What AT&T Does Wrong

Ever since the iPhone was first released, I’ve been a customer of AT&T. I had a more than adequate experience with my previous carrier, but there was no doubt in my mind that the iPhone had the potential to make my life easier, and that alone was enough to get me to make the switch.

However, within just a few weeks of using AT&T, I began experiencing the dropped calls that the service is now famous for. Recently I have downloaded the iPhone app from AT&T to report areas where I was experiencing the most dropped calls. After submitting more than 50 GPS locations of poor reception quality, I never saw an improvement, a change in service, or acknowledgment that changes were underway.

So I called AT&T and asked to speak with the department that looks into improving reception in poor reception zones. After being put on hold for 20 minutes, I was finally able to connect to the right person – a senior manager at AT&T. I started to tell her about my experience with AT&T and the thoughts of those around me.

The manager started to look up my account, and then the call dropped. Very nice!

I didn’t have the patience to be on hold for another 20 minutes and was expecting that the senior manager I was speaking with was going to call me aback to continue our conversation, but he never did. Needless to say the experience left much to be desired. There are so many ways that AT&T could easily improve its customer service, and none of them would take much effort on the part of the company.

For example, when a company asks for customer feedback (such as downloading an application to report dead spots), it needs to do at least one of the following: Fix the dead spots so that dropped calls no longer occur. Respond to customers to explain when the changes will take place. It is not even necessary for the company to make the changes right away.

Customers understand things like time constraints and budgets. But they should make an effort to show the customer that they recognize the problem, and appreciate the time that the customers spend helping them make the service better. AT&T needs to create a culture of customer obsession within the company.

From the lack of action with regard to dead spots, to the representative that didn’t call back after a call was dropped due to using their faulty service, the way to keep customers satisfied is to show them they matter. Until AT&T starts putting the customer first, and recognizing the value and importance that each individual customer has on the company’s long term health, it is going to continue to receive bad publicity and negative feedback until they lose all of their customers to better wireless carriers.