Comments by "TeeKay" (@teekay_1) on "Higgins Shows He's Been On Hold With Social Security For Over An Hour To Biden's Ex-Commissioner" video.

@ Because we've seen how the VA operates and we find that kind of health care wanting.
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If you think about it, most things these people do could be handled online. You shouldn't ever need to be on the phone,
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@TheQuack-t5t Nah, replace them with an outside call center firm. That way we can enforce accountability
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@judylee1860 The long term employees teach the in's and out's of how to avoid work to younger employees.
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@ If a private pension company did this, they'd be in striped shirts and leg irons.
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@ Excuse me, do you know how hard the Social Security employees work? Stats show that outsourced call centers are more productive because they invest in the technology to make them more productive. The federal government has such an old mindset that they're still working from terminals and mainframes.
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Then they send you a letter which doesn't answer the question that you have, and mark the case as closed.
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@ exactly.
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@suzannekeith7304 You might be surprised at what seniors can do. Let's say 40% of seniors will use a computer (which they do all the time to book travel, shop online, and talk with their friends on Facebook). That means a 40% decline in calls, which will significantly shorten call times by up to 50-75%. Even if it's only 25%, the people aging into social security have been using the web now for 20 years. So very shortly we'll have almost all seniors comfortable with using computers. But you don't start that in 10 years, you start that now so it's there already. You need to think more broadly about this problem than just your experience with seniors.
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@terywetherlow7970 you do understand that I said an American call center outsourcer right? P.S. due to the ineptness of our government employees, the Chinese and Russian already have all the information on you. The chinese in particular broke into our systems years ago.
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@cherylmatthews5507 You'd hire people who would be paid based on performance, not protected by a ridiculous union contract.
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@ . Everything has to be done online now. I have a truckload of sign ins and passwords to keep up with Actually there is one sign-in for all public facing government services.
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@ziplockbagish It wouldn't be hard to replace them.
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@bryanw.3048 Just a follow up... Until federal agencies can give statistics of how long wait times are to the public and commit to specific metrics of lowering wait times significantly, they shouldn't get any more money, because just hiring more people doesn't ensure call times will go down. I am 100% for hiring more people, but if the wait time doesn't go down, the funding goes away and the people in charge of the call centers would be fired and replaced with people who know how to drive call center efficiency. Individuals who consistently miss targets would be let go and replaced In the 21st century continuous improvement targets are not just a good thing; it's mandatory to keep your job.
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@Keggertotap read my last post. The way you run any sort of call center is to measure and then come with a plan You measure this in two ways: 1) Measure call time and first time resolution 2) Measure time on call for each agent and first call resolution You come up with a median time of calls with resolution Then you look for agents falling below that median time and give them additional training. If they're still lagging, you get rid of people who can't meet standards. Look at agents who consistently resolve in one call, and listen to what they do (yes, they record every call to a call center) If you find that first call resolution is impossible due to structural issues, then you fix the structural issue. If you find that you just have incompetent agents, you get rid of them.
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@StolenJoker84 Obviously you need a transition, but the internet has been around for 30 years . The boomers were the last generation who will struggle with computers (an apologies to those boomers who use the internet effortlessly). However Gen X doesn't struggle with it, nor do the Millennials. That transition should happen now given that the boomers are mostly already on social security.
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@zbutter1239 You evaluate before you fire people. But it's a sure bet in a government organization that a lot of people really are not up to standards.
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@3shepherdsandamutt Fire the people who can't meet the metrics, hire people who can. Is that really that hard to understand?
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@3shepherdsandamutt That's temporary until they get a handle on budgets. It happens every time there is a change of administration. BTW, traffic in DC will be even worse than it is today. You might consider taking Metro.
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@d.h.jefferies2191 This is Social Security Jeffy, try to keep up. And yes, fire the 85,000 IRS people.
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