Customer service VP at WorldCom sees brighter days ahead

Your company is in bankruptcy, under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and mentioned in the same breath with Enron as an example of corporate malfeasance. Your customers are nervous if not unhappy. And your job is senior vice president of customer service. Welcome to the life of WorldCom's Sonny Evans, who recently spoke with Network World Senior Editor Denise Pappalardo about how his department has - and has not - changed during all of the tumult since last summer.

Are there things that have changed within customer service since August?

One of the biggest things is the focus on the customer. We are streamlining our product portfolio and contracts. . . . There's a big focus on the small to midsize business organizations. Field customer service and sales folks were assigned to higher-end customers in the past. Now customer service centers are assigning all those customers to individual reps. We're calling them. We're touching base trying to tell them about new products and services. . . . Virtually every customer has someone assigned to them.

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Click to see: Sonny Evans

Are there things that have changed within customer service since August?

One of the biggest things is the focus on the customer. We are streamlining our product portfolio and contracts. . . . There's a big focus on the small to midsize business organizations. Field customer service and sales folks were assigned to higher-end customers in the past. Now customer service centers are assigning all those customers to individual reps. We're calling them. We're touching base trying to tell them about new products and services. . . . Virtually every customer has someone assigned to them.

Streamlining WorldCom's products and contracts, are those new initiatives?

They've been ongoing. Rarely do we have many problems with customers. The biggest issue they bring up is with their invoice and the presentation of their invoice. Depending on the product set they have, the invoices can get complex. We're making a concerted effort to streamline and simplify the products from a marketing standpoint with a strong commitment to improving the billing process and invoice presentation.

Have inquiries from customers about WorldCom's financial health increased?