I'm uhnappy w/ the current representatives II

This thread has been locked for violating Forum Guidelines.

To provide feedback on the North American team, please email wowcmfeedback@blizzard.com.

Please note that while emails sent to the address will likely not receive a response, but each one will be read and handled accordingly.

I'm reopening this thread since it's a broader discussion about the role of Community Managers. Rygarius is right though. We strongly recommend that feedback regarding Community Managers or any of our specific posts be sent to WoWCMFeedback@Blizzard.com. We want to make sure gameplay discussions remain the central focus of these forums.

Umumaru, you make some fair points about professionalism. I'd rather not break them down to provide feedback on everything said, as I don't think this is a topic that most players on the forums would prefer I spend much time focusing on.

All that said, I want to briefly address this statement:

Their job is to grin and bear it, regardless of how wrong the customer is. They tell them what they want to hear (and let's not pretend that Blizzard doesn't do this to us) so that they go away.

We just don't agree with this. I'd like to avoid a semantic argument so I'll agree that, on some level, the community team is a form of customer support, as much as we're also a function of public relations. But, while we're linked directly to public relations as a communications branch at Blizzard, we're not directly tied to customer support.

One of the biggest components of our jobs is community engagement. We can't effectively be functioning members of the community, relate to the community on a personal level, and maintain a two-day dialog in discussions which largely revolve around subjective experiences and opinion, if our job is to "grin and bear it."

Everyday I'm sharing with the community on the forums, Twitter, and email my view of things, even as an official representative of Blizzard. I wouldn't love my career so much if I didn't actually believe what I'm saying or have the freedom to share my stance on things, or if my only role was to be someone's mouthpiece. On a personal level, I approach the forums each day hoping I can do some good, share helpful insights or new information, and encourage people to want to come to the forums for constructive reasons -- to speak reasonably and frankly about World of Warcraft with other players and representatives of Blizzard.

I know my brother would eject people from his store if they spoke to employees the way people on these forums speak to the Blues. There is a line between providing customer service and taking verbal abuse.

Oh, and what Zarhym said about them not actually being Customer Service.

So a representative of a company that interacts with customers has nothing to do with customer service? Riiiight...

This is what I meant by saying I'd like to avoid the semantic argument. :)

Yes, on some fundamental level we're providing support for our customers, but we're also not a part of the CS department at Blizzard. PR & Community form the Blizzard Communications branch. There is some two-way crossover between CS and Communications. Each side performs some functions that relate to the other. For example, having CS reps on the forums, Twitter, and Facebook links them to the company's overall communications/engagement strategy (which is largely determined by PR/Community). On the flipside, CMs answering player questions and sharing information with the public is a function of providing customer support (while CS policies and strategies are determined by CS).

There are major differences though. CS has access to tools that allow them to verify in-game matters and other situations reported to them, and offer billing and technical support to players on an individual basis. We don't have that same access and aren't trained to do what they do.

Meanwhile, we share design insight and philosophies to discuss World of Warcraft gameplay with the community in a public setting. This isn't a function of CS, as PR/Community is responsible for talking regularly to the developers about design, upcoming content, and gameplay feedback.

As I said before, our discussions with players tend to be subjective in nature, whereas CS is often assisting players with X issue which has Y solution.

I feel it's important to reiterate how I distinguished one-on-one interaction from public interaction. I never appreciate when people use some analogy to a retail customer service situation to make a point about how we don't treat customers correctly:

11/06/2012 03:00 PMPosted by Opolis

Go ask any manager of any store what he/she thinks a customer service reps job is to do in the face of a "rude" customer.

Are there tens of thousands of other customers standing around, listening in, and given the opportunity to share their opinion of how the interaction between the store manager and the "rude" customer went? I don't find this relevant.

You'd be better off comparing what we do to a town hall debate, but I'm not running for anything. ;)

The discussion has gotten a bit too meta and is no longer on-topic or about World of Warcraft.

Again, you are all welcome to forward your concerns and feedback you have with regards to the Community team, MVPs, or forum moderation to wowcmfeedback@blizzard.com.

For inquiries regarding forum suspensions, please send them to wowreportedpost@blizzard.com.

You're too meta.