Sprint Nextel Moves To Fix Customer Service Issues
Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) tapped former AT&T Wireless executive Daniel Hesse for the second time to help manage the company. Hesse spent most of his career with AT&T before joining Sprint and spinning off the company's Embarq subsidiary over a year ago.
Hesse is joining Sprint Nextel as CEO after the company's bets on Wimax technology and a reputation for customer service problems have halved the company's stock price from the low $20 range to well under $10 now.
Nextel, before merging with Sprint, went through a similar dry spell before its then new push-to-talk technology and merger buttressed the company's fortunes. Sprint Nextel received more complaints in 2007 than any other wireless carrier, said Consumer Help Web President Joan Bounacos, who praised the company for being "responsive" when contacted by the company's complaint letter writing service.
Labels: customer satisfaction, Hesse, SprintNextel, wireless
Press 1 For Customer Service If You Dare
SprintNextel, long a laggard in multiple service quality studies including an analysis of Consumer Help Web's records, has pushed the envelope for treating customers with contempt again.
The Virginia-based wireless giant announced that customers who had called the company's customer service department dozens of times in a month would have their account terminated. Consumer advocates throughout the country were quick to criticize the company's action.
"The cost of doing business is that most of your customers never call you, but the ones who do should be treated like kings and queens because of the valuable intelligence they give you about your company," said Consumer Help Web president Joan
Bounacos.
The consumer advocate said that her company had compelled recent settlements from the company, one for a Maryland consumer for $1,817 several months ago and another for $591 for a Virginia consumer at the end of last year.
Bounacos said the consumer resolution specialists had not yet been contacted about joining others in demanding that
SprintNextel compensate consumers for canceling their accounts.
"The irony is that
SprintNextel is quick enough to trap a consumer who wants to leave by pointing out their contract hasn't expired. They clearly don't subscribe to the
first call resolution mantra most organizations practice, and their financial metrics and loss of federal opportunities show that other communities beyond consumer advocates are not happy with the company's action," she added.
Labels: customer satisfaction, SprintNextel, wireless
