It's About Customer Service, Stupid

I've been pretty slammed lately with all matter of activities around putting our Series B to good use. Between selecting recruiters, interviewing candidates, courting customers, looking for a new building, and putting together the infrastructure necessary to scale the business - there hasn't been much time for blogging.

Just this weekend, I've found satisfaction in the fact that over the past three weeks, we've extended offers to five very enthusiastic employees of the highest caliber in sales and engineering. As these new employees got started on their first few days, I have every confidence that they will take Newmerix to a new level of growth and innovation.

With all this positive feeling, I took it upon myself to improve a few more of the other less gratifying areas of my professional life.  One of these critical areas was my mobile phone provider. For some time now, I've been downright livid at the absolutely "shitty" customer service that I've experienced with my service provider - it was time to switch. Forget the fact that number portability has taken this long to be a reality, it appears that provisioning systems, sales, and billing still don't work within the confines of any of today's service providers.

I left AT&T Wireless/Cingular due to pathetic connections and even poorer billing practices. I think the quality of two cans connected with string is on par with my prior service. Also, when you're willing to pay someone good hard earned money but they can't seem to find a way to make the monthly recurring transaction stick it's really time to move on.

So I researched, read reviews, and elected to go to Sprint. I'll tell you that after 2 agonizing days of talking to customer service reps in the US and the Philippines, I may need to check into the funny farm. Sprint wasn't much better, and I suppose all of the other providers are really no different. I ordered a telephone of the highest end, but when it arrived, I could not unlock it. The last 4 digits of my SSN apparently did not register with whomever programmed the phone. Every other logical 4 digit combination was also not in this mystery person's psyche. So after numerous calls to Sprint Customer Service, I had to take the phone into a Sprint store for reprogramming.

My goodwill was quickly disappearing on Saturday when I was told at the first store that the phone was so new, no one knew how to reprogram the damn thing. It got worse when the pimply faced kid behind the counter at the next Sprint outlet tried to tell me I wasn't entering the password properly and proceeded to go through the same mind numbing drill I'd already tried on Friday evening.

Keeping a very long and ugly story short, I now have a working, high tech smartphone working. It was excruciatingly painful to get here, and I'm reminded that when buildng, running, and growing a business, "It's About Customer Service, Stupid"! Remember this, practice this, strive for this, and keep looking for ways to improve it. It is your best weapon in a customer unfriendly world.

Comments

[Ed Skibbe]

Hear, hear.

It all starts and ends with the customer. Important consideration in the world of technology startups, which too often tend to become insular.