Don't Sprint, Just Walk

By now most of you have probably read about how Sprint fired about 1,000 of its customers for complaining too much about their bill. I first read about it on Drew's blog, then Marianne's, Seth's (twice), David's, and finally Doug's. My first impression was that Sprint was flipping off its ENTIRE customer base by firing these few customers, sort of like Aqua Teen Hunger Force did to Boston earlier this year. Reflecting on Paul's analysis of AT&T's policy of cooperating with the RIAA to prosecute customers for copyright violations, it struck me that Sprint's attitude towards it customers is not at all uncommon.

A few points were made in the conversations about Sprint's decision (and execution) that all service providers can and should listen to and learn from.

1. When a customer calls to complain, take the call seriously.
2. Don't assume your customers are the problem. In fact, if half your customers are unsatisfied with you, the problem probably isn't primarily with them.
3. Make sure that customer hangs up satisfied that his or her problem has been solved satisfactorily.
4. Do it quickly. Don't keep them on hold for 30 minutes.
5. Do it right the first time, and they won't have to call back again and again.

To paraphrase from a great post by Bob Glaza at One Reader at a Time, your customers won't remember who they spoke to when they called to resolve their problems. They'll only remember how you made them feel. Making customers feel bad about their experience with you is NEVER a good thing, whether you ultimately have to "fire" them or not. Consider providing a good experience "subliminal advertising."

Keeping them on hold for half an hour won't make them feel good about you.

Refusing to help them won't make them feel good about you.

Saying that you will help them, and then not doing it, won't make them feel good about you.

Firing them in such an ungraceful way for "pestering" you makes you appear snobbish, and sorry Sprint, but if the reports are right, your service is far too spotty for you to act snobbish. Take a look up for a second... There are lots of carriers who can do a better job than you're doing. Ask yourself this question, if you got rid of the coercive cancellation fee, how many of your customers would drop you tomorrow?

If the number is higher than you'd like, far better to get on your knees and beg forgiveness, not only to the 1,000 customers you fired for excessive complaining (though probably some of them actually deserved to be) and the 200 soldiers you fired for "excessive roaming," but also to your loyal customers whom you just put on notice.

I'm not sure what kind of legs this has in the mainstream media, but if it gets them, look for Sprint to hemorrhage customers over the next few months. As it is, I will not be likely to recommend Sprint in the future, and I will discourage friends from using them.

To be fair, though, if they take action to rectify the situation, I'll gladly post that as well. - Cam Beck

Comments

[Lewis Green]

Cam,

I think every business, especially the customer relations department, should read this post. Great coverage of the subject.

[Doug Meacham]

Hi Cam, Outstanding post and you're right. Sprint's approach is not at all uncommon. I love the 'Experience Is Subliminal Advertising' idea.

Doug

p.s. thanks for the link!

[Ryan Karpeles]

Very well said. I especially like point #2. We often treat people like they're to blame, when in reality it's US(!) that screwed up.

Taking problems seriously is a great step toward breaking out of that mindset.

[Cam Beck]

Thanks, guys, for your comments. What I'm gathering from everyones' comments is that the telecoms really don't take responsibility for customer service. Does anyone have an idea why this might be?

[Ryan Karpeles]

Could it be that there's a general disconnect between the values of the service reps and the values of the company?

Reps don't feel tied in to the organization's beliefs and/or vision. They're just there to answer phone calls and follow procedure. In that sense, it's an internally focused system. "Do what you can, but only if it works for us."

Part of the problem might be the nature of the telecom company's beliefs in the first place. They might talk about the value of good customer service. But do they really even care about walking that talk?

[Doug Meacham]

I think I put this in my follow-up post on Sprint. This is only my opinion based on personal observation (not empirical data). The mobile business in the US is pretty much a closed system with 4 major players controlling most of the market. There is very little differentiation between them (pricing, service offerings) and they like it that way. Said another way, very little competition and no other real alternatives for customers. Additionally, there is no disruptive technology poised to compete with them. Given all of that, there is no incentive to offer a higher level of customer service than you competitors. Customers are typically locked into a contract and many simply switch carriers when the contract expires because thats the lowest cost way to get a new phone. Each company loses some customers each day because of this, but they get replaced with people switching from a competitor, so again, there is no incentive to keep anyone happy. This sounds really absurd, but its the way it appears to work from my vantage point.

[Marianne Richmond]

Cam,

You asked the critical question: why?
Ryan is correct in the value disconnect and Doug is accurate in mentioning the lack of incentive to do better which is the result of pricing based upon contract lock-in.

But what drives that business model? I think it is metrics similar to the ones used by the automobile oompany in the movie Fight lub. Rather than fix the safety problem that is killing passengers, actuaries determined that it is more profitable to leave the problem and settle the lawsuit versus fixing the problem.

I think in places like Sprint that consistently display a complete lack of empathy and respect for the happiness of their customers, there is a department of bean counters who recommend focusing resources in attaining new customers and front end load the the relationship building.

In other words...spend like crazy on advertising, promote your product through sign up pricing and tell your customer in the very first encounter that you really have no intention of fixing the problem.

So in the old days, you went away angry, called back frequently, and when your contract was over, you went on to the next carrier offering another
sign on bonus.

Somewhere the numbers said that the costs to acquire, nurture and satisfy customers is far less than the cost to provide a quality product and service for a moment.

Then along came social media and the model began to crack.

The one customer could post the account to their blog and all of a sudden, those voices were as loud and more compelling that the advertising promises and free phones.

For the customer, it became apparent that the free phone and the generous calling plan paled in comparison to bad service, constant billing errors, and out sourced customer support.

So, the smart companies will see how the model changes and encourage a differernt bedside manner, quality products and clear clean and consise customer support.

[Bob Glaza]

Yo Cam - first off thanks for the love in reference to my post.
Second - I'm not sure if its irony or not - but I've just spent the last 3 days in Orbitz hell. Your point of not keeping people on hold really zinged me. I was on hold with them for 1 hour 40 minutes on Wednesday 7.11. Doug using the word absurd says it all.

From this day forward I will remember how Orbitz made me feel.

[mrs piceno]

i been a sprint customer for tne last 3 years or more i used to have four lines at a time at the biggenning of this year i called in to turn off the phones that were out of contract i kept my line that hadn't expired and kept my two primary lines. some how my contract got renewed on 2-3-07 one time i called to swap my phone wich was falling apart.i DID NOT RENEWED my contract all i had been waitingfor was for my contract to expire so that i could go and pick new phones along with a new contract at a sprint store n thats why i saidn NO to their 10%0ff to renew n EVERY time they offered it i would ask them when my contract would be due.I DID NOT ENEWED.i've talked to 2 supervisors 3 representatives n they alltell me a different thing they claimed they sent me a letter n that i received wich i didnt. they get loud with me cus i'm confused, no body wants to help me i'm tire of calling them i'm gonna have to pay to cancell a contract that I NEVER AGREEDED TO.......... all i can say is STAY away from sprint...............DONT SPRINT....WALK