* A poor carrier customer-service example
We believe mobile operators that pay scant attention to customer service will suffer in the marketplace. Jim’s example of poor service began almost a year ago when he went to AT&T Wireless’ Web site to determine if he could subscribe to a service that would give him both wireless WAN and Wi-Fi access. When that failed, he called AT&T Wireless’ 800 number and spent considerable time in IVR hell. Eventually his call was handled by an agent who told Jim that all he had to do was take his BlackBerry and stick it into his laptop.
We believe mobile operators that pay scant attention to customer service will suffer in the marketplace. Jim’s example of poor service began almost a year ago when he went to AT&T Wireless’ Web site to determine if he could subscribe to a service that would give him both wireless WAN and Wi-Fi access. When that failed, he called AT&T Wireless’ 800 number and spent considerable time in interactive voice response (IVR) hell. Eventually his call was handled by an agent who told Jim that all he had to do was take his BlackBerry and stick it into his laptop.
Jim bit his tongue and subscribed to the service anyway. Things went well for a while until the antenna on the sim card began to wiggle. This resulted in the throughput dropping to where the service was not usable.
Jim called Cingular (now owner of AT&T Wireless) and went through several rounds of IVR hell with it and Ericsson, the manufacturer of the sim card. The good news is that multiple customer service agents assured him that the card was under warranty and would be fixed for free. The bad news is that weeks later, the defunct card was returned with a note indicating that the card was not under warranty. Imagine Jim’s surprise when he called Cingular and was told that his only option was to buy a new Cingular sim card and sign up for two more years of service.
Kindly share your relevant experiences with us and indicate if you agree that customer service will be a major indicator of an operator’s success.
