BY STEVEN WINOKUR – www.tpstrategies.com 

So I decided to make the change from Comcast to AT&T new cable offering, U-Verse. I sign up on the website and pick an installation date. I receive a confirmation email with some additional instructions and a reminder of the time and date. The email includes this statement. 

As a reminder, you are responsible for disconnecting services that you may be replacing. You can prevent interruption of your TV/Internet service if you wait to contact your previous provider until after we install your AT&T U-verse service. 

Makes sense to me - don’t cancel what works until you know the new service will work. A perfectly reasonable and safe statement. 

Earlier in the week of the installation date, I receive an automated call reminding me of the time and date. Great, I can’t wait. The day of the installation arrives. They’re supposed to be here between 8 and 10. I arranged to be home for the 4-6 hours they say is the average installation time. Nothing ever goes smoothly with AT&T so I should have seen this coming. 

A little before 8:00, AT&T calls. They asked if I had disconnected my old DSL service. I informed them that I had not, both because of the email and the fact that I can’t be down for any period of time so I wasn’t going to risk canceling what I had before the new service worked. Even though my current DSL provider is AT&T (used to be Bellsouth), I need to cancel the service beforehand. Since that needs to happen in advance, no installation that day. We rescheduled for early next month.  

The story gets better from here - at 8:30 I get a call from a technician who is out in the field about the installation. He’s ready to do the outside wiring. I explained to him that the appointment got cancelled and why. He tells me that’s not how it’s supposed to work and I shouldn’t have to cancel my old service. GRRRR - I call AT&T back and they explain that indeed, you need to cancel your old service. At 9:30, I get a call from the inside technician ready to install the service inside my house. What?!?! Does no one talk to each other? I explained to him the same story.  

At no point did anyone apologize for the lack of communication, for the delay and for the annoyance of me having taken the day off to stay at home. Not a good brand experience by any stretch. 

And to make matter worse, over the past few days, I’ve gotten a few more automated calls asking me to call back in to re-schedule my missed appointment. My missed appointment? Holy smokes - doesn’t anyone speak to anyone over there?  

Needless to say, I am really ticked off with them right now. The problem is, there aren’t a whole lot of other solutions so they don’t have to worry as much about poor service. Where I am going to go? Comcast - they’re not exactly at the top of their game either. 

Don’t make the same mistake - most of us compete in environments with many competitors and low switching costs. A minor miss-step is service can easily drive a prospect or customer to a competitor. Make sure the experience your customer has with you is impeccable so they don’t walk away shaking their head wondering why they ever did business with you in the first place.

Close this WindowBookmark and Share This Page

Save to Browser Favorites

Ask backflip blinklist BlogBookmark Bloglines BlogMarks Blogsvine BUMPzee! CiteULike co.mments Connotea del.icio.us

DotNetKicks Digg diigo dropjack.com dzone Facebook Fark Faves Feed Me Links Friendsite folkd.com Furl

Google Hugg Jeqq Kaboodle linkaGoGo LinksMarker Ma.gnolia Mister Wong Mixx MySpace MyWeb Netvouz

Newsvine PlugIM popcurrent Propeller Reddit Rojo Segnalo Shoutwire Simpy sk*rt Slashdot Sphere

Sphinn Spurl.net Squidoo StumbleUpon Technorati ThisNext Webride Windows Live Yahoo!

Email This to a Friend

Copy HTML: 

If you like this then please subscribe to the RSS Feed.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

More »