4 out of 5 customers agree... calling a company's customer service line is a frustrating experience.
5 out of 5 companies agree... they don't care.
The last time I helped my parents sign-up for a cell phone plan, we were the lucky recipients of 3 defective (but brand-new) cell phones. Even after following the activation directions to the letter multiple times, I couldn't get even get one to work.
So began a 3-day long adventure of customer "service". After a significant amount of time trying to get through to a human, multiple long waits, 5 different people telling me 7 times the exact same directions to activate the phones--and numerous wishes for a punching bag--one customer service rep finally admitted to me that my new phones *may* have been shipped without any software. As a result, they simply couldn't be activated!
Happily, they were able to send us new phones in just a couple days (that worked right off the bat).
But why did it take so long (and so many activation requests) to figure out the problem?
Quite simply, because I was no longer a priority to them!
Let's face it, when we sign-up for a cell phone service, it ceases to be about us the moment they charge our credit cards. We don't need to be wooed anymore and they don't need to convince us that they're a great company to use.
From that day forward, they can count on 24 months of constant paychecks and the luxury of knowing they can charge us fees for choosing to change to another provider too soon. Many customers even receive network-specific phones, and others will lose their telephone number if they change providers.
They have us right where they want us.
Now that we're stuck in a 2-year contract, the courtship is over. And that's why calling customer service lines can feel like torture. They have all the power in the relationship.
So if bills are wrong, or mysterious charges show up, or the service simply doesn't work in an area... it's not the company's problem. It's up to the customer to get issues resolved because the company doesn't care if people get what they're paying for. They make money when customers don't contest extra charges, or when customers pay even though the service doesn't work for them.
In response to (multiple) comments on her post about Sprint, Becky Carroll writes:
I have a sneaky suspicion that Sprint call center reps are doing when they are incented to do: get customers off the phone quickly. Until companies change their metrics to be more customer-focused, it will be very difficult to see true customer resolution of issues...
...The telecomm industry has a very high turnover rate, mostly due to the fact (I believe) that customers are “hold hostage” to their carrier or cable company. Many times, there are not a lot of choices, or customers are locked in with huge fees for leaving...
...Sprint did not value the customers it fired, for whatever reason.
Of course they don't. Why should they bother making changes when the majority of their customers are shackled to their service agreement? Plus, poor customer service is an industry standard in the US cell phone business. (Even though Sprint is rated as the worst.)
In Sprint's view, they have no incentive to change to a more customer-focused system. Until they really feel negative results from their behavior, they’ll probably just continue what they’re doing.
After all, "With over 53,000,000 subscribers, Sprint will feel no pain over losing 1,000 "demon" customers."
(By the way, the only way I reached a real live person when calling the helpline was by clicking through to the sales department and pretending to be confused!)
Comments