Customer Service In The Age Of Convergence

When I switched my broadband supplier, I was left without service for a few weeks because a third party business had backlogs and was unable to deliver the router on time. So what did I do? I demanded a ‘goodwill’ credit of course. Because of the way my multi-play provider is organized, the credit did not go against my broadband, but instead went against my existing television bill. The value of the credit was a fixed proportion of the cost of my television subscription. The failure of that third party to deliver the router is possibly never tracked by the supplier, but they had to pay heavily for it. Worse still, if anyone in management at my broadband supplier asked how about credits for broadband products, chances are nobody would be able to give them answer. The value of broadband credits would be absorbed into the credits for their direct-to-home television service. That is a recipe for wasted money because nobody can tell where the root problems lie. Even when products converge, suppliers need to keep separate data for separate products. Only then can they work out which products are causing complaint and hence less profitable than first assumed.

Eric Priezkalns
Eric Priezkalns
Eric is the Editor of Commsrisk. Look here for more about the history of Commsrisk and the role played by Eric.

Eric is also the Chief Executive of the Risk & Assurance Group (RAG), a global association of professionals working in risk management and business assurance for communications providers.

Previously Eric was Director of Risk Management for Qatar Telecom and he has worked with Cable & Wireless, T‑Mobile, Sky, Worldcom and other telcos. He was lead author of Revenue Assurance: Expert Opinions for Communications Providers, published by CRC Press. He is a qualified chartered accountant, with degrees in information systems, and in mathematics and philosophy.