The Value of Customer Service: Lessons of Loss from Sprint

Sprint is the Nation's third largest mobile phone company and they are currently experiencing a 77% drop in profits and customers are opting for more friendly services. Sprint recently dropped 377,000 customers due to poor reception, dropped calls and inadequate customer service. As business owners and managers there are a few lessons we can learn from Sprint.

Lesson 1: "Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it. It is what you client or customer gets out of it"- Peter Drucker.

Large corporations sometimes start believing that they are more important than the customer. Their processes, procedures and even their name become the standard way of doing things and customers who don't fit within these policies are just out of luck. Sprint, as well as other businesses, should continually focus on the value within their product or service. If the customer isn't getting as much value as they are paying for then they will likely go somewhere else.

Lesson #2: "If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends." -Jeff Bezos

Each time Sprint, or a business, annoys a customer there is a chance that the customer will run out with their anger and post negative messages throughout the internet, tell their friends at work and do the company harm. Even though the situation is annoying the customer has that right because they are paying for a service and they are unhappy with that service. Therefore, it is necessary to treat your customers with the highest level of flexibility and respect.

Lesson #3: "Customers don't expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong." - Donald Porter

There is no perfect service in the world today. Therefore, there will come times when mistakes will happen, a product will have a defect or there will be other issues that are not to the customers' satisfaction. When these mistakes happen the customer calls in and is giving Sprint, or the business in question, the chance to actually solve their problem. In many cases the customer is being benevolent by giving the company this chance instead of dropping them all together. If the company can't fix this problem, doesn't care about this problem and treats the customer as though he or she is a nuisance they may end up losing that customer.

Lesson #4: "Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you into the game.
Service wins the game." - Tony Alessandra.

A company may have a great product or service and this is what attracts people. However, once people have purchased that product or service the company needs to show them that their service is adding value, that they are trying to solve problems and they are a partner in the person's success. It is the service that makes your company or service different from all the other high quality and superb products available on the market.

"Our greatest asset is the customer! Treat each customer as if they are the only one!"-Laurice Leitao