Ad Age reported today that Sprint has changed advertising shops to ‘Power Up’ sales and stock price. They spend $1.2 billion per year on advertising – ‘measured media spending.’
My letter to Mark Schweitzer, Sprint’s chief marketing officer –
Dear Mr. Schweitzer:
Yes a new slogan can bring in new customers. But can you bring in enough new ones to keep up with the ones that are running away, like me?
Here’s one thing you can do that’s a lot less expensive than your new $1.2 billion advertising campaign:
Treat the customers you already have better. Maybe we’d stick with you and even refer your service.
I pay for three phones with Sprint, and can’t wait for the contracts to end. When I got them almost two years ago, one of the big selling points was that I (or my employees) could change calling plans whenever. At no time did anyone ever say that if I wanted any plan change, I’d have to extend the contract for an additional two years.
I don’t want to extend the contract two years any time I need to change my calling plan.
One of my employees needed to upgrade her calling plan this month, to 1,000 minutes/mo, for a trip to CA. (Last year her bill jumped to $300/mo (from $50) because she had forgotten to change her plan before she left for two months.
This time we planned ahead. But when I called, Sprint would not upgrade (or in any way change) the plan without a two year contract extension. (!!) Yesterday when she got to CA she bought another phone (which cost her less, including all the minutes she needs, than your $200 early termination fee). We will let her Sprint phone expire in a few more months.
Sprint will need a lot more than a new slogan to rise above being #3. Enslavement tactics don’t sit well with people like me.
Do your marketing people ever talk to the ones making the customer service policies?
Sincerely,
Kim Klaver
I think we live in an age where loyalty is fleeting and people are ready to join the next great thing, whatever it is.
So how important is customer service?
I rank it numero uno!
And I mean dealing ethically with your customers as well.
How can you deal effectively with your customers if you’re doing the old bait and switch routine?
I have had a cable t.v. problem for ONE year now and it hasn’t resolved. Different departments within the company don’t know what the other ones are doing. There is no central communication system that works well. My problem has been bounced from one office to another and always with the promise that it will be resolved.
So I’ll be switching over the minute the phone company’s t.v. service is available here.
So in our businesses we should take note.
If we are ethical, honest and caring when we deal with our customers we are way ahead of what is going on out there.
Kim,
Great post. Same thing happened to me with Sprint. Customer service is HUGE with me and needs to be taken into consideration by these companies.
Roxanne Green
Kim, I love your post. It’s not just Sprint though, there are other phone companies who are just as bad. My 19 yearold had his battle with Verizon and of course he lost. It seems it’s a sign of our times. Nobody seems to care anymore out there…Exept….us in the Network Marketing industry.
I have been in retail for 14 years in Germany before I got married and came over here. Customer service was (and still is) a huge deal over there. And it’s huge for me too. Randy and I send a handwritten “Thank You” note to all of our customers and they get a handwritten Christmas/Holiday card too. Yes, sometimes it’s a chore to write all those cards but we believe, especially in todays times it makes a statement.
And…we kept our customers and they bring referrals. I learned when I was 14, that “the customer is always king” and it has stuck with me ever since.
DITTO DITTO DITTO. I have the same story with Time Warner… promising one thing, billing another…. no department stands by what any other department says :(((( They don’t even honor their WRITTEN contracts :((((((( I guess I will go the Public Service Commission route… or state’s Attorney Generals.
Seems like only class action or embarr-ass-ing publicity can get these creeps to honor their words.
CONSUMERS UNITE!
I will NEVER get a US cell phone again… for all the reasons stated above…. I figure my calls actually cost m3 $50 US each with that anti-consumer “contract”.
So now I have a cheap calling card from Costco, Vonage (voicemails come right into my ultra portable laptop) with the V phone, and a new SKYPE setup. So between those options and email, I can pretty much stay in touch… without paying the equivalent of a mortgage.
I was talking to Big AL Tom Schreiter and he told me he goes all around the world constantly… mainly with email. Cell phone calls are a great rarity for him.
GREAT JOB, Kim…. keeping everybody AWAKE :)))))))
LAUGHwithPAT.blogspot.com
I agree also that customer service is the number one thing we can do to build our business. I want my customers to be able to ask me any questions they have and if I don’t know the answer, I go looking for it.
I want good customer service when I go shopping, too. I took my daughters for running shoes last week. I chose a store because they advertised their special fitting services. Because my daughters are serious runners, I wanted them to be fitted according to their running styles, foot shape, etc. Well, the service at that store was no better than the chain stores at the mall. We definitely won’t be wasting our time going there again. Instead, we will drive the extra half-hour to the place we KNOW gives the kind or service they need and I want. When I want extra help with a purchase, I am willing to pay a bit more or travel further.
Wow ! I am sooo glad we live outside Stillwater, OK and in just the right spot that we could not even consider Sprint because we were not able to receive phone service at our house.
Cingular does the trick for us! Of course that was after I had to get really tough with them, getting a district managers number when our new three phones all quit w/in weeks of each other…. just out of warranty. They replaced all three phones, and no refurbished ones either!
We had one other issue when our daughter got a phone. The number had a monthly charge from the previous user and we were getting billed. We finally got it straightened out, but it was a huge issue and not easily cleared up. I wanted a new number and we ended up having to call the company ourselves SEVERAL times requesting the service disconnected. We were refunded all the charges by Cingular after working hard to get ahold of the “right” person who were willing to help.
Overall, we haven’t found anything better yet, and we are lookers.
Brenda Bunney
http://MLMSuccessBunney.com
http://BrendaBunneyMLM.com
brendabunney@yahoo.com
Verizon is just as bad, if not worse in my book. When my 8-year-old son was hospitalized for 2.5 weeks and then subsequently died a little over a year ago, our cell phone was our lifeline to the world outside the hospital where my husband and I spent all of our time. The last thing we were worried about was our cell phone bill (our bad). People called us constantly for updates, to pray with us, offer support, etc.
After he died and we came home from the hospital, we received a bill for over $900 for all the extra minutes! We called and explained the situation to several employees and supervisors. Each one would make us repeat the whole story through our tears. When we would finally get it all choked out, they would say “awww, I’m so sorry BUT nothing I can do because of company poilicy, technical difficulties, etc. But we really do sympathize. Will you be paying by check or credit card?”
The kicker is that if we had had the foresight to call them when this ordeal began, the next higher plan that would cover the additional minutes would have cost us $20. Since we did not have the emotional energy to fight them, we just handed over the extra $880 and chalked it up to one more medical expense. The pain of losing that money doesn’t even come close to the pain of losing my son so it just wasn’t worth it to fight.
I suspect anyone who hears my story, though, will not be too quick to do business with Verizon. I hope their decision continues to make good business sense to them in the long run!
Michele
http://www.JFCfoundation.org
I had a conversation with Sprint about two months ago. I had been laid off, and didn’t need the number of minutes. We started with “You have to sign up for a 2 year contract.” But I stood my ground, and was transferred to a department that gave me a reduced number of minutes for half the price and did not activate a new 2-year contract. I think it is also possible to purchase extra minutes for the situation you described, Kim, but you really have to probe to get them to tell you that. THAT’s the real customer service problem. One should be able to call and tell them what you need. And they should immediately transfer you to the “special department” that can help you. What I have found, though, is that if you’re very clear that this is what you need, and that you are prepared to leave Sprint immediately if you don’t get it, they make accommodations. That said, I don’t trust them, but I haven’t found a better deal from any of the other cell phone companies.
I like the solution of the guy who doesn’t use a cell phone.
Wendy
sfwendy.networkmarketingcentral.com
What about the SBC/Cingular/AT&T switcheroo? I couldn’t wait for my AT&T contract to run out so I could switch to Cingular. Low and behold, less than 2 years later I am back to AT&T because they “bought” Cingular. Is it just me or does anyone else remember the anti-trust lawsuit that split up MaBell into all the baby bells who are now recombined back to one AT&T?
Now I’m stuck. Jobs has made a pact with Cingular/AT&T to be the only service to offer the IPhone coming in June. I have to have one. Kim, I can proudly say I was Mac before IPod, own 3 that have never had a virus or never crashed, and have never owned a Windows PC. Maybe that’s a customer service issue also.
Cingular/AT&T, Sprint and probably the others are now blocking free conference call numbers! These calls are a vital part of some of our businesses and our Mon-Fri 6am Success Starts at Six conference calls are where I first found Kim and her great training.
Maybe we should all boycott cell phones for awhile and see if that gets there attention.
Ya think they would get it. The cost of keeping a customer is much lower than gaining customers. BUT, there is always a but. Keeping customers doesn’t drive growth, and the street says it is all about growth. I know, I know, net gains would increase if they would focus more on the customer. I agree, ya know there is one way that taking care of your customers gets ya more customers, it is called recommendations, and it’s free. Hey Sprint, if I like something I recommend it, and ya don’t even have to extend your contract to be my friend.
BTW: You should post this on http://www.lodgeacomplaint.com It could get it more exposure, then maybe Sprint may hear ya and do something about it.
Great letter!
Hello Kim,
Our country’s leadership and Sprint’s corporate executives seem to have forgotten that people use “things” and not other “people.”
The same faces we meet on our way up the ladders of success are the same faces we meet on our way down.