The Customer Service Hall of Shame - Sprint

[ComicalMoodyDan]

MSN just had it's 3rd annual customer service hall of shame/fame list. Sprint once again got low marks for customer service. Being the third worst company on the list and the worst cell phone provider customer service scores. This article is too long to post so please click on the link below to read the article.

The Customer Service Hall of Shame - MSN Money

[Nextel32708]

Well for me personally...

I'd had to say out of the companies I use most (currently): Publix (grocer), Target (market), Washington Mutual (bank), Fairwinds CU (Credit Union), Costco (wholesale club), T-Mobile (mobile), ViaTalk (VoIP), BrightHouse Networks (cable), and at&t (POTS & DSL).

Mine list (best to worst) goes:

1. Washington Mutual
2. Publix
3. Costco
4. T-Mobile
5. Fairwinds CU
6. ViaTalk
7. Target
8. at&t
9. BrightHouse Networks

I have used Sprint, Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, K-Mart, Bank of America, Albertson's, TJ Maxx, and Kohl's in the past. They all fall under what I use now, in terms of customer service quality... but here is their list:

10. Albertson's
11. SAM'S Club
12. Kohl's
13. Sprint
14. Wal-Mart
15. TJ Maxx
16. Bank of America
17. K-Mart

Then there are companies like Ross, and Shoe Carnival who don't even have customer service (or so it seems).

Just thought I'd share!

[Mobile Mike]

This is the Sprint portion of the article: The 2009 Customer Service Hall of Shame - MSN Money - Slide show

No. 3: Sprint Nextel says it's getting better

It takes time to beat back the stigma of poor service, but Sprint Nextel says it is really, really trying and, yes, making progress.

In this year's MSN Money-Zogby International poll, 40.5% of respondents familiar with the company's customer service rated it "poor."

That figure is little changed from the previous two years -- 40% in 2007 and 39% in 2008 -- and the difference is well within the poll's margin of error. But the wireless company at least no longer leads the field by a gaping 10 percentage points, as it did in 2007.

It was late that year that Sprint brought on a new chief service officer, along with a new CEO, to revamp service.

"I start off every one of (CEO) Dan Hesse's weekly operations reviews," said Bob Johnson, that chief service officer. "Dan Hesse is really prioritizing the customer-service experience."

Sprint once drew fire for urging agents to hustle through calls and push new contracts. Now an agent is offered rewards based on two measurements: the agent's ability to resolve a customer's issue, regardless of how long it takes, and the customer's overall satisfaction.
The results are trickling in. The company said:

• The average number of times a customer calls a service representative has dropped from eight times a year, twice the industry norm, to 4.5. (This has allowed the company to shut down 17 vendor call centers.)

• Of the 200,000 customers the company surveys each month, those who reported being "very satisfied" with their most recent service experience rose from 46.5% to 64.8% over the previous year. The number who said they were "very dissatisfied" dropped from 15.9% to 8.7%, Sprint said.

"We are confident that we are doing the right things regarding customer service, and we have been doing that for a year and a half now," said Johnson, who is on a three-year plan. "The biggest challenge we face is that perception lags reality. So that's why I've got to keep this sustained cadence of improvement."

In the MSN Money-Zogby survey, 27.2% of those familiar with the company's customer service rated it "fair," 22.2% "good" and 10.2% "excellent."

Sprint, which provides wireless service to 49 million customers, had sales of $35.6 billion during the past 12 months and a net loss of $2.8 billion that Johnson attributed to layoffs and service cuts.

At least Sprint's made an improvement in these numbers than what they'd been at the past few years.