A good AT&T CS story
Say what?!
Well, I had a somewhat unusual request for the folks at AT&T Wireless. We've been customers since 2002, always had relatively high usage (we're currently using a 2100 minute national roaming plan), paid on time, and have only taken advantage of one upgrade offer in our history as clients (thus essentially leaving money on the table, money that goes directly to their bottom line).
Still, I approached my call with trepidation. I knew - just knew - it was going to be a nasty conversation, and I will be told time and again they can't do anything for me. In fact, my experience with calling CS has trained me to literally cringe when I need to call them. And now I was going to ask for a favor - I was going to ask them to break my contract - the one upgrade offer I ever took, which had me ending up with a terrible phone - so I can get a new upgrade offer a year ahead of time. I had a number of really good reasons, but that doesn't normally matter with wireless providers.
So I made the call. I got a Branden, who was polite enough, but just as frustrating as I expected him to be; reading company policy repeatedly, even after I started the conversation by stating I am asking to break it. Eventually we got to the "please transfer me to a manager" line, where I expected to repeat the whole story and get nowhere.
Then my daughter wanted out of the bath. I had to drop the call and get her. Then I got my son in the bath, went back down to my office, and called again.
I got Adel.
Oh my gosh. I got Adel.
If there is any way that I can ever always speak to Adel, I swear, I am willing to pay AT&T another $10 a month. Just for the pleasure of having Adel answer and handle my (very rare) calls. Her last name sounds like "Letty". If you ever get her, consider yourself lucky.
Not only was she patient and polite, she listened. Then she thought about it. Then she checked some things, while at the same time asking me more questions so she can get a better handle on my admittedly out of the box request. She went ahead and documented stuff, and tried this, and tried that, and explained to me what the downsides of what she was doing were, and even asked me to document what happened on my side so I have my own record. I mean, she was good.
I was already ready to receive a rejection from Adel. I would even have felt good about it, because she so obviously gave it a good college try. But then she found a way to get he result I wanted. I mean, she let me OUT of the 2-year contract so I can go sign a new one. She let me OUT of the contract!
She didn't even need a manager to do this. She considered all of what I had to offer the company as a client; she saw I've been loyal even when we were out of contract for years. She considered that I was asking this so I can go and re-sign a 2-year contract for services that will more than double our monthly charge. She even said towards the end that it would be a big loss to lose me now considering customer acquisition costs and that I become more profitable over time. Have YOU ever encountered a CSR who even THOUGHT about these things?
I will repeat this again: AT&T just allowed me OUT of a 2-year contract on nothing more than my PROMISE to go and sign a new one for more stuff. Yes, of course I will. I actually sort of like them, to a degree (talk about a rousing endorsement). But I don't actually have to. And yet it happened.
You know what this is? It shows that they are looking at me as just a tiny bit more than a money-milking machine. It shows trust. Trust in me, as a consumer of their service. Let me remind you again - this is a US wireless service provider. Trust is NOT a word in their vocabulary.
Thank you, Adel. I hope you get promoted.
Well, I had a somewhat unusual request for the folks at AT&T Wireless. We've been customers since 2002, always had relatively high usage (we're currently using a 2100 minute national roaming plan), paid on time, and have only taken advantage of one upgrade offer in our history as clients (thus essentially leaving money on the table, money that goes directly to their bottom line).
Still, I approached my call with trepidation. I knew - just knew - it was going to be a nasty conversation, and I will be told time and again they can't do anything for me. In fact, my experience with calling CS has trained me to literally cringe when I need to call them. And now I was going to ask for a favor - I was going to ask them to break my contract - the one upgrade offer I ever took, which had me ending up with a terrible phone - so I can get a new upgrade offer a year ahead of time. I had a number of really good reasons, but that doesn't normally matter with wireless providers.
So I made the call. I got a Branden, who was polite enough, but just as frustrating as I expected him to be; reading company policy repeatedly, even after I started the conversation by stating I am asking to break it. Eventually we got to the "please transfer me to a manager" line, where I expected to repeat the whole story and get nowhere.
Then my daughter wanted out of the bath. I had to drop the call and get her. Then I got my son in the bath, went back down to my office, and called again.
I got Adel.
Oh my gosh. I got Adel.
If there is any way that I can ever always speak to Adel, I swear, I am willing to pay AT&T another $10 a month. Just for the pleasure of having Adel answer and handle my (very rare) calls. Her last name sounds like "Letty". If you ever get her, consider yourself lucky.
Not only was she patient and polite, she listened. Then she thought about it. Then she checked some things, while at the same time asking me more questions so she can get a better handle on my admittedly out of the box request. She went ahead and documented stuff, and tried this, and tried that, and explained to me what the downsides of what she was doing were, and even asked me to document what happened on my side so I have my own record. I mean, she was good.
I was already ready to receive a rejection from Adel. I would even have felt good about it, because she so obviously gave it a good college try. But then she found a way to get he result I wanted. I mean, she let me OUT of the 2-year contract so I can go sign a new one. She let me OUT of the contract!
She didn't even need a manager to do this. She considered all of what I had to offer the company as a client; she saw I've been loyal even when we were out of contract for years. She considered that I was asking this so I can go and re-sign a 2-year contract for services that will more than double our monthly charge. She even said towards the end that it would be a big loss to lose me now considering customer acquisition costs and that I become more profitable over time. Have YOU ever encountered a CSR who even THOUGHT about these things?
I will repeat this again: AT&T just allowed me OUT of a 2-year contract on nothing more than my PROMISE to go and sign a new one for more stuff. Yes, of course I will. I actually sort of like them, to a degree (talk about a rousing endorsement). But I don't actually have to. And yet it happened.
You know what this is? It shows that they are looking at me as just a tiny bit more than a money-milking machine. It shows trust. Trust in me, as a consumer of their service. Let me remind you again - this is a US wireless service provider. Trust is NOT a word in their vocabulary.
Thank you, Adel. I hope you get promoted.
posted by Blinkered at 7:34 PM
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