The Lost Art of Customer Service

Try Listening For A Change

From my business partner Levi:

Jon, you'd appreciate this. I just called Broadwing to get a competitive quote on our xO T1 integrated access contract, which expires in a few months, and despite having told the rep this when her first question was, "Why are you calling today?", her next question was, "What is your Broadwing account number." I responded, "Did you listen to anything I just said?" After asking that question and my response, she just said, "Okay, so you're not an existing customer I guess. What services are you looking for?"

Right, but can you listen?

Maybe we should call the book, The Lost Art of Customer Service: Try Listening for a Change.

From my business partner Levi:

Jon, you'd appreciate this. I just called Broadwing to get a competitive quote on our xO T1 integrated access contract, which expires in a few months, and despite having told the rep this when her first question was, "Why are you calling today?", her next question was, "What is your Broadwing account number." I responded, "Did you listen to anything I just said?" After asking that question and my response, she just said, "Okay, so you're not an existing customer I guess. What services are you looking for?"

Right, but can you listen?

Maybe we should call the book, The Lost Art of Customer Service: Try Listening for a Change.

The Lost Art of Customer Service

Look for this to be a regular feature at jondale.com. Levi and I are collecting research for a new book, The Lost Art of Customer Service, which will help companies understand the importance of looking after their customers. We'd love you stories and feedback about both good and bad customer service experiences.

So here goes:

Sure, whatever!

I'll be honest, the verdict is still out on Sprint at this point. Let's just say I've had a lot of problems. It amazes me that a company that I pay over $2500 a year to (over the next decade that's $25,000) can't figure out how to bill me correctly for Internet service on my phone.

Yesterday, I spent over 2 hours talking to "customer service" trying to resolve billing problem. Thanks to number portability, we now all have a choice. You see they (the cell phone providers) used to have us by the balls because if we moved to another provider, we lost our phone number. Not so any more. You can move between providers and from a land line to a wireless phone and keep your old number.

To make a long story short, I finally told them I was writing about customer service and suddenly they put me through to a very friendly supervisor who apologized for all the problems and promised to have someone in the Customer Relations (maybe the should call it the PLEASE DON'T LEAVE, PRETTY PLEASE) Department call me to resolve the problem. If they haven't called me by Wednesday, I'm switching to AT&T. Ah, the power of choice :) I guess we'll see what happens.

Have you had a good or bad experience with Sprint or another wireless provider. Make a comment!

Look for this to be a regular feature at jondale.com. Levi and I are collecting research for a new book, The Lost Art of Customer Service, which will help companies understand the importance of looking after their customers. We'd love you stories and feedback about both good and bad customer service experiences.

So here goes:

Sure, whatever!

I'll be honest, the verdict is still out on Sprint at this point. Let's just say I've had a lot of problems. It amazes me that a company that I pay over $2500 a year to (over the next decade that's $25,000) can't figure out how to bill me correctly for Internet service on my phone.

Yesterday, I spent over 2 hours talking to "customer service" trying to resolve billing problem. Thanks to number portability, we now all have a choice. You see they (the cell phone providers) used to have us by the balls because if we moved to another provider, we lost our phone number. Not so any more. You can move between providers and from a land line to a wireless phone and keep your old number.

To make a long story short, I finally told them I was writing about customer service and suddenly they put me through to a very friendly supervisor who apologized for all the problems and promised to have someone in the Customer Relations (maybe the should call it the PLEASE DON'T LEAVE, PRETTY PLEASE) Department call me to resolve the problem. If they haven't called me by Wednesday, I'm switching to AT&T. Ah, the power of choice :) I guess we'll see what happens.

Have you had a good or bad experience with Sprint or another wireless provider. Make a comment!