reason I never touched sales again. Because others are doing it on the extreme those objectives are raised to unachievable levels if you do the job properly and have respect for the customers basically.
The amount of bs I saw people doing and getting away with was insane and they justified it with "well if I don't do it I'll get fired". Things from making contracts in the name of dead people to making up information, to and most commonly call them from a personal phone to bs without being recorded. I'm very surprised noone regulates this properly, even when people like me go to the trouble of complaning and giving proof
I haven't worked in sales so I'm really talking out of my ass here, but I feel like there could be very approachable ways to mention it as an *option* without giving the customer any pressure
such as "if you would like, I can take your payment information to place the order for you, otherwise you can complete your order online at any time when you are ready"
or at least "if you would like, I can stay on the line with you if you have any questions while you place your order online" or something of the sort.
No, that's just dum = giving them 'all the best options' =)) U need 2 give them 1 or very few options that U reccommend, otherwise they just get confused & think U R stupid & go buy from somebody else who has the guts 2 say 'this is exactly what U need' blabla.
@@TorvicIsSantaA good sales person can apply pressure without the customer knowing that they are applying pressure.
If you, as a customer, ever feel like it's turned into you against the sales person, they are not doing their job right.
Go watch the beginning of _The Wolf of Wall Street._ Specifically the scene where Leo sells his first penny stocks. It's a bit oversold, but it absolutely gets the point across. You will NEVER know when someone that is good at their job just sold you something. _You will think you made the choice yourself._ You didn't.
We used to put different products on higher commission. I didn't push those products, I _sold_ them. Didn't matter what the customer wanted. If one product was 5% and the other was 14%, I was going to sell you the 14% basically no matter what. Not only that, but you would think it was all your idea and that I had nothing to do with it. And I'm not even that good at it. I just followed the system. The guys that were really good, shit...
Edit: typo
I laughed so hard when the Origin rep was agonizingly trying to tell her that she's too poor to afford anything they sell without being offensive.
Heads rolled after last secret shooper
I mean if ANYONE who saw any of the secret shopper videos still decides to buy from Origin they deserve all the overpriced shit they will get.
then later an origin person see's this video... and goes AH SHIIIIT
imagine hp doing better than a newer company.
I'm legit baffled by Origin PC. These guys are just ripping people off for what they pay.
@@desertsandfly2277 Why? They address higher paying customers by offering a better experience rather than a value product. They are the only ones that ship in crates, rather than standard box shipping to lower chances of problems that might appear in shipping. Support doesn't sound outsourced (like Dell's) and it is probably better trained so it costs more. All of these costs are covered by the product's price.
What you are saying is equivalent to calling entry level offers of luxury/premium brands like Audi, Mercedes or BMW rip-offs because they cost more than a Toyota or Renault of same class and performance.
The HP girl was so cute and wholesome ;_: i could totally relate from being a shy girl myself and i worked in customer service for internet providers, it felt to me like she wasnt neccesarily uneducated in the field, but rather in HP's script or their specific boxes, i think she was just new, had a stressful day and was glad to finally get somebody calm and open to her ideas on the phone, i hope she's doing great i know that job can be stressful and people can be very rude.
she probably quit, let's be honest. Who'd want that job?
Definite new, she sounded like she was having a genuinely good time talking to a customer and has not been emotionally bodyslammed for years yet.
She had a fantastic attitude but she also clearly knew nothing at all about computers. Like they said in the vid, that falls on training and her managers, not the employee herself.
@@Thatonedude227definitely outsourced from abroad. She clearly sounded Filipina
As someone who builds on commission small time around town, I say the fist question should always be what the user plans to do with the computer on the day to day. Those who want someone else to build for them prefer the convenience and maybe don't have the time to do the research. I don't expect them to have an answer that details any computer part or spec.
My question list is usually:
What do you plan to do on your PC?
If gaming: What games do you plan to play?
If gaming: Do you want to stream on it as well?
Do you prefer an average size tower or a small machine?
On a scale of 1-10, how flashy do you want it to look?
What's your budget?
omggg the monk-themed intro!! I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT LMAOO
The jokes from Techquickie have evolved and taken over the entire channel. I approve.
Just finished the video and man I need to say, the experience across the board seems to have improved dramatically in the last few years! And wow those systems seem much closer together in performance than past years. I wonder how much of that is due to secret shopper? Probably not most of it, but some I bet. I think gaming becoming more mainstream and more common has probably made a big impact and is making the prebuilt business more sustainable and less cutthroat and toxic. Either way I’m very hopeful that all these systems come in fully working and competitive against each other. Hell ya!
I've heard directly that secret shopper has been a catalyst for change. It's hard to say exactly how much of it would have happened anyway, but this seems to be one of the ways we can directly impact the customer experience buying tech. We plan to keep doing it. - LS
Hell ya keep up the great fight for the consumer! @@LinusTechTips
@@LinusTechTips someone suggested about you guys building a PC within the same budged and compare it to the units bought from them. Please take that idea into consideration. (I'm personally insterested in that)
I hope the sales rep from HP does well, after working in customer support I understand how awful it can be to work in a call center. Hopefully HP do their part and equip her with the knowledge and training to thrive.
I don't think the more expensive PC linked by starforge was a bad suggestion. They Specifically implied that "if you wanted to go full pro with your streaming, then realistically you would need something like this". the only thing they didnt mention was that they understood that it was out of her budget.
yeah i agree theres SUCH a difference between playing a game and streaming a game that most people dont understand. I feel like its a fair disclaimer to be like "if you want your stream to not be horrible this is realistically what you need to spend" but the atarforge employee typed like they had a word limit so who knows
but there is a HUGE gap between the 2 systems (prices). There must be more sensible compromises.
@@Thisandthat8908 for a boutique system builder probably not. theyre like apple phones, how theres only a few base models.
Same. A suggestion was given that fits the budget and a second suggestion was given in case there's flexibility with the budget and the buyer can be tempted. That's just sales being sales and you're going to find that just about anywhere. No different than anyone suggesting a warranty plan or add-ons like headsets or keyboards.
@@oshwaflznot really, you can use hardware encoding these days
The Starforge upsell is particularly egregious because they have a SKU between the Prime and the Ultra (Horizon II Super) for ~$1700 that they didn't even mention. Went for the crazy upsell!
It's $2,099.99, they read it wrong and did not correct it.
I love these
For nzxt it sounds like a tech support guy helping out a person, as opposed to a sales trained rep. That was cool.
In my opinion for all the sites they are sending people to, reps should have a " discount code " and offer it per call , this would give like " 5% off " at checkout or something. Then they could track sales per rep by those codes. Would be a good way to ' close the deal' without having to have the rep actually do it on their end.
I didn't realise he was imitating monk untill he said he wanted to go somewhere cleaner, and did similar body language, I loved that show.
Great job guys.
Man, good shout getting Shea in for this. She was the star of Adam's AMD tech upgrade and definitely has a character.
Agreed
Thank you for reminding me about how she was so familiar to me.
Ohhhhh that's who she is!
This is a wild improvement across the board compared to earlier years, apparently public shaming works 😂. All the reps were passing grade at least, and most were excellent 👍
As someone who sold CE for just under 10 years (and cars for a couole sfter that), Im actually ok with the sales people not closing. I think thats a business decision to stop bad sales people pressuring customers into anything especially the high call center turn over
Not only am I okay with that, I absolutely prefer it. We’re consumers, why would we want to be pressured? Linus is singing to the wrong crowd.
Linus is a businessman, most of his fans aren't.
Its clear allot of these companies don't have a thorough sales process.
If you have a good sales process and presentation, the close is easy and doesn't feel like pressure.
Asking for someone's business is better than not, its that simple.
i love you guys. this was so heart warming. and to be honest it was nice to see it wasn't all corporate pilfering and nasty. Couple of em needed training sure, but they were trying. Not trying to rob you. How many people are getting overcharged by old web contracts or buying new hardware - especially when you go in ernest, asking a lot and clearly knowing 'less'.
I love how you set up these things and rock em... and I love how often the news isn't always bad :P I kinda needed that.
Secret shopper is always really interesting, can’t wait to see how everything shapes up this year.
Ever since her breakout role on AMD tech upgrade I've been waiting to see Notalie in an actual video! I love her energy!
yeah, i think ive watched that video like 7-8 times. Its like a Seinfeld episode
when was that AMD Tech upgrade episode?
@@TheKb117Six months ago in the episode with Adam. The one with “CHAOS” in the title.
@@papaquonis yeah, got it! The first episode for the AMD tech upgrade. Thx!
I like that they don't close the sale and let you take your time and chose it's better I think. Cyberpower was great.
Emotionally, the HP girl was the best by far. Even if you know nothing she'll make the experience great for you! ( And to be fair at 1500$, a balanced system can do most things you'd want...)
Ibuypower sounds like the one who'll teach you most about what you really need.
Maingear cared about the value of what you got which is really good.
For the NZXT guy, I think he deals with customer issues so often that he just knows what is an issue with orders and so he can fix it. x)
I agree, I understand why it's a better business decision to close but I'm really surprised Linus was suggesting that they do, it's a much better customer experience if they don't
I would be way less likely to buy from them if they stayed on the line to try force me to buy from them after just asking for information in the price range for 5 to 10 mins
@@bruuhhhh Linus's background is doing sales and NCIX. He knows what he's talking about.
From a business side I can see that you absolutely want to close the deal. From the consumer side, I would rather have them either set up an online shopping cart, or talk me what system to buy.
@@leeroyjenkins0the customer protection in the EU is the same for sales over the internet and phone.
No difference there.
I'm glad Origin just flat-out said, "Sorry, we don't make anything in your budget." Very direct, to the point, no wasted time. It's always a bit of an awkward interaction but it's better than them trying to spend time convincing you to spend more money.
I 100% believe that sweet lady on the hp hotline is either on her very first day taking calls or she's within the first weeks of the calls and still has hope the vast majority of customer support calls are NOT going to be people who are already pissed off before she even pick up the phone. No way she can have done this job long enough to know what it's and still be this joyful and (over-)motivated! 😅
Some people can just be happy. Kind of a miserable sad comment
@@Lord_LindaThePhilosopher says the guy with the 5 nights a freddys profile picture, when you grow uo you will see the real world for whst it is.
@@Lord_LindaThePhilosopherhave you ever worked in a call center before? It sucks the soul out of you
@@Lord_LindaThePhilosopher Shes definitely relatively new but after working in call centers for years you'd be surprised how many people call in with a pissy attitude or acting like it's a medical emergency over something like their tv going out and it takes skills to bring them back to earth. Especially tech support when 60% of the time it's an issue they caused. When certain people hear a sweet person on the line like her the try to bully and berate them especially if they can tell you are new or simply don't know what you're doing
I worked at a call center and I considered it my sworn duty if someone called in grumpy I had to make them laugh.( if they had a good reason to be of course. people just mad for no good reason got the quick calls)