Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Just read an interesting article about customer service:

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9739869-7.html?tag=bl

Sprint breaks up with high-maintenance customers

What does everyone think of this?  Have you ever "fired" a customer for any reason?  What would it take for you to have to do this?

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Oleg Issers | StartupNation.com Web Team

50% of computer programming is trial and error. The other 50% is copy and paste.

Absolutely.  I have dumped customers before and advocate that people do so, too.  You don`t need EVERY customer - especially if they are going to sap your time with very little reward.  I have heard of store owners who get whined and complained at constantly by customers who literally only drop a couple of bucks each time they come in.  Also, I have had a couple of instances where people in my own business went behind my back and cherry-picked their way through resources to start a competing business.  Once their plan came to light - I booted them out - usually to their fake "surprise". 

Of course, there are two sides to every story and somewhere in the Sprint story is the truth, but as a rule, I would dump a customer if neccessary.  Give them a gift certificate to your nearest competitor, tell them "Good luck" and show them the door.  In the long run, it`ll be cheaper for you. 

~Kim

Well thank god they (Sprint) adopted this practice because now if I want out of a contract I`ll just call them a thousand times and they`ll drop me.

Although I would like to add this practice overall scares the crap out me, because lets say a majority of companies follow suit. So I might not beable to buy a Ford because they don`t like me or I bother them too much, or I complain about the price? One could find themselves out in the cold very quickly.

So now as Sprint customer not only do I have to pay a bill, if something gets messed up (sprint screws out bill up ALL the time)  I have to be very careful not to get dropped, I can`t complain about the service, etc.What`s the point, I just have to take the bill they hand me or I`m dropped, F_ _ _ that!

Overall I think it`s pretty crappy for large corporations to adapt this. Small companies I understand because they dont have call centers etc, but these large companies...................

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He who gets greedy like a pig, gets slaughtered like a hog!

I can see it for a small, service-oriented business like mine.

But for Sprint?

What makes it worse is that Sprint has THE ABSOLUTE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE. Ever. In history. Seriously.

When my husband had Sprint, it took us 3 months to finally get the month-to-month contract canceled. (Well, you know, $80 x 3 months later for a phone we weren`t using ...)
And THEN Sprint went and bought out Nextel, which is who all 3 of our phones were through! And now towers go down and Sprint takes their time fixing them.

Maybe some companies I can see, but with Sprint ... I think they had better take a hard look at their processes and their customer service, and start asking themselves WHY these people had to call so much. I mean, gee, maybe it`s because the towers keep going down? Or my contract got services added to it without me asking (and the bill increased ...)? Or because their coverage on the PCS network (the Nextel network is much better but getting worse) really, really, really sucks? And none of their phones work inside anyone`s house?

There`s a reason why comedian Lewis Black has an entire skit on why Sprint is the worst phone company in existance ... and everyone laughs because it`s true. I wonder what he`d have to say about this one?

I also think Sprint should have to pay for the losses incurred when these people now have to go out and purchase new cell phones, because PCS phones won`t work on other networks. I would have hated to purchase a really high-end phone (something along the blackberry level) and then have it be useless because Sprint dumped me.

As well as compensation for the time these people have to spend purchasing a new phone service, transferring the phone, etc.

One of the best analogies I heard was back when there was some food-poisoning case, years ago. Limbaugh was talking about it, and someone called to suggest some kind of cospiracy to get more money.

At the time, Limbaugh made the point: "Do you think Burger King is going to intentionally go out and poison people? Is that how you think they`re going to build their market, get new customers, and grow their company?"

I see no reason why Sprint shouldn`t fire high-maintenance customers. But I also see no reason that it should be worrisome. Suppose ALL companies decide they don`t want to deal with service, complaints, problem-resolution, and support?

Initially, there`d be a huge operations savings, much like with out-sourcing customer call centers. But very soon, people would abandon those companies. New companies would enter the field, focused on personalized customer service. It`d be a lot like the many niche businesses in the cottage industry.

Large enterprise executives tend to forget that customers aren`t a fact of nature. They don`t grow on trees, and nobody "has to" use a company`s product.

On the other hand, the general public tends to forget that a service or product is "offered" to the public. It isn`t a fact of nature, and wasn`t created at the same time as the planet was formed out of celestial dust.

I personally don`t see a problem with "firing" a customer if providing a service to them is just not cost-effective.

However in this particular case, you have to look at the root cause.  Why did these customers call the service center so much? Were they really bored and figured that chatting with a Sprint support rep is the best way to enterntain themselves?  Or was there a recurring problem with either their bills or the service?  Sprint could have identified the problem and fixed the root cause; instead they chose to ignore the actual problem and only dealt with the symptomps.  I believe this band-aid approach will hurt them in the long run.

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Oleg Issers | StartupNation.com Web Team

50% of computer programming is trial and error. The other 50% is copy and paste.

That`s what I`m saying ... and trust me, calling Sprint customer service was not fun. I would have rather sawed off my own leg! So these people are having billing issues, service issues, etc ... and the answer is to dump them?

I think the article`s mention of how Sprint is hemorrhaging customers by the second is very telling. Something like 220K customers lost in the past year?

I understand the calculation that Sprint made, and at the end of the day I have no doubt that they made the correct business decision.  But if I were a stockholder I would be upset because Sprint has exposed themselves to a great negative ad campaign. 

Sprint may have to invest less resources into their help line, but now (as if they didn`t have this problem already) their brand could easily be painted as unfriendly, uncaring, and unhelpful.  Consumers hate the fact that automated voices call us, answer our calls, and sometimes put us in an endless voicemail loop when we have problems, knowing that we will give up long before we ever reach a human being.

To now "fire" customers that cost too much plays right into this image.  Nikole summed it up....

Mike`s right. :-) Can you imagine the next Verizon marketing campaign?
LOL!!