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texaswireless

Jun 5, 2005, 6:05 PM
I think the responses by so many of these Cingular followers are pretty funny when trying to defend the customer service and customer satisfaction figures.

Back in September there was a meeting held in all major markets regarding these figures and the steps needed to make them right. Agent principals and key managers, Corporate owned retail managers, call center directors, regional managers and exectives attended these meetings.

The jist of this was one thing, we suck pretty bad when it comes to customer experience and we need to step it up. Anyone who thinks this may be blamed on consumers is in a dreamworld.

The good thing is we call came out of this with one goal in mind, number one in EVERYTHING. Cingular was not satisfied wi...
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wolfspider73

Jun 6, 2005, 1:53 AM
Let me qualify my comments by first saying I have 100% call quality, over 20 escalated compliments in my employee file, have finished in the top twenty reps in my call centre for stats (out of 1500 reps) and am a coach and mentor for new hire and back to work reps, for my call quality and knowledge of p&p. I love my job, I believe in the product we sell, I love talking to customers and am not disgruntled.

Having said that, your post, texaswireless is an awfully glib and general response to what are some very legitimate obstacles to achieving number one status in all categories in the wireless industry and the primary obstacle is MANAGEMENT. We front line employees are here as the face of Cingular policy and corporate decision making and ...
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wolfspider73

Jun 6, 2005, 2:02 AM
Having said that, is there room for improvement in customer care and sales? Of course, there always is, I have a hard time believing we can't pleasantly discuss some truly odious policies with our customers, that professional tone and demeanor makes up for poor corporate communication and idiotic management, to a certain extent.

Our centre will be training all reps in TDMA so that we can reduce our transfer rate, and I can't wait. But the tools we work with, the resources we access, needs to be consistent. Regionalization of call centres adds unnecessary complexity and barriers to providing efficient and cost effective service. The more numbers to call, the more time spent trying to find the right one, the greater the likelihood of being...
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Aleq

Jun 6, 2005, 10:50 AM
Whoa, that's some stuff there... I'm with you re some of the Cingular policies--I don't work for the company, but I get a lot of info from the reps here and somebody needs to straighten this stuff out real quick or that merger is going to be one of those REALLY monumental, costly mistakes they teach people about in business schools for the next fifty years. As I see it, Cingular appears to be trying to balance the huge expenditure of acquiring ATT by having the customers pay for it, and doing it in ways that are tremendously alienating for the client base.

The migration thing--man, take it in the shorts and make it sweet for ATT customers to integrate to Cingular; the short term costs will be outweighed by long term goodwill, referrals a...
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dca

Jun 6, 2005, 11:13 AM
Aleq said:
somebody needs to straighten this stuff out real quick or that merger is going to be one of those REALLY monumental, costly mistakes they teach people about in business schools for the next fifty years.


I couldn't agree more. Especially when Wireless Week votes them the #1 Teir 1 carrier in the land because of this merger ****amamie...
Talk about a good idea gone bad. The part about the buyout of AT&T and making the customers pay for it, that's exactly what it is...
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muchdrama

Jun 6, 2005, 11:52 AM
Aleq said:
Whoa, that's some stuff there... I'm with you re some of the Cingular policies--I don't work for the company, but I get a lot of info from the reps here and somebody needs to straighten this stuff out real quick or that merger is going to be one of those REALLY monumental, costly mistakes they teach people about in business schools for the next fifty years. As I see it, Cingular appears to be trying to balance the huge expenditure of acquiring ATT by having the customers pay for it, and doing it in ways that are tremendously alienating for the client base.

The migration thing--man, take it in the shorts and make it sweet for ATT customers to integrate to Cingular; the short term costs will be outweighed by
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Aleq

Jun 6, 2005, 11:58 AM
Yeah, that's kinda why I used the analogy... of course some people have mothers who snoop in their rooms even after they've moved out, which is a whole 'nother kettle of Oedipal trout... 😳
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muchdrama

Jun 6, 2005, 12:21 PM
Aleq said:
Yeah, that's kinda why I used the analogy... of course some people have mothers who snoop in their rooms even after they've moved out, which is a whole 'nother kettle of Oedipal trout... 😳


ALL mothers snoop in their children's rooms after they move out...they just tell you they don't. Example number one: My mother finding my brother's porn stash years after he had bought his first home. Teehee. Funniest thing that happened in ages.
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Jldnr77

Jun 6, 2005, 1:25 PM
Why would mother's snoop AFTER their kids move out??? I used to always yell at my parents for snooping, and they always gave the classic response, "It's our house...we can go wherever we want in it." But after a kid moves out? Then it just simply becomes an invasion of privacy. If my parents went snoopin in my house after I moved out, and found something they wanted to crap about, I would refuse to answer them. I would tell them that they were sticking there noses in business that wasn't theirs, and that I had no obligations to answer any of their questions and accusations. I refuse to encourage any such behavior, and responding to it is encouraging it. On a side note, and back on topic, I too do not like the way cingular is treating ...
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muchdrama

Jun 6, 2005, 1:47 PM
Jldnr77 said:
Why would mother's snoop AFTER their kids move out??? I used to always yell at my parents for snooping, and they always gave the classic response, "It's our house...we can go wherever we want in it." But after a kid moves out? Then it just simply becomes an invasion of privacy. If my parents went snoopin in my house after I moved out, and found something they wanted to crap about, I would refuse to answer them. I would tell them that they were sticking there noses in business that wasn't theirs, and that I had no obligations to answer any of their questions and accusations. I refuse to encourage any such behavior, and responding to it is encouraging it. On a side note, and back on topic, I too do not
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Jldnr77

Jun 6, 2005, 2:16 PM
I wouldn't care what she was looking for. If she was looking through my stuff without permission, I would not answer her at all. If she was looking through some of my stuff with my permission, and ran across the said item in the process, I would apologize that she felt I shouldn't have said item, but would still maintain that this is my life and my business now.
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muchdrama

Jun 6, 2005, 3:10 PM
Jldnr77 said:
I wouldn't care what she was looking for. If she was looking through my stuff without permission, I would not answer her at all. If she was looking through some of my stuff with my permission, and ran across the said item in the process, I would apologize that she felt I shouldn't have said item, but would still maintain that this is my life and my business now.


Hey, what can I say? She came across it. She called me and said "Can you believe it?!". To which I replied "Mother, every boy, at one point in his life, has owned, viewed, or read porn". Call it a right of passage.
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Aleq

Jun 6, 2005, 3:11 PM
muchdrama said:
Jldnr77 said:
I wouldn't care what she was looking for. If she was looking through my stuff without permission, I would not answer her at all. If she was looking through some of my stuff with my permission, and ran across the said item in the process, I would apologize that she felt I shouldn't have said item, but would still maintain that this is my life and my business now.


Hey, what can I say? She came across it. She called me and said "Can you believe it?!". To which I replied "Mother, every boy, at one point in his life, has owned, viewed, or read porn". Call it a right of passage.

More like "right hand of passage!" 😳
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muchdrama

Jun 6, 2005, 4:12 PM
Aleq said:
muchdrama said:
Jldnr77 said:
I wouldn't care what she was looking for. If she was looking through my stuff without permission, I would not answer her at all. If she was looking through some of my stuff with my permission, and ran across the said item in the process, I would apologize that she felt I shouldn't have said item, but would still maintain that this is my life and my business now.


Hey, what can I say? She came across it. She called me and said "Can you believe it?!". To which I replied "Mother, every boy, at one point in his life, has owned, viewed, or read porn". Call it a right of passage.

More like "right hand of passage!" 😳
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Aleq

Jun 6, 2005, 4:19 PM
muchdrama said:
Aleq said:
muchdrama said:
Jldnr77 said:
I wouldn't care what she was looking for. If she was looking through my stuff without permission, I would not answer her at all. If she was looking through some of my stuff with my permission, and ran across the said item in the process, I would apologize that she felt I shouldn't have said item, but would still maintain that this is my life and my business now.


Hey, what can I say? She came across it. She called me and said "Can you believe it?!". To which I replied "Mother, every boy, at one point in his life, has owned, viewed, or read porn". Call it a right of passage.

Mo
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wolfspider73

Jun 6, 2005, 1:39 PM
Some more customer experiencing obstacles: the more transfers, the less satisfying the customer experience. With Cingular blue we have front line reps called siebel support who receive one third the training of customer care agents, they handle general inquiries and troubleshooting, but any changes that need to be made on the account, they transfer the customer through. They do not have the ability to notate an account so if they provide misinformation, we wind up taking the brunt of it.

Ten percent transfer rate is the goal. In the run of a night, taking an average of thirty calls, we are to transfer no more than 3. If the call escalates, it's a transfer, and let me tell you, there are few reps in my centre who can de-escalate a call lik...
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texaswireless

Jun 6, 2005, 10:00 PM
A couple of things:

I have done several migrations, all went smooth after removing the Human Factor (ie, I did it on the net). When trying to do it over the phone is was a joke. This doesn't point to a system issue.

I also just do not experience many of the issues people complain about here. Be it literacy, common sense or just luck (doubt that, been at this a long time). I have access to the same resources as everyone else. How come I know policies that others (including some who complain) always get wrong?

Yes, there are issues, but the many of them have been solved and the reps aren't up to speed by their choice (or lack of effort). You can't blame this all on management just as you can't blame it all on employees. We all ...
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wolfspider73

Jun 7, 2005, 10:22 AM
If ignorance is bliss you must be the happiest person in Texas. In your rather lame defence of management you went right out and proved my point. Well Done.

I work at a Cingular blue call center. For customers in 13 western states and in the northeast, to be eligible to migrate you must have fulfilled 21 of 24 months of a 2 yr contract or 11 of 12 months of a 1 year contract. If you fail to meet these requirements, in both CSP and in PRIMUS, customer care is told, via suggested scripting, to refer the customer to a store or to telesales where they can purchase a handset at full retail price. Problem is, in these markets, the same management who created this policy and suggested scripting is telling the stores in these markets that if the ...
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Aleq

Jun 7, 2005, 10:47 AM
Whoa--in the dictionary you'll be finding this post under the term "balls-up." Who's holding the reins here, and why do they still have a job? 🙄
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simplymarcus

Jun 7, 2005, 12:12 PM
I think you are probly misunderstanding those reps. The customer service department for Cingular wireless is a mess right now. The realationship between reps and management is not good. Managers feel most reps do not do their jobs and reps feel like managers do not do their jobs. What those reps are telling you is they are sick of the atmosphere they work in not sick of customer service. I doubt they are actually sick of customers at all. If they were sick of custoemrs they would not be in your store asking for a job. The average customer service rep for cingular make about 25,000 per year. I bet your sales reps make a lot more money than that.
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doobeast

Jun 7, 2005, 12:53 PM
So says the sales guy behind the desk.....
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