02 - Customer Service Is Rewarded

I wrote an article at the start of this month, that I felt needed it’s own category, about the merits of first rate customer service. Well even though I have spent a small fortune with 02 over 14 years of being a customer; it is an amount worth spending for the pleasure I get from dealing with them.

Innovation and customer service should be rewarded. So when 02 advertised a broadband service better than my current service, for £10+ a month cheaper, I was pretty interested. In fact my current provider was Virgin Media, almost the total antithesis of 02.

In December 2006… yes 2006… I moved properties and rang Virgin Media to organise for the switching of my broadband service. They also offered a package that reduced my £17.99 a month service to £14.99 a month provided I signed a 12 month agreement. I was happy with that offer and asked them to dutifully switch my service. That was on 12 December 2006… christmas came and went… new year likewise and towards the end of January, finally the service was operational.

However I noticed that my bills were not reduced. I spoke to them on 14 occassions regarding my account and was bounced back and forth between different call centers. They could not even pass my call between them, I had to call another telephone number. In fact Virgin were so bad that I can not remember the number of different telephone numbers presented, but it was more than 5?!? By June I had given up getting Virgin to stick to their promises.

So when I agreed to the 02 service I was nervous that I maybe left without broadband for a month. With gritted teeth, I started down the path of migrating my service.

Stage 1 - getting a MAC code from Virgin - great. Well what a surprise, dealing with Virgin was as straight forward as trying to get  a mouse and elephant to mate. 15 calls to a bizarre number of different phone numbers, 5 emails, countless broken promises, I eventually received a MAC code. First I was told they could not be supplied by phone, then was told they would be emailed and then was told that they could be supplied by phone. Really the worst customer service ever. What is a joy with 02 is so painful with Virgin. What is even sadder is that I looked up to Richard Branson as a hero, and icon… now I think he is involved in businesses that do not give a stuff about customers… in fact worse… they despise dealing with customers. As such I now no longer consider Virgin Wines, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Money etc and can never see me dealing with Virgin Media again.

So after that little rant, how did 02 compare. Well a total joy again. I sat down with a nice operator in the Leamington Spa branch. She talked me through the whole process, fed my details into the computer, advised me that a free wireless box would be sent etc, all within 20 minutes.

I then received text messages advising me of the progress of my order, and before I knew it, I was connected to 02 broadband. It was all so simple, no downtime, the wireless box setup with ease, the security was set as default and everything worked better than I could have ever expected.

Good job 02 (again) it really is ‘broadband made better‘ and Happy New Year to you all !!!

TNT Outsourced Services updated on TNT website

TNT have recently updated the TNT.co.uk web site to show their range of Outsourced Services. There are three core areas:

• Inbound Services
• Onsite Services
• Outbound Services

With the full range of services extending to include

• Archive Services
• Archive Storage
• Box File Management
• Laser Printing
• Computer Tape Storage

Kristina the Mountain Goat

This is a little friday fun for a colleague at work.

To try and get a further understanding of search engine optimisation, she asked if it was possible to optimise a page to appear highly in the search engines for any phrase?

So what phrase did she want me to try… Kristina the Mountain Goat… apparently due to her hill climbing abilities.

02 Mobile - First Rate Customer Service

When you read articles on the web you often see people complaining about bad customer service rather than praising good customer service. Is that the British way? Well it may be. However I have come across customer service that is so good, I felt it deserved noting.

I don’t owe 02 anything, and am not being paid to premote their cause; but their customer service is first rate. I joined 02 in its guise as Cellnet in 1993 when they launched their GSM service offering. That was 14 years ago. I can’t even say 15 long years because using 02 has been an utter joy, and the years feel relatively short.

Over 15 years they have solved queries and dealt with issues very promptly and efficiently. One call is all it takes. They have provided first rate advice on mobile upgrades and have continued to innovate and provide me with better and better services.

What I have found most amazing is that their ‘call service advisors’ treat you like they care. There is no fobing off between 15 different departments, and being passed around like a used piece of meat between call centers. Each operator just gets on an assists you with anything and everything they can. They will even take your contact details, deal with a problem and then call you back with an update.

This ethos also would appear to pass down to their retail stores. They also provide a first class service. I have used this service in stores in Leicester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Leamington Spa, London and everytime it has been a joy.

I am sure that one day something will happen that causes me to pull my hair out. However their excellent customer service to date has earned so much credit with me, that it would have to be a huge problem for me to leave them as a customer. My wish for 2008 is to see more companies follow the excellent example set by 02. Stop passing customers through endless calling systems and train your operators correctly to better sell your products.

Well done 02 - Happy Christmas to all of you !!!