Jananas

The final outcome of my previous post was that based on my seven year tenure as a cable and internet customer, I was able to get a reduction in my overall bill that helps partially offset the increase I’ll see as a result of changes to their wireless services.

What was my final solution to the problem?I bought a prepaid cell phone from Bell solely to text to the States. Let me explain the rationale.

I am no longer on a contract with Rogers, which provides me with a lot of flexibility. And yes, I do believe that my freedom as a consumer to not be tied down by contracts is important!

Currently Bell & Telus’ offer text messaging to the States as part of their text messaging bundles. However, if I were to switch providers I would have to sign a contract. That contract only covers the base services and Bell/Telus would be free to change their text plans whenever they choose. So as a customer, I would be signing a contract but would have no guarantee that I wouldn’t end up in the same place I already am. I would also have to switch over phones, numbers, etc. which is a pain in the ass. So, I’d be okay for now but would be assuming risk without any incentive to do so.

It is also possible that Rogers will wise up to the customer dissatisfaction and come out with reasonable plans that include texting to the States (hey, charge me an extra $10 a month it is still better than $0.25 per message!).

Bell offers pay by the minute calling plans, with a systems access fee and 911 fee that total $4.95 a month. I can then add a $10 text plan that gives me 2,500 text messages (sent & received) within North America. The credit I received from Rogers is enough to cover this additional cost.

I bought a Samsung u740 (the double flip) because it offers me a QWERTY keyboard which makes sense given that this phone will be used for texting. So yes, I did pay $300 for a second phone. However, should Bell change their prepaid plans or Rogers begin providing plans, I can sell the phone. I’ll lose some money, but less than I would be signing a contract and having to pay to get out of it. Additionally, the money I’ll save by not paying Rogers per text covers the cost of the phone in less than six months.

There’s some added frustration because I’ll be carrying two phones and its not a particularly elegant solution; overall it is the least expensive and most-consumer friendly solution I could hack together.

Any Product Managers out there reading this, do you have any reasons why I have to jump through hoops to get the services I want? Or any explanation why as a consumer I should be content blindly accepting what you choose to offer me, regardless of whether or not it fulfills my needs as a customer?

My cell phone contract expired earlier this week (I only signed a one year contract) and with the new US texting rates, my bill is going to increase substantially. So I called into Customer Relations (aka Retentions) at Rogers to see what they were prepared to offer me. I’m a reasonable customer – I wasn’t asking for them to cover the entire increase I’d see in my bill, but I was asking them to meet me partway.

As background, I’ve had my internet and cable with Rogers for seven years and my wireless with them for a year. If a CSR is looking at just my wireless bill its going to seem like I’m not a particularly profitable customer because the majority of the money is spend on the first two

The first two CSRs I spoke with wouldn’t listen to what I was requesting. The first was pleasant, but I wanted time to think over the offer he made before accepting it (it is a legally binding contract after all). The second was borderline rude and accused me of trying to get free stuff out of the company. He also told me that it is my fault for using a pay per use service (i.e. sending texts to the States), even though this service used to be included in their domestic text plans and is still included in both Bell and Telus’ texting plans. He also questioned whether the latter was true. Erm, yeah. Yeah, it is. I don’t have enough hours in my life to be bothered lying to a CSR to get a better deal. What I would like to be treated with respect and as an intelligent human being. The same CSR also tried to badger me into accepting a three year contract – hell no! I’m a smart enough consumer that I’m not going to lock myself in just so that as a company you don’t have to worry quite so much about those scary new incumbents looming on the horizon.

Once I’d managed to calm myself down enough to be able to deal politely another CSR, I called back. This time I spoke with a much more polite CSR. I reiterated my situation, that I wasn’t willing to sign any contract for more than a year, and that I have multiple products and am a long term customer. This CSR again came back with a very poor offer. I asked him what he was basing his offer on; the response was “your tenure as a customer is only one year”. A HA! Yes, I’ve only been a wireless customer for a year. That’s what I specifically asked you to look at all of the products I have with the company so that you are making an offer based on my entire worth.

The point of the story is that Rogers is missing revenue and retention opportunities, all while providing a poor customer experience, and all because their business units exist in silos. This is an incredibly common problem – I’ve experienced it and fought against it in companies that I’ve worked for. I know that I’ve written a lot about Rogers (and how much I think that they do suck) lately. But this isn’t a Rogers-specific problem. Many businesses exist as silos, judged based on their individual profits and ignoring how their interact and relate to one another.

But knowing that a problem exists, and recognizing that fixing the system is a huge undertaking, how difficult would it be to build a system solely for your retention CSRs so that they can easily see a full customer view. Yes, it would be a bandaid solution but it would be a start to recognizing lifetime customer value (based on all their business with you).

Key lessons I’ve learned about dealing with CSRs and call centres

• Be polite
• Don’t be afraid to keep calling back until you get a representative who is knowledgeable, police, and whom can help you