Maybe I'm naive, but I have always maintained that if the CEO or COO or even a senior VP of one of these companies would call their Customer Service with a typical consumer issue, they would find out what it's like to be a little person. Perhaps, just perhaps, if they really cared about the people that paid their salaries, they would raise the appropriate hell and do something about it.

Course, I am assuming they care.

Based on Mike's experience above ^, just a little bit of good will would have sure gone a long way.

 

Yep, you are naive. Not Going To Happen!

 

Mike, AT&T and you are meant to be.

 

fixed it for ya,.

 

^ Yeah. I know.... Chuck and Scooter's CEO's seemed to care and did something about it, but that's the exception, I guess.

 

So, I'm going to throw my $.02 in on this since I work in this space on a near day-to-day basis. I monitor daily (even hourly), call performance of large call centers internally as well as build metrics around experience with outside carriers. So, I come with some bias when I pick up the phone and call a company and speak to their customer service department. I know what my expectation is, because we manage to a certain level of expectation. As a consumer, I expect the same when I call someone. Think of it as a server going to a restaurant to eat and having some predetermined expectation.

You would be surprised just how up the chain, calls are passed up. I would be very surprised if the executives at the companies you have mentioned didn't listen to random customer calls. There is a tremendous amount of time and resource that go into training and coaching.

Here is the problem. Well, some of the major problems.

Tenure/Turnover <- People in these rolls tend to have low tenure and are usually looking to move up/out of that role. By the time someone is truly proficient in that role, they are moving on

Empowerment <- Most of the time, a customer service rep is an entry level job. As such, accommodations are limited and usually have to be approved by someone else.

Legal Restrictions <- States, even countries have limits on what a company can, and cannot do. The biggest one circles around price. If there are legislations or state reporting required, the rules are even tighter.

Corporate Goals/Metrics <- At the end of the day, a company is in it to be profitable. While most companies have customer experience as part of their goals, there still needs to be a balance. They aren't going to just give away things for nothing.

I'm am the harshest critic of customer experience because I listen to calls, speak to customers, and when building relationships with new business partners, I constantly audit the experience. So, while I completely understand where people's frustration comes from, I just wanted to share some insight on the other side of the phone.

 

Oh, and I would have stuck with AT&T like I had at my old house but I live in the middle of nowhere now and the only thing we really have is Time Warner, which is terrible.

 

Since I started this discussion I’ll share some background.

I spent an entire career in Customer Service in a large corporation. One of those rolls involved Call Centers and there is not much I have not done. I’ve been involved with budgeting them, consolidating them, expanding them, finding new locations, and opening them. With respect to telephone/technology – I've worked with numerous outside carriers (AT&T, MCI, etc.), I've installed and refined massive custom statistical reports both individuals and groups, installed monitoring and recording equipment, etc. I’ve monitored thousands of calls. You get idea.

In fact, you’ll love this; I brought in the Company’s first “robot answering system”, built it from scratch and continually refined it. That was so many years ago I can only hazard a guess of maybe 35 or 40 years ago.

So I am certainly no stranger on how both a call center or a robot answering system should be built and run.

I can assure you AT&T is putting profit ahead of service. Or they have so many departmental silos they don’t know what the hell they are doing. BTW, they still have not followed up on the issue I reported.

 

Back in the day, I had AT&T for my long distance carrier vs Verizon. Even way back then the customer service with voice mail and press this, press that, was horrible.

I received offers from them over the years for internet, etc, but just tossed them right in the trash. I do have AT&T for my cell phone and have had few issues with customer service.

We have Verizon DSL at our office for phone and internet (no other options) customer service is really, really bad. It's as if they have ZERO interest in providing any service besides wireless.

These companies need another name for the Customer Service Department as they are not providing much in the way of service, just lots of aggravation.

 

I believe Comcast is getting the message. For example, they are opening up new call centers in the USA! Example, 550 agents in Charleston. In my last contact with them I spoke with an American and the call went well. What a change from some prior calls.

Usually when a company tells you how great their service is - it is just the opposite but I thought this email I got today from Comcast was encouraging when they admit they need a big cultural shift: