Customer Service

Embarq Thinks Humans Are Better

Bernie — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:17:07 -0500

Embarq announced that customers who call their customer service center during business hours will “now be greeted by a live person instead of the usual automated system most companies use today.” Hallelujah. While I applaud Embarq for making this move, the fact that they have to issue a press release to announce it is illustrative of the pitiful state of customer service in the overall telecom sector, and well, customer service in general. Large companies now feel compelled to tell us that we will encounter human interaction when reaching out to them. What’s next – press releases announcing technicians might actually show up on time?

This is not a sweeping indictment on all service providers. Many truly understand and value customer service, and in fact, use it to their competitive advantage. I also understand that companies with millions of customer relationships have to be efficient with customer interactions or risk unmanageable customer care costs. But I do wonder if it’s gone too far. Customers are too often met with confusing phone menus, with too many levels, which often lead to the wrong department anyway. Companies have become far too dependent on these automated systems and have lost track of the importance of human interaction. "Our research shows that consumers prefer a live agent for telephone support because many of today's automated systems are missing the mark in terms of customer expectations," said Sheryl Kingstone, Director of Enterprise Research for Yankee Group in Embarq’s press release. Has it come to this - we need research from the Yankee Group to tell us the importance of meeting customer expectations. How about this - in an increasingly competitive landscape, companies have a real opportunity to differentiate themselves by simply inserting a more human feel. There - not nearly as expensive as research from Yankee.

Verizon FiOS: We Have a Problem

Bernie — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:12:43 -0400

Verizon’s 3Q08 numbers reveal great progress for FiOS. They added 233K new FiOS TV customers and 225K new FiOS Internet customers, both of which fueled a 45% gain in broadband and video revenues over the previous year. Penetration rates are 19.7% for FiOS TV and 24.2 % for FiOS Internet – impressive numbers. The earnings release had all the typical fanfare and chest bumping rhetoric about how fantastic everything is. Do you feel a “But” coming on? Here it is. Verizon has a FIOS customer service problem that is brewing under the surface, which if not addressed, could come back to haunt them. A Google search for “FiOS Customer Service Problems” yielded me 477K results. Substitute Comcast for FiOS and you get 265K. Granted, not a scientific study, but you get my point.

The reality is it’s not the sheer numbers that are the problem. The vast majority of FiOS service orders go off without a hitch, resulting in satisfied customers. But from my observation, the minority of customers who have a problem, enter some form of “FiOS customer service hell,” desperately looking for a way out. I count myself as one of the helpless souls. I’ve heard anecdotally about FiOS customer service problems over the past couple years, but now I’ve experienced it. Verizon – you have a problem. You’ve spent considerable resources on automating much of the process, which I realize is necessary for an undertaking of this scale. But when those systems break down, and a customer gets caught in them, there is no way out. You’re left in some type of FiOS purgatory, which causes you to spend hours upon hours on the phone with CSR’s who are unable (or inept) to solve a problem. Here are two consistent problems that my rudimentary research revealed – you have serious problems with number porting from online orders and your billing system is wreaking havoc with too many customers. I suspect Verizon execs dismiss a “FiOS customer service problem” exists, since the majority of customers are being attended to just fine. But I sense some potential damage to the Verizon and FiOS brands, if not addressed. There are a lot of frustrated people out there who talk to a lot of other people, creating what appears to be a groundswell of negative perception. You may want to put “the network” and “that guy” on the case. If not, you may find yourself a year or so down the road, scratching your head trying to figure out where all that FiOS progress went.

Sprint Dramatically Improves Customer Service

Bernie — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:59:24 -0400

Sprint’s new found focus on customer service is seeing some results. New research from Pali Research reveals dramatic improvement, including Sprint leaping from last to first place in customer care call response times. Sprint answered 91% of the calls into its call center within 30 seconds, improving from 68% in the previous year. The noticeable improvement also leads all their competitors, with Verizon having the closest percentage at 85%. T-Mobile’s rate was slightly less than half of Sprint’s rate, at 45%. AT&T brought up the rear, coming in at 33%. Sprint’s progress went beyond answering the phone quickly. They also are apparently getting better at resolving customer issues on the first call. Here’s hoping they can maintain these customer service numbers, and not just use them as a short term gimmick to slow their dreadful decline is subscriber counts.

Kudos to Sprint for improving customer service, but you have to wonder if it will be enough to slow their subscriber exodus. The iPhone effect is probably hurting Sprint considerably, and T-Mobile’s G1 will soon have its moment in the sun. Adding insult to injury, Verizon will soon be exclusively trotting out the BlackBerry Storm. Sprint’s going to need some smartphone mojo of their own to keep up. Will XOHM be able to pick up the slack?

Embarq LaunchesYouTube Channel

Bernie — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:35:04 -0400

Embarq announced the launch of an Embarq YouTube channel, which will feature instructional videos for Embarq services. Embarq says the strategy will “bring customer service to the customer.” As of this posting, the Embarq channel had 17 instructional videos for things like Embarq email, the eGo phone, and several promotional videos about RescueIT, their residential tech support service. "The YouTube Channel is another way for us to show our customers that we are here for them," said Dan Alcazar, Embarq Consumer Marketing Officer. "From this site, we can use videos to provide them with step-by-step instructions while actively listening and responding to their questions and concerns." Embarq is promoting the new channel through a user generated content contest, inviting customers to upload a “48 second” video demonstrating their unique talent. Kind of reminds me of David Letterman’s “stupid human tricks.”

With this new YouTube channel, Embarq joins most major service providers, including AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, to name a few, who have YouTube channels. They’re all trying to figure out how to tap YouTube’s mass appeal for their own gain. Embarq’s twist on it is interesting. I didn’t do an exhaustive search, but I didn’t see other service provider examples of a customer service angle. Most are using it strictly for promotional purposes. Of course Embarq is too, but using the customer service hook seems to be unique, for now.

The Problem With Customer Service

Bernie — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 10:39:29 -0400

Sprint issued a press release today that highlights a new customer service initiative for its retail stores. The new focus will be “a revolution in the wireless retail experience.” I think we can all agree, if there was ever a retail experience that needed revolutionizing, it’s the wireless retail store. But I digress. The real issue here is why do companies like Sprint seem to put the focus on customer service when times are bad? Seems to me that if customer service were a priority when times are good, the chance of those good times turning into bad times is lessened. Shouldn’t excellent customer service be a priority ALL THE TIME? Sprint goes on to say that this initiative is “Part of Ongoing Plan to Revolutionize Customer Service One Customer at a Time.” Good for them, but the sheer fact that Sprint is admitting that their customer service has to be “revolutionized” speaks to the problem. Memo to large conglomerates who service consumers with a product or service – take good care of customer service all the time and customers will take care of you. You won’t need to execute an expensive PR campaign to convince people of your new found focus on good customer service.

This is not a sweeping indictment on all service providers (or a rant on Sprint - I applaud them for addressing the issue). Some large service providers seem to be doing ok with customer service. I don’t know one that I would characterize as doing well – at least from a customer point of view. From a boardroom view, I’m sure many large conglomerates are patting themselves on the back relative to their perceived view of customer service success. And certainly smaller service providers tend to do much better with customer service. In fact, most of them use customer service as a competitive weapon against larger competitors. I also recognize that customer service does not scale well. The larger you get, the harder it is to do. But I guess the larger question is, why didn’t Sprint decide to make a customer service “covenant with new and existing wireless customers,” when they weren’t hemorrhaging a million plus subscribers per quarter?

Aggravating Customer Service is Troubling in Competitive Times

Bernie — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 10:48:56 -0500

I don’t usually comment on my own experiences, but I feel compelled to do so today. Along with being a telecom industry analyst and consultant, I’m also an obvious consumer of telecom services. Over the past few days, I’ve had the most aggravating experiences in trying to establish new telecom service (we’re in the process of moving our offices), that it really makes me wonder about the true impact of competition on the marketplace. What I mean by that is, my experience in trying to buy services from both an incumbent telecom carrier and a national wireless company have been so frustrating and aggravating, it makes me wonder if competition and its impact really exists.

It seems to me that these service providers would have systems in place that allow me to easily spend money with them, rather than with their competitors. But what I found was a bureaucratic mess that put me in an endless loop of phone transfers to customer service reps who were either indifferent, incompetent, unable, or unwilling to accept my monthly check for their services. I find it absolutely amazing that I have spoken to seven representatives (not an exaggeration) from the incumbent telephone company to try to order business DSL service, and I still haven’t been able to get an order placed. This experience is either great news for their competitors or bad news for competition proponents. The great news angle is that if you can create a system that simply allows people to start spending money with you without having to jump through endless loops, you should be in business. The bad news is maybe incumbents have squashed competitors to the point that they can live with these incredible inefficiencies and care less about them. As for me, lesson learned. The next call is to the cable company, who is aggressively pursuing the small business market. Any bets on the number of reps I’ll have to talk to there, before giving them the opportunity to collect money from me every month?

Comcast Has Three Million Phone Subs

Bernie — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 08:24:41 -0400

With the announcement of Colorado Springs, CO being their latest digital voice market, Comcast now claims just over 3 million voice customers. Windstream, the sixth largest phone company (3.4 million access lines) in the U.S. is now within sight of Comcast. They have already surpassed both CenturyTel and Citizens Communications, and would rank as the seventh largest phone company in the U.S. (by access line count).

Some would argue this is proof positive that bundling works. After all, who would have predicted five years ago that Comcast could overcome poor customer service perceptions and convince millions of subscribers to abandon their local phone company for their local cable company? Not many. You could draw a conclusion that effective bundling works - even overcoming poor service provider perceptions. Consumers seem willing to give companies with a “checkered” past (from a customer service point of view) a try, provided the perceived value is there.

Cable's Customer Service Baggage Presents Opportunities

Bernie — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 11:55:40 -0400

New analysis from ABI Research suggests that the cable industry’s poor reputation for customer service may present problems for them, while opening windows of opportunity for their competitors. “We’re starting to see more bundles of voice and data integration offerings, and we have seen promotional pricing to capture the market. But there is such discontent among CATV subscribers that telcos are able to move in and steal customers,” says Stan Schatt, vice president and research director for ABI. Before telecom competitors start patting themselves on the back, ABI suggests that telecom customer service is not exactly stellar either, just better than low performing cable. Interestingly enough, cable is being rated higher than telcos for phone service in recent studies, but as this ABI research suggests, lower for their core video service.

ABI goes on to postulate that telcos have a real advantage when/if they are able to leverage IPTV and its many potential advanced features. Coupled with cable’s poor service reputation, telcos have a real opportunity to seize the market. Cable recognizes these deficiencies and says they are committed to improving their customer service practices. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts recently acknowledged that Comcast needed improvement and outlined some steps they plan to implement. Time will tell if this is just lip service. ABI suggests that telcos may gain competitive advantage from these factors, provided they can execute well and not make some of the same customer service mistakes that has led to cable’s poor reputation.