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Sprint Nextel, the nation's third-largest wireless carrier, is the only company in MSN Money's Customer Service Hall of Shame that improved its customer-satisfaction scores since last year's MSN Money-Zogby International survey. Clearly, though, it still has far to go.
In this year's survey, 39% of respondents familiar with Sprint Nextel's customer experience rated it "poor," a slight improvement from last year's 40%.
"Obviously, we have challenges that we've been working through around customer service," spokeswoman Roni Singleton said.
The company has been sued repeatedly, including as recently as February, for allegedly extending customers' contracts without adequate consent. For years the company fared poorly on satisfaction surveys and steadily lost customers.
Late last year, Sprint Nextel, the result of a 2005 merger, brought in a new chief executive, Dan Hesse, and a new chief service officer, Bob Johnson, who both publicly vowed to make customer service the top priority.
"Our executives had to take a hard look at what they feel they need to improve upon," Singleton said. "So that we can make sure that our customer-service scores go up, so that churn goes down."
The directive: Resolve customer issues on the first call, and make sure customers get the same, clear information from every agent, Singleton said. Previously, agents were encouraged to end calls quickly and to promote contract extensions, according to news reports.
Now, Singleton said, agents are rewarded for fixing problems the first time, no matter how long it takes, and contracts are not automatically extended.
Instead, agents review new plans with customers, then send a written confirmation. Customers have 30 days to cancel. In the second, fifth and 12th months that follow, customers receive a call asking for feedback.
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The company also added online chat help, bolstered its automated phone technology and launched BuzzAboutWireless.com, a public forum for product reviews, rants and suggestions. The site includes periodic chats with company executives.
"Customers are starting to tell us they are seeing improvements to customer service," Singleton said.
In the MSN Money-Zogby survey, 28% of those familiar with the company's customer service rated it "fair," 26% "good" and 7% "excellent."
Sprint Nextel, which provides wireless service to 54 million customers, had sales of $40.1 billion during the past 12 months and a net loss of $29.6 billion (partly because of a write-down related to the 2005 merger). Its sales have grown 8.5% over the past five years.
Published May 28, 2008
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