Thursday, July 12
Firing Customers?
I just read this article about Sprint sending letters to 1,000 customers informing them they were being "let go" because Sprint could not meet their needs due to these customers numerous complaints. I thought this was an interesting customer service strategy. Sprint apparently has a reputation of having poor customer service (what cell phone company has a good customer service reputation though really) however I think they may have the right idea. What is probably most frustrating about cell phone companies is their air tight contracts that you get stuck in without any hope of getting out of unless you are willing to fork over some dough. A customers only option really is to complain - which gets them nowhere. Clearly these are unhappy customers who are probably frustrated by being stuck in a contract anyway and may be happy to be able to find service elsewhere. Sprint is also paying the balance of their bill and are waiving the early termination fee. Sounds like a case of the squeaky wheel getting the oil to me. Sprint should probably work on their customer service so they don't have these unhappy customers in the first place but we all know people who feel the need to complain about everything and are never happy with anything.I wouldn't want to deal with them either. I have always had a problem with the customer is always right philosophy because customers are just assholes sometimes and having worked in customer service I was annoyed when the person who bitched - regardless of how outlandish- got what he/she wanted just to shut them up. Sure word of mouth can come back to haunt you but I think in this particular case, Sprint is doing both themselves and their cutomers a favor with this policy.
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2 comments:
See, I read a really interesting take on this from the other side. The reason the customer is always right is because they are paying you, in this case up front, for you service. If you have shitty service, in most cases, the customer can seek recourse through a termination of service or complaints to the better business bureau or whatever.
But with phone companies, you're locked in. So they can do whatever the hell they want to you and all you can do is complain. If you don't want a bunch of customers complaining, let them quit, don't fuck around with them for four or five months and then do what they probably would have been happy doing at the start, terminating service. I see it as a way for the company to leech as much cash from the customer as possible.
"If we ignore them long enough, they'll quit complaining, or we can let them complain for several months and then cut them loose. Either way, it's win/win for us."
Yeah, I hate complaining customers too, but from what I've heard, in a lot of instances, these are issues with extra charges on the bill. That's pretty bad. If I have a few dropped calls and I make a formal complaint, that's a bit much, but an extra $20 on the bill can really put some people in a bind.
Agreed Adam. You should be able to be let out of your contract easier, but thats not happening in this industry so at least eventually they got to get out. I also do not know the nature of these complaints, I would agree that if you are being charged unjustly than you have every right to be pissed and complain. My initial interpretation (and assumption) is that if they are letting the customers go for multiple complaints then several things could be happening. The customers are repeatadly being screwed over in some way (I would hope this is rare but you never know), the customer has had one major complaint that they cant get resolved so they just keep complaining, or they take issue with everything Sprint does. Obviously it would be a mix of these possibilities. At the same time with cell phone companies being in very tight competition with one another, if people could easily switch companies when there was a better deal or a better plan then people might frequently switch. This would force these carriers to continually be the best service, plans, phones etc. in order to retain customers. What a novel concept! Yeah I kind of argued back and forth with myself there didn't I? I am too lazy to go back and change anything though. Please to enjoy.
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