The Times has a story talking about the phone companies ’ newly - ascertain interest in selling service to the elderly — and the elderly ’s new - found pursuit in getting the variety of service they want . The AARP has apparently taken notice of the ghastly service provided by current cell - phone companies and begin to buttonhole sharply for simpler plans and less - confuse sound . And of course , what the 35 - million - strong group asks for they incline to meet .
I ’ve long maintained that customer service is harming the American phone industry , taking advantage of peoples ’ ignorance and taciturnity to become immobilise in another multi - hr down whorl of misdirection and prevarication from underpaid and undertrained service representives . It ’s not just the elderly who call for less puzzling information about their phone military service , it ’s everybody , and if the AARP can take up a button towards in effect service then we ’ll all be better off for it .
Personal anecdote : about eight or nine year ago I work for AT&T as a client avail voice in a department that was technically “ Inbound Sales ” but operate , basically , as a client happiness prick . We “ sold ” things like foresightful - aloofness design and complimentary minutes bundles to as many customers — unhappy or satisfied — we could get a grip of . Although it was for certain a tangible drag of a job sometimes , our team honestly felt like we were help multitude out , in general , by helping them understand what just their phone bill stand for and how they could better spend their money .
But we were fight a strange conflict , because our enemy was essentially AT&T , not any of the other companies . Although part of our job was to retain customer from jumping ship — and this was in the particularly unearthly sentence in the ’ 90s when companies were offering $ 100 ( or more ! ) checks to multitude to change longsighted distance companies — much of what we did was to “ fix ” plan for customers who did n’t get laid they could have another choice .
The head of all this is to link up the experience that I had where older mass would call us up with a question ( often just to talk , true statement be told , which could be both annoying and endearing at once ) and we ’d get thing like telephone set renting fees and outdated plans that were costing retirees and others on fixed budgets hundreds of dollar a year in money . It was easily fixed , and sometimes we could even go back and repay some of the money if it were really out of hand , but it was always depressing to talk to a dead well-informed honest-to-goodness gentlewoman who had just been too intimidated by a confusing system to even consider that she might be pay too much .
Anyway , to sum up : if old people can draw the headphone manufacture to treat their customers like bullshit then we ’ll all be winners . Also , I pretermit my grandma .
In Pitch to Older Customers , Static for Cellphone Industry[NYTimes ]
Daily Newsletter
Get the dear technical school , science , and polish news in your inbox daily .
newsworthiness from the time to come , deliver to your nowadays .
Please select your desired newssheet and pass on your email to upgrade your inbox .
