How do you solve too many customer complaints? - Sprint "fires" bad customers

[Morrigoon]

There are two approaches to improving your customer service score: you can actually improve your customer service, or you can cease doing business with people who complain:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com...Customers.aspx

Way to step up to the plate, Sprint!

[Alex]

I have to work closely (though thankfully not directly) with the phone customer service people at my job. So I see most of what comes in and there is definitely a core group of customers where we frequently kid that the next time they call we're going to say "Obviously you hate us, here's your money, might we recommend you try a different bank."

Now, there are definitely things that we do that are stupid and the vast majority of issues are legitimate but some people just like to complain and end up costing us more money than we'd ever make off of them.

We'd never do it because it is bad PR no matter how justified but boy would it feel good sometimes.

[Not Afraid]

We've done it. Some customers are NOT worth the time and energy they suck away from everyone else. It becomes difficult to provide excellent customer service when certain customers make it VERY difficult to do so - no matter what you do. Getting rid of the low hanging fruit can be good policy and good business in certain instances.

[sleepyjeff]

Originally Posted by Not Afraid

We've done it. Some customers are NOT worth the time and energy they suck away from everyone else. It becomes difficult to provide excellent customer service when certain customers make it VERY difficult to do so - no matter what you do. Getting rid of the low hanging fruit can be good policy and good business in certain instances.

Yep. I once had a customer who would come into my store every couple of weeks right at closing time......only to complain about my product, my service, my employee, and even my location. Rarely did she buy anything and when she did it was something from my bargain area...and then she would come back and complain that it wasn't up to her standards(then don't buy it from the bargain room I wanted to scream). Finally I told her I couldn't do business with her anymore(so politely that she actually left the store thanking me) and when she asked me to reccomend another place she could go I said I couldn't(because I wouldn't wish her on my worse enemy, let alone my friendly competitors) but wished her good luck

[Kevy Baby]

I don't fault Sprint for this action. I think it is about time that companies stand up to money losing PITA's.

From a different article:

The No. 3 U.S. wireless provider, with 53 million customers, said today that it started sending service termination letters on June 25. Sprint said the cancellations involved 1,000 to 1,200 customers who had collectively called the company about 40,000 times per month.

That means that these customer called in on average 33 times per month!

Since this amount represents about 1 customer out of every 50,000 (or approximately .0023% of their customer base), I think it is a smart move.

[lashbear]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

I don't fault Sprint for this action. I think it is about time that companies stand up to money losing PITA's.

From a different article:
That means that these customer called in on average 33 times per month!

Since this amount represents about 1 customer out of every 50,000 (or approximately .0023% of their customer base), I think it is a smart move.

Kevy voiced my thoughts before I could say them.... Good on you, Sprint.

[lindyhop]

I've been with Sprint for years and years and never had any problems with them. But I discovered last week that it was because I never had to call Customer Service.

Last month Sprint changed my account number so I made sure to go to my online banking and change the account number there before I made the payment. I made the payment and forgot about it. Then last week I got two statements from them. One for the old account number with a credit balance (my last payment) and another for the new account number which was past due. I checked back with the bank and the payment definitely went with the new account number.

I tried going on line but couldn't remember my username or password and even going through the "don't remember" links I couldn't get on. I could reset my password but then the site wouldn't accept the username (which they had e-mailed to me moments before) so I tried the "contact us" button to complain but I had to log on to send them a message. So I called in a payment (in my mind past due is apparently one step away from serial killer) and went to bed.

The next day at work I tried calling and discovered their labyrinth of customer service. What happened to those despicable phone trees where you have to listen to dozens of options before finding the one that might be what you want? At least then you had a chance. Now they have this evil robot woman who pretends to be your friend ("just say what you need") but misunderstands anything you say. All of the things she suggested didn't fit and when I did say something she said "okay, technical support" which didn't sound right at all so I hung up but actually pressed the button too long and turned the phone off.

It was a quiet afternoon at work so I tried again a little later and somehow managed to get to the "contact a human" option where they told me it would be a 15 or 20 minute wait so I sat there listening to the most horrendous staticky hip hop music. I waited it out and after talking to two different people they said they would transfer the credit to the new account number.

By the end of the week I'd forgotten all about it until I saw this thread ...but I was finally able to log in to their website so I shouldn't have to deal with evil robot woman ever again.

[RStar]

The article in the Register quoted an average of 40-50 calls made to customer support each month from the people they cancelled! Yikes, if I made that many calls- I'd fire that company, not the other way around! I can't emagine make one or two calls per day to any company and stay with them!!

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by RStar

The article in the Register quoted an average of 40-50 calls made to customer support each month from the people they cancelled! Yikes, if I made that many calls- I'd fire that company, not the other way around! I can't emagine make one or two calls per day to any company and stay with them!!

Hey, that sounds familiar:

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

I don't fault Sprint for this action. I think it is about time that companies stand up to money losing PITA's.

From a different article:

That means that these customers called in on average 33 times per month!

Since this amount represents about 1 customer out of every 50,000 (or approximately .0023% of their customer base), I think it is a smart move.

[Morrigoon]

Actually, I agree that some customers need to be "fired"... it was just funny that the firing of their customers seems to have come on the heels of their being ranked worst in customer service.