Thanks for stopping by! Hey, why don't you do what all the cool kids are doing and subscribe to my RSS feed? You know you want to, so go ahead, be bad, be very very bad... :) Thanks.
Hopefully someday I will have the opportunity and the time to go back and maybe get an MBA. So let’s start this post with a little business riddle. Let’s say that you run a company that is losing over 220,000 customers a quarter. Your company is plagued and known for having terrible customer service and very long wait times for their call centers. You are in a very competitive industry that is only going to grow as time goes on. What would you do to turn your company around?
If you said fire more than 1000 “problem” customers. You would be right! Well, I don’t know if you would be right, but you would have chosen the same thing that Sprint has just done. Sprint sent out “Dear John” letters to over 1,000 of their customers telling them that because of their excessive complaining, they will be let out of their contracts and will need to find new providers. In other words, “Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.”
According to Sprint,
“The average customer calls customer service less than once a month, but the 1,200 clients getting the boot call 40-50 times as often. Rather than continue to operate in a situation that was unsatisfactory for Sprint and our subscribers, we chose to terminate our relationship with those customers to allow them to pursue other options.”
I have mixed feelings about this. If these customers actually called Sprint 40-50 times a month then maybe it was a smart business decision. I would also like to say to the people who really did called Sprint 40-50 times a month, you guys really do need to find a hobby.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Technorati Tags: customer service, call centers, Sprint, Dear John, excessive complaining
Related Articles:
I actually don’t have a problem with this.
The customers are obviously not happy if they are calling 40-50x more than others. And they continue to do business with them because they are trapped with a contract.
At some point, you have to make a business decision based on whether that customer is going to be a long-term champion or a short-term pill.
Jeremy - I absolutely agree with you. Here is my question. If there were really people calling 40-50 times a month, why not just cancel their service with Sprint. So it costs $200 bucks to cancel a contract.
If someone really did call 40-50 times a month, you are talking about 1-2 days each month that you spent on the phone with Sprint?!?!?! That is crazy and $200 bucks is nothing then.
Agreed. Time is money.
I guess $200 is more than those customers were willing to spend.
Hi Cord,
Although at its face, it sounds strange for Sprint to fire these customers but I think it is a wise business decision. Every now and then we get a client who no matter what we do will not be happy. I remember one client who came to us because he had tried 10 other companies before us. I told myself that it should not be that difficult to satisfy them. We worked with that client for 3 months during which we submitted close to 10 different content drafts. Our average is less than 3 drafts per project. It was time for me to tell the client that they are better off looking for someone else. We lost close just about 7k on that deal.
Hi Cord,
According to the consumerist, these customers were professional whiners and freebie seekers:
http://consumerist.com/consumer/exclusives/sprint-customers-terminated-for-complaining-too-much-were-scamming-sprint-for-free-service-277026.php
Whether that is the whole story or not, when a company is moved to fire customers, it’s difficult to assume adequate justification is lacking.
If these customers really are that bad (and we all know some of them are) good on Sprint for sending them to their competitors.
Cord,
This is an interesting story ad you have to wonder why Sprint did not come forward with the “full story” as told on the Consumerist before. Perhaps it is not true or they did not want everyone else trying this scam.
In any case, it is the duty of a company to make sure it is profiting from every transaction. That profit may not be monetary but it should not run a deficit for very long.
Khalid - I agree with you and I have done it myself that there are times that you just need to kick a client to the curb. Though the funny thing is do you think that other Sprint customers who want out of their contracts will start calling all the time to try to get let out of their contracts without having to pay?
Thanks for your comment.
Roger,
I think you have hit the nail on the head. I think that is exactly why they did not come out with it. As I said in my last comment, what is stopping other people to just start complaining non-stop to get them out of their Sprint contracts?
Thanks for your comment!
hehehe, I guess we finally figured out away to get out of these two year contracts. Although I have been with Verizon for the last 4 years, I hate how they keep forcing me to extend the contract the minute I make any change to my plan.
Interesting post here on the Sprint decision that raises the issue of IQ. Us smart folk leading the industry (:p) tend to forget that technology may be moving too fast for many people.
http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2007/07/11/its-the-prejudice-stupid/
I wonder what the outcome will be for Sprint’s other customers? Some questions:
Will they try to game the system and get “kicked out”?
If so, are those really the customers Sprint wants to have around? More than likely they are not loyal; they are just looking for the cheapest deal.
Will customers with real problems hear about this and be afraid to call in?
Overall, it can be a good thing to either fire your customers or change the value proposition to improve the relationship. Time will tell whether or not this works for Sprint.