GROWING OLD SUCKS… But it Doesn’t Have to!

Was I surprised today! So surprised I was actually shocked! Pleasantly shocked and surprised by the action of a single employee.

Last year I was in New Mexico and I lost my cell phone. Just dropped out of the holster thingy and it was gone. My fault – I was racing around and late for a plane. My responsibility and I admit it. And it won’t happen again if I can help it. When it’s mine; I take the blame.

 Replacing the phone was not as easy as I thought it would be and it took a few days. Going to the Sprint (www.sprint.com) store, the young sales guy recommended I switch from Nextel to Sprint (the two companies had merged some time prior to this mishap). And so I entered the “Cell Hell Zone.”

Today, I found freedom of six months of torture by the work of one tech support rep (Rachel). Thank you a million times Rachel!

Let me explain what “cell hell” is all about. Dialing a number and not connecting is one. Talking with someone and being disconnected during the conversation is number two. This actually can be quiet funny as I have spent minutes talking and talking just to myself with no one on the other end of the line. Then the phone rings and it’s the person you thought you were speaking with. Robot sounding voices, interference, and more dropped calls together make up “cell hell.”

 The bottom line is: Rachel saved me as a Sprint customer: at least for now. I was ready and willing to endure the pain of moving to another carrier, but Rachel’s support and service convinced me to stay. I told her supervisor how great she is.

To be honest, I’m not a hundred percent sure that everything is okay. I need some time to see if I’m in “cell heaven” – a place that I really want to be. I still need to test the phone and, more importantly, the Sprint service. But the fact is Rachel spent time with providing me with the magic word – SERVICE! And Rachel is a kid. At least, she sounds like one to me.

According to my friend George, who runs a bank, the only difference between banks is service. George has got something there. My mother had an account with a bank for more than 48 years. She had other accounts, but her main account stayed at the same branch for all those years. Why? Because of service!

I’ve talked about service from young and old reps before. Bean counters (who run large corporations) have dropped “service” just like calls on a cell phone. It is almost non-existent. Here’s an idea – put Rachel (and others like her) in charge and service will be back – along with more customers!

Technology makes our lives easier. That’s the idea anyway. Those of us over 50 deserve to make life easier. Spending hours with tech support is not my idea of making my life easier. Rachel did make my life easier because she helped get my phone to work!

The real problem is bad service is not just a problem for young reps; even reps that have worked years at a company dish it out too.

Recently we had a problem with our washer. The machine really belongs in the Smithsonian, but my wife really loves the machine. When the washer went out, we had to wait more than two weeks before a service guy showed up to tell us he had to order parts. Two more weeks of going to a Laundromat and the part is wrong.

The washer and dryer are from Sears (www.SEARS.com), who provided the worst service I have ever had in my life. The absolute worst! From the initial call for service until we replace the washer was two plus months! Ridiculous! Guess where I ‘m not shopping anymore? Any comments Mr. Lewis (Aylwin B. Lewis, the President and CEO of Sears)? 

Trying to ask for a manager at Sears’s service was impossible. They either were not available, out, or would call me back in 24 hours. It’s been more than 3 thousand hours of waiting for Sears to call. The new washer has since arrived (it was back ordered so we waited an additional few weeks).

 

By the way – two days before the new washing machine arrived; so did replacement parts for the old machine. We actually received two sets of parts. We got the new machine because someone at Sears told me they didn’t make parts for the old machine anymore.

While I now have clean clothes, I ‘m not very happy. Not one Sears’ representative apologized for the poor service, the wait we experienced or for management not calling back. As I said at the beginning of this column, I take responsibility for making a mistake. I take responsibility when my staff goofs. Sometimes I feel that all of the world’s problems are my fault. I make changes to insure that mistakes will not happen again. I offer something to my client. Sears doesn’t care. At least it seems that way.

Back to my friend Rachel at Sprint: I’m sending this blog to the new CEO of the company (Hello Dan – you look like such a nice guy on those TV spots). Having people like Rachel around will save the company. Hire more of these young, friendly and great customer service people. And keep some of the more experienced reps around as well to train those young people. 

Here’s a pitch. While speaking with Rachel, I came up with a few marketing ideas for Sprint that will blow the competition away. I’ll let you know if Dan calls me back.

Have you experienced “cell hell” or poor customer service? Let me know all about it. I really want the juicy details.

 

 

Tags: cell service, service, sprint, technology

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 at 3:17 pm and is filed under Growing Old Sucks - Or Does it?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.