Valued Customers, Any Takers?
July 10th, 2008Business, Call Centers, Experiments, Just Up, Learning, Life, Media, Techie, Technology.
Question/Problem: Take two similar phones, call the same customer service number, get instant answers (or rather live cusomter support representatives) on one phone and then be put on hold for 30 minutes on the other (yeah, I timed it). What’s the difference?
A simple fact. I was using a postpaid line on the phone which got instant access to a live customer support representative, the other one was on a prepaid line. I’ve tried calling on my postpaid line to access customer service, but they say they have limited access to the prepaid numbers.
Now, I really have a hard time understanding this. Try to compute how mcuh they earn from me:
- The minimum monthly charge I get for my postpaid line is Php 500 (~$10). This rises to a high of Php 1,000 on months when I am involved in projects where the team might be in diffrent locations. While a friend of mine on postapid and on the same network spends roughly 4x the amount I do.
- Every two years, I get a new low end mobile phone which costs around Php 3,800 to as high as Php 4,500 as a customer retention plan.
- I sometime login to yahoo messenger using my mobile but always as an alternative to the net, so they do not charge me.
- On occasion, I use the surfing capabilities of my phone to check mail, message a few buddies, and obtain short bits of information, but this does not go over Php 100 per month.
Tell me again how prepaid customers are more likely to contribute to churn? I’m tied to this operator for the next 25 months because of the new phone (which I’ve already sold), but I’m still pretty happy with their service. It is only during those times that I have to call the prepaid hotline that I get the loooooong wait.
So if I am following you correctly, you get the best customer service with the line that you are tied into a 2 year contract. With the phone that you buy time as you need it and could walk away from at any time, you get bad customer service? I see your point. In this country they make a lot more money on the prepaid phones, so you would think they would try harder to keep those customers. I guess they feel that they want to keep the sure thing happy so you sign up for another two years at the end of your contract.
It has worked on me. I left one carrier because I couldn’t get the same deal as a new customer on a phone at the end of my contract period. I needed a new phone, so I switched carriers. I have since added two more phones and when the original contract on my new phone was up, they gave me the same deal as a new customer so I could upgrade my phone. They will do the same with the other two phones after I have had each of them two years. They’ve got my business forever if they keep up the good customer service!
Hello,
I had a similar incident (customer service)way back regarding a prepaid line i once had. I just loaded up a fresh P300 card and its been 3 days and still no service. Like you, I had to experience the loooooong wait, not to mention the endless assurances that never came. After a full week, i did what i had to do. I wrote a letter to the carrier’s top Marketing honcho and after a day or two, I got a call from his secretary informing me that my service has been restored and the problem had been rectified. Now that’s fast. I wonder what the marketing head did to guys over at the help desk/call center…poor guys… Satisfied..wrote a follow up letter thanking them for the response.
ps. chanced upon your blog while surfing..i find interesting reads here
I do find that writing a letter of complaint is so much more effective than complaining over the phone. However, shouldn’t they provide the best service possible at all times?
Anyhow, thanks for the complement. Your flicker images are great!