Comments on: Why ATT Is Fabulous and Why Comcast Should Not Be On Twitter.

By: Fred H. Schlegel

Fred H. Schlegel — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:45:53 +0000

Hi J.D., It does make my day as well. I agree that the drive for efficiency can unintentionally destroy customer experience. Of course customer bad behavior can destroy it as well. Once it got around that some stores were trying to live by the “Customer is always right” philosophy people came in and abused the system. The reaction is rules and regulations that make service folks look like they don’t trust anyone. The pendulum is swinging back but always is a moving target.

By: Fred H. Schlegel

Fred H. Schlegel — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:45:23 +0000

Hi Kay, Absolutely. That’s why I mentioned that the good experience went beyond just Sarah. This is hugely difficult but may be the primary differentiator between larger organizations in the future. If the products are equivalent then people I like certainly matters.

By: Fred H. Schlegel

Fred H. Schlegel — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:44:50 +0000

Hi Terry, I’m beginning to think this might be a great idea. It’s been avoided in the past so that customers get to a live operator quicker. But if 5% of the customers would prefer to be ‘operator loyal’ it seems that could be a pretty interesting feature to add to any call center. Rather than wait for the next available operator I leave a message for a specific operator. Most folks would still simply want someone to talk to immediately, but for the few with more difficult problems or simply attachments. All of a sudden a large corporation becomes Sarah.

By: Fred H. Schlegel

Fred H. Schlegel — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:44:16 +0000

Hi Brad, Customer service is a very hard nut to crack since you are balancing costs against your public face. As you say, sometimes we run down a technological pathway that complicates or simply locks in habits that were wrong to begin with.

The interesting thing about the Twitter experiment is that it can undermine their standard customer service. As more folks realize that they can get around a problem at the phone center by using Twitter then a flood of contacts will overwhelm the twitter resources (why bother calling?) Since the phone system is optimized and mature (even though it has problems) vs twitter being young and breakable this wouldn’t be my first choice for rolling out a fix.

By: J.D. Meier

J.D. Meier — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:04:54 +0000

> when I had a question I could call her back.
I always love when I can actually call a human.

> The installers went above and beyond and were incredibly friendly.
I’m always pleasantly surprised when I find stellar customer service. It seems like stellar service somehow gets priced out of the market or goes out of fashion (or I’m just lucky like that
J.D. Meier´s last blog ..Cell That Read Minds

By: kay plantes

kay plantes — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 16:35:00 +0000

There are reasons companies can compete above the lowest price and yours is but one story. Behind AT&T’s Sarah is a hiring system, a training system, measurements and maybe incentives, IT systems, a continuous improvement culture, good leaders and policies that put the ability to please a customer in the hands of a trained customer service person. The result? AT&T wins one customer’s loyalty and then the next. Getting everyone in your organization focused on how you want to win business creates AT&T-type of alignment. Great post, Fred.
K
kay plantes´s last blog ..What’s Your Version of Out-of-the-Box?

By: Terry

Terry — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 15:59:55 +0000

Here’s an idea (now watch some company start doing this . . . I’m such a thought leader, y’know). Give customer service people their own extensions so we can keep those we gel with and like. Heck, why not even give them their own Twitter IDs? At the very least, let them add their initials or some other short ID to company tweets so we know it’s them . . . or use hashmarks with their initials or a number so we can search for their previous helpful tweets.

Yeah, I probably won’t get credit for the idea when someone runs with it. Oh well, that’s the cost of brilliance.
Terry´s last blog ..Writing Goals for Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

By: Brad Shorr

Brad Shorr — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 21:51:41 +0000

Fred, Great post, in which you prove once again that you can’t solve fundamental operational problems by throwing technology at them. I’ve had a few experiences along these lines installing fancy CRM systems in order to “fix” sales problems. Guess what? Rather than solve problems, we merely added another layer of complexity that rendered them even more problematic. It could be that Comcast is going down a similar path with Twitter. You know a lot more about this kind of stuff than I do, but it seems to me if you’ve got a complex problem, the first order of business is to simplify: take away variables, eliminate, streamline, get down to basics.
Brad Shorr´s last blog ..10 Essential Twitter Writing Tips