Sprint responds to NBC’s The Today Show re: Loyalty Credits

This went out to our care agents today, in response to a segment on the ‘Today’ show:

• A recent segment on NBC’sThe Today Show featured strategies for consumers wanting to save money on their wireless bill.
• The segment may have falsely created the impression that Sprint customers can receive a $100 “loyalty bonus” upon request.
• Sprint will only adjust a customer’s bill when Sprint has made an error.

Why you need to know it:

• Specialists can best serve our customers by making sure they’re on the right plan that meets their needs and reviewing what is/not included in their plan.
• Sprint does not issue cash bonuses, or bill credits upon request.
• The only way to prevent future overages and casual data charges ensure the customer is on the right plan.
• Giving a credit is only a temporary solution and will not prevent future callbacks and credit requests for overages.

What you need to do.

• Ask questions and listen closely to determine your customer’s primary concern.
• Be sensitive to your customer’s request and thank them for their loyalty but firmly explain that Sprint does not offer loyalty credits. Remind customers about the tremendous value in our unlimited plans.
• If there are issues with their bill begin researching and explaining the charge prior to considering or offering a credit or adjustment. Use CST Billing Research Flow to access the Billing Adjustment or Discretionary Creditflows.
• Reference the CST document Credit and Adjustment Approval Limits Grid for more information on billing research and adjustments

Customers experiencing issues in the Chicago market

What you need to know:

• To launch new Network Vision cell sites, Sprint is replacing the Local Technology Provider, which requires removing and replacing existing equipment in the Chicago Market.
• While the majority of customers are not affected, some customers are experiencing temporary issue with provisioning, dropped calls, and calls rolling to voicemail.
  • This is temporary and will stop after the cell site is fully tuned.
  • Do not send a customer to a retail store for any of these coverage issues.
  • Do not notate these issues as capacity or coverage problems.

Why you need to know it:

• A Network Event Board ticket opens for each cell site activated or upgraded. The ticket closes when Sprint certifies each cell site to be fully is optimized and functional.
• Optimization usually completes within a few days, but some may continue for a longer period.  We do not have a date for repair just yet, but Sprint is proactively monitoring and addressing these issues as quickly as possible.
• Vision Network Event Board tickets are coded in blue and are loaded to 90 days. This date should not be communicated to the customer. Giving customers a specific date may actually frustrate them more if that date changes.

What you need to do:

• Use this link for answers to frequently asked questions about New Cell Sites.
  • In CST enter Key Search words Vision Cell: New Vision Cell Sites FAQ.
• Allow your customer to vent their frustrations. Confidently explain that we are aware of the situation and are actively working to correct the issue. Your ability to confidently let them know you understand their situation will put them at ease.
• Make sure to use simple explanations when explaining how Sprint is working to solve their issue because customers can get confused by technical language.

#ISN Poll: What do you want to see more of?

Sprint April 2012 Launch Deck

we know we’re late in the month, but our motto is better late than never, right?

Below is the Aprol 2012 Launch Deck for all new devices/plans/services/changes.

We will post May’s next week!

UPDATE! it appears the google doc viewer is having some issues, so here’ sa direct download link to the file:

April_2012_Launch_Deck

PRL Updates in select LA markets

Starting this morning, we have released new Preferred Roaming List (PRL) updates that allow customers in select areas to keep their roaming ability. This will mean nothing to 99.99% of you that read the blog, but for those few that do, I know you’ve been waiting on this for a little while now, so here you are.

The new PRLs (standard 10055/50555, EVDO 20255/60655 and data card 60755) resolve the loss of mobile broadband roaming as home service in Houma, LA and surrounding markets.

These same PRLs will also resolve the following roaming outages expected to take place on the targeted dates indicated.

• 10/28/09 – loss of roaming voice and 1XRTT – Mohave County (This PRL update does not resolve mobile broadband roaming coverage loss for customers in this area.)
• 11/13/09 – loss of roaming voice and 1XRTT – Yuma County and La Paz County, AZ
• 11/18/09 – loss of roaming voice and 1xRTT – Santa Cruz County, AZ(This PRL update does not resolve mobile broadband roaming coverage loss for customers in this area.)

Customers living in or traveling in these counties should update their PRL prior to the roaming network date, or they will lose the listed services.

Note: Dates listed are planned; however, actual actual dates may vary by about 1 – 3 days before or after.

BlackBerry Tour 9630 – July 20

Been trying this devie out for a little while now on the side.. gotta say – I REALLY like it. Looks like everyone will be able to snag one (assuming you haven’t already snagged a Pre instead) on 07/20 **updated to 07/12**

Ask I.S.N: How Do AT&T Plans Compare to Sprint Palm Pre Plans?

Ask Inside.Sprint.Now!

First, let me say that over the past couple of months I’ve had around 30 visitors a day to my blog – So you’ll have to bear with me while I try to process this crazy influx of madness over what I thought was going to be some general FAQ about the Pre. Turns out over 8,600 of you visited here yesterday (!really? it was just some general info.. nothing earth shattering!) so I hope you’ll understand when it takes me just a bit to respond to comments and the like. There was one comment that I started replying to, but the answer got to be too long to be an effective comment, and I was afraid it’d be overlooked, so I created a post just for it. I’ve called it ‘Ask I.S.N(Inside.Sprint.Now) and if anyone wants to email me a question or two that might be something that’s beneficial to a lot of folks, I might do one every day or two, that all depends on how much time I have. Here’s the one comment I picked that I felt could use some clarification.. and I have not told the poster I was making it into a full post, so hopefully he won’t mind!

Mike asks: (link to his comment)

What about a family plan where one spouse (me) wants a Palm Pre and a data plan and the other spouse (my wife) does not want to pay extra for a data plan? AT&T offers the ability to pay a flat $30/mth on our existing shared (non-data) plan for a data plan for one spouse which results in a combined monthly cost of $99 ($69 for shared plan + $30 for single line’s data plan). I don’t see anything like this in your post. Will Sprint have something like this for those of us wanting just one Palm Pre on a shared plan?

Mike, I’m glad you asked!

Based on your pricing, I’ll assume you have the 700 Minute Shared Plan for $69.99/mo with AT&T which includes:

• 700 Anytime Minutes
• Nights & Weekends 9PM-6AM

You stated you could add a data package to one line for $30, leaving the other as is, with only voice usage. That gives you minutes and data for $99.99 – Let’s compare apples to apples though – the AT&T plan is very barebones, and requires buy-ups in order to even compare to a Sprint plan for the Pre, here’s what you’ve have to add:

$16.99 for N/W at 7PM(REALLY?), $9.99/mo for Navigation(per/ln), $1.99/mo for standard voicemail features(per/ln), $30/mo for unlimited messaging(per/acct), $15/mo for Mobile TV Basic(per/ln) – and after all that you still only have data on 1 line! It’d be yet another $30 to add on to the second(assuming PDA too), right?

That’s $230.94/month for 700 minutes, N&W 7PM, Navigation, Enhanced Voicemail, Unlimited Text & Data, and Mobile TV Basic. Even if you left some of these features off (that are included with Sprint) you’d still not come close to the same value, in my opinion (albeit a bit skewed).

How’s that compare to Sprint? As you know we make it easy. It’s SO easy, in fact – Everything’s included! It’s just there! It just works! No worries about using some cool feature of your new phone b/c you might get a $62,000 bill next month cause you were watching more than your allotted 42 seconds of bloopersTV for the month(or whatever your vice may be) Here’s a few options:

(#1) – Everything Data Share 1500

• 1500 Min/Shared, Unlimited Data & Messaging (Text, Picture, & Video)
• N&W 7P-7A, Complete Voicemail, GPS/Navigation, TV Premier, Mobile Email
• $129.99 (includes both lines)(or less with employer/credit union discount)

For (#1) above, you’ve more than doubled your minutes, gave both phones access to everything they were built to do, and tons more features than with AT&T.

So, maybe you say the wife just does NOT use the internet, and has no need for it? Absolutely no messages either?  We could even do something like this:

(#2) – Everything Data 450(you) / Talk 450(her)

• You on a Everything Data 450 Plan, including all the same features of the data plan above, only change is 450 minutes. $69.99
• Her on a Talk 450 Plan, includes unlimited mobile to mobile, N&W 7P-7A, LD/No Roaming. $39.99

This (#2) would give you each a plan totaling 200 more minutes than you had before, gives your nights and weekends at 7PM, AND you get messaging with your data, and the total is still only $109.98 (before any discounts, which you can get 10% just for telling us you bank at a credit union).

So I guess my question to you, is how can you afford to stay with AT&T  knowing how much more you’d get here, for so much less? Even if you just did the 69.99/plan +$30 Data(1 line)+$30 Messaging(shared) – you’re still paying more and getting less, and your night&weekend minutes would not start until 9PM(-6AM) !

In all seriousness, if I’m missing something in the math here, or there are just features that you absolutely don’t use (like TV) then let me know and we can take a look, but when you compare apples to apples, we beat AT&T in every way that I’ve worked it.

Customer Care no longer taking payments over the phone

New this week – if you call into Customer Care (*2) to pay your bill, be prepared to be transferred to the interactive phone system to complete your payment.  In an effort to reduce inbound calls to care centers, and to increase the awareness of self-service options, the policy went into effect at most centers this week. 

If you call for other reasons, the agents have been instructed to resolve any issues first, and inform you that after those are all taken care of you will be transferred to the *3 payment system to complete your payment. While I don’t agree with the change, I do see (if only a tiny bit) why it was implemented. It’s a step backwards from the personal touch and the ‘be the reason’ approach, because in all likely hood most customers know they can either pay online at sprint.com or over the phone by dialing *2 – so if they’re already on the phone with an agent, and their payment method is already on file, it literally takes 30 seconds to process a payment and all is done. With this new system, not only do I think that some CSAT scores will drop, but it also increases the transfers for each agent – yet another metric that stands between them and a pink slip.

What’s your thoughts? If you’re arleady on the phone, or willing to wait for an agent, should you be transferred to an automated payment system to complete your payment?

An Open Letter to my fellow Sprint Agents

An Open Letter to my fellow Sprint Agents, Worldwide:

I realize that you have an ever decreasing and limited amount of time to interact with each customer, and the fact that it’s a phone conversation make it no less challenging; I’m well aware. However if you are going to make a promise to a customer, please… please… please… for the sake of my sanity, and your own job security (or soon to be lack-thereof), please follow through on  your promise. I personally do not care if it takes you the rest of the day or your supervisor’s lunch hour. If you promise, you need to have to deliver.  Do not promise the customer something, notate the account accordingly, then end the call and assume your job is complete because you want to lower your call handle time, or it’s time for your next break. It is NOT done until you have followed through on whatever (probably too extravagent) promise you made, and most likely even do a callback to confirm with the customer that the resolution is complete. 

 

What you may, or may not, know – is that each and every time you document a promise to a customer in their account, and that customer calls back to find out why we haven’t lived up to their expections, two things happen: (1)We have to live up to that promise, often at a considerable cost to the company, and our own team/bonus bottom line; and (2)Your lovely name and ID number along with the promise you failed to live up to, AND the dollor amout it cost the company to make good on, all get forwarded to a back office team that spend their day dealing with customers and unfulfilled promises (among many other things). And while it’s not an instantaneous thing, your information is logged into the database and then on the (daily?weekly?monthly?) report that gets sent to your site manager your name is made prominent on the list list of issues to be ‘dealt with’.

Yep, you did notice that one of the security guards was not at post when you came down the elevator to have your smoke break, right? You guessed it, that’d because they’re busy awaiting your return to your cube so that you can be walked out (the long way around, I might add; a short parade, of sorts) of the building and escorted to your car. I do hope you enjoy your extended vacation, of sorts, just as much as I will enjoy cleaning up your messes that have yet to surface.

In closing, PLEASE deliver on your promises. If you’re telling a customer something just to get them off your phone, then I personally will assist that customer in telling you something, and the only thing that will be getting off anything will be you getting off the bus at the unemployment line, it’s that simple, and we take it that seriously. In the past week I’ve had no less than five promises made to customers (and documented in their accounts, I might add) that no sane person would have ever made, and nor did their curcumstances warrant such crazy promised. If it was customer satisfaction scores you were seeking, then you were successful, because anyone would be thrilled with some of the offers and discounts you promised, and I’m sure at the time they were surveyed they were still overjoyed at the thought of their newfound ‘friendly’ rep with a pockful of gold at the end of the rainbow. You may have gotten your CSAT scores from them, and they may have gotten what you promised, but was your job really worth it? This IS Sprint, you know your actions are all logged. So quit being stupid before you’re caught, and save your job, and me some headaches.

 

–From Somewhere deep within Sprint Customer Care.