Sprint soars from last to first place in customer service poll

Sprint soars from last to first place in customer service poll

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Published on: 20 October, 2008 by PhoneArena Team

Sprint soars from last to first place in customer service poll

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Sprint, while being the third largest carrier in the United States, isn't exactly known for its stellar customer service. Over the years, the department has frequently been ridiculed, and Sprint executives shun words such as "customer service ratings." The latest poll by Pali Research, however, shows Sprint moving from the bottom of the list to the very top.

In the research, the team noted that “Sprint Nextel finally achieved the response time benchmark of answering more than 80% of calls in 30 seconds or less that the prior management team claimed it was delivering years ago,” surpassing it and rising all the way to 91 percent in their research study. Additionally, the research shows that Sprint has improved in regards to the number of times called, and how long it takes to handle a customer service call.

Verizon Wireless came in second with 85 percent, T-Mobile - 44 percent, and AT&T brought up the rear at 33 percent.

source: Sprint Connection


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1.
so is this just how fast they answer a call? or how good overall the customer service is?
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6.
It is good to see the sprint is improving their customer service. Even though I work for a competitor, its nice to see them at least trying. For a while, there, it seemed they didnt care that they were losing customers due to a lack-luster phone lineup, service area and customer service. At least they are improving on their weak areas.
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20.
suuuure.. the people that are left are more happy, because they either cancelled contracts on complaining customers, or they left and went to VZW.

of course, this article is all about responce time, and it doesnt show anything about how much people actually like cust service, which working at VZW, we have to deal with all the time for porting purposes (sprint is the worst at porting). They are idiots in another country!
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #6 ( Show )
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37.
If you're a Verizon employee,so this really doesn't concern you. The fact that you responded in a negative fashion means either one of two things: 1)You see Sprint as a legitimate threat to the big V and you feel the need to try to minimize any positive news, or 2)you're a tool.

I'm leaning towards #2 here.
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #20 ( Show )
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38.
The fact that you responded to this thread in that fashion means your: 1) a bigger tool than the VZW employees you mentioned, or 2) your just an @%%

I'm leaning towards #2 here.
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #37 ( Show )
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44.
Way to be original and look like the biggest tool of the three..the best part of #20 post is the people from the other country probaly have the same comment when they get off the phone with him..."I hate talking to idots from VZW!"
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #38 ( Show )
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50.
duh
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51.
As a former verizon customer, I have had nothing but great things to say about the folks at the sprint store in Las Cruces, NM, that I have dealt with! They've been better to me than verizon ever was!
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #20 ( Show )
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63.
Be carefull saying stuff like that...they have crusified people for less....lol
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #51 ( Show )
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78.
you spelled crucified wrong....
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #63 ( Show )
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83.
Yes, I am confused on this as well. (Oh and by the way I am responding to #6 since the posts that followed thereafter seemed completely unrelated to the post and seems stereotypical of a high school locker room spat where adolescents self-indulge in boosting their own ego's, however vain that may be) The experiences I have had with Sprint customer care and telesales has been an atrocity. I don't think I have been treated worse by any company, much less a cell service provider. This statement must be concerning pickup time only. I recently upgraded my account with Sprint, 4 of my 5 lines and wanted the 5th canceled. I was quoted one price from telesales on each of the 4 different phones and was told I would receive a $95 dollar adjustment on my bill per line. Well my bill arrived and the phones were on average $30 more than what I had been quoted (after all rebates) and only a $50 adjustment was done per line. I called up customer care and spent around 2 hours on the phone with them. I spoke to the sales rep who answered my call, and was told that there was no notation on the account about the adjustments or the price of the phones. At this point is was starting to get frustrated, and most definitely displayed that (not in an inappropriate manner, but in the manner that was deserved). After, I'm assuming she determined that should couldn't help me further she told me to hold for a moment and hung up. She didn't put me on hold, she just hung up. Could have been a mistake, unlikely however. I called again and asked for the supervisor right away and went through my entire problem again. She was extremely unreasonable, and began to tell me that the highest adjustment they can perform was $75 so they never said that. After about forty-five minutes of talking to her, I asked to be transferred to her manage, who was the floor manager for the entire customer care section at that time. This is where it gets good. She not only swore at me (it was only once but that was enough), blocked my account from ever receiving further adjustments, she also called me a liar. Now even if I was lying, (I'm not, I am recounting the story the same as it happened) this is completely unacceptable. I have worked in customer service for many years and the one thing that has always been consistent with every company I have worked for is that you do everything in your power to ensure the customer is pleased, even if the customer IS doing it just to get free stuff. The way my case was handled was completely unprofessional and an extreme breach in character. If their floor manage behaved in such a way, I can only assume that most of the staff would respond similarly.
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #6 ( Show )
Reply to Midnight Hide 10 replies to this comment
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2.
I believe this is based on pure statistics. Call Answer, Call Time, Number of Calls etc... You can answer calls faster when you don't have any subscribers and handle the call faster when there's less calls from less subscribers. This however isn't based on customer satisfaction or first call resolution or anything like that... so Verizon still rules the roost when it comes to wireless customer service.
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7.
ummm no. Nice try though fanboy.

The number of times called and time to handle a call numbers indicate higher customer satisfaction. It's directly related.

Stop viewing the Wireless world through Verizon colored glasses.
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8.
So the third largest carrier in the US has no subscribers to handle? Reality check, my friend.
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10.
The surprising thing here is T-Mobile. Using your logic (which is a bit flawed), the fourth largest carrier should have no problems, yet they are only answering calls within 30 seconds 44 percent of the time.
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11.
LOL...that is exactly what I was thinking. That and if his logic was correct them Sprint and T-Mobile would have lead this study every year but that is not the case...i wonder why? Get back to work and stop blogging on company time!
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #10 ( Show )
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13.
wow you all really didn't read what he said. Sprint can answer the phone the fastest and have less first time calls doesn't mean they aren't calling back every ten mins cause their problem wasn't fixed and really is this based off a period of months. Is it that someone's first call was in August, then called back in Sept when there bill wasn't fixed. Are both labeled as first time calls cause they are two different months? And like he said this is just stats not who actually provided customer service. Hell I can answer my phone fast but then hang up on you giving you horrible customer service but according to this survey I would be champ!
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15.
No we read excatly what he said "You can answer calls faster when you don't have any subscribers and handle the call faster when there's less calls from less subscribers." Now you are trying to back pedel and say they don't resolve them in one call and/or receive multipule calls regarding the same issue which would then increase the number of overall calls they receive making it an even better statictic that they can still answer 91% in 30 seconds or less. You both are just here becasue you now will not be able to sleep tonight since VZW is no number one in every wireless surey. Hold time is a huge determinng facter when it comes overall Customer Service satisfation. The longer you wait on hold the more frustrated you will be once the rep finally answers the call. I had Comcast for years and that was the main reason I hated calling them. You wasted 20 minutes of your time just waiting. Then I get a rep that does not want to be a work that day and I can either hang up and wait another 20 min or deal with the person who took my call.
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #13 ( Show )
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17.
No, I read it. I just didn't agree with his warped point of view. If they weren't resolving the issues, wouldn't it stand to reason that the call volume would go way up when you add the new callers along with the folks calling back to resolve old issues? Higher call volume would equal slower response times.

As far as "calling back every ten minutes", maybe it was you who didn't read the article:

"Sprint has improved in regards to the number of times called, and how long it takes to handle a customer service call."
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #13 ( Show )
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39.
Alright, so the stupid little dig at sprint was ill conceived cause everyone wants to read it so strictly. The foundation of my comment was that this is not a accurate measurement of satisfaction. Pure stats means nothing unless talking to customers. Plain and simple. If everyone wants to harp on one little sentence out of the whole comment then you are the idiots.
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43.
Ok let me have sure I'm understanding you this time then. You walk into a bank lets say...and one line takes less than 30 seconds to get to a teller and the other line takes 10 minutes to get to a teller. You are telling me you would pick the line that takes 20 minutes? You would not be more satisfied with your trip to the bank had you waited 30 seconds verses 10 minutes? Here is the real question...if this artical read "Verizon soars to another first place in customer service poll"...then what whould your reponce be? I'll respect you a lot more if you're honest..
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #39 ( Show )
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53.
If you honestly think speed is the be all end all of customer service then you are a retard. Your analogy can be thrown back at you that the teller servicing everyone in a speedy manner may be giving the incorrect amount of money and thus while she is fast the service is still shit....

But being a brain dead moron i guess you think speed equals customer service.
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #43 ( Show )
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54.
wow...i'm glad all of you guys are nobel peace prize winners in logic and math...and remind me again how many of you guys are sprint customers again?....
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57.
I was just hanging out with all my hot girlfriends and I had to stop the party to respond to your lame *** geek comments. Yes, you geek! Now, you can just find out how much Sprint's customer service sucks FASTER. Wow! Hurry up and disapoint them.
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #7 ( Show )
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65.
Wow...this guy really needs to lay off the Kool-Aid. Just to let you know your left and right hands are not considered girlfriends. If you stop "parting" to reply to a post then you are LAME and should really try to get a life out side being a professinal deutsch bag!
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #57 ( Show )
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68.
@ #43. I don't care if I get someone in 30 seconds. If they can't help me properly then I get more frustrated. If I wait to long, I get more frustrated. The secret to customer service is not just in wait time. It's a delicate balance of wait time, handling of issues, empathy, and more. and as for your question of how would I react if it was VZW? Differently. And no, its not for biased reasons, its because VZW leads other key stats in customer service. Customer Satisfaction, First Call Resolution, and the (independently verified and established) most reliable network in America. Sprint has hemmorraged customers and thrown out others because they called into customer service to much. Now that those people are gone of course wait times will come down because apparently those people were so much of a bother they caused people to have to wait cause it worked. Look where they are now. They answer the phone faster than anyone else. Big deal. I've worked in customer service all my life. Managed a call center. I know wait time is important, but in the end its the service provided that seals the deal.
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #43 ( Show )
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70.
From #43...and I could not agree with you more #68. My post were geared to the others that blow it off like it means obsolutly nothing. I also work in some what of a call center enviorment for the worlds largest cell phone distributer and in every carrier contract we currently handle there are clauses that state we must keep wait times under X amount of minutes and have less than X% of abandon calls. If those are not numbers are not met then the $hit hits the fan. Customer Satisfaction and Frist Call Resolution are also huge but Cusotmer Satisfaction can be the hardest to measure for the simple fact that not everyone will agree with polices that are in place. You could give great CS but if the person on the other end does not like or agree with you do to policys you must follow then they will not be satisfied but than also does not mean bad CS was provided. Frist call is much easier as it is a simple yes or no question "Was your issue resolved during your call". Which the artical stated "Additionally, the research shows that Sprint has improved in regards to the number of times called, and how long it takes to handle a customer service call." CS has been Sprint glaring weekness for some time and it is nice to see them finally addressing the problem and seeing results.
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #68 ( Show )
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75.
Thank you. Finally I have a decent arguement with someone on a site like this that is civil and actually gets somewhere. But I'm glad you get my point as well as me getting yours. I used to be a Sprint Customer and don't care if they gave 25 days of free service a month, I ain't going back. I'm sick of always being accused of being a "fanboy" just because I lean towards VZW which has been my provider for a while now. Thank you for being mature and actually going back and forth with me instead of just throwing fanboy out, because fanboy I am not. If VZW is doing something stupid I'll say it and have said it in the past.
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #70 ( Show )
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77.
There is a huge differnce in being a "fanboy" and being a loyal educated end-user. I can tell you fall into the educated end-user side. This is the main reason I even come to sites like this is to debate any thing and every thing in the wireless world but 95% of the time it is just a bunch of arguing and nonsence that goes no where. There are so many out there that see things one way and want to bash everyone that sees things differntly. I could care less who anyones service provider is, if it works for you great...if not there are plenty of options out there. I too will be the first to call out Sprint for stupid decisions and have do so on many occations. Well it was good chatting with you and hopefully other can do the same and we can actually have civil conversations here!
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #75 ( Show )
Reply to anonymous Hide 17 replies to this comment
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3.
Regardless, it is nice to see Sprint at the top of the poll.
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58.
Usually it is the other way around huh?, Sprint usually has the poll in your bottom! LOL LOL Ouch!.
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Reply to anonymous Hide 1 replies to this comment
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4.
Sprint had done some good things for themselves lately. I'd just wish they improved coverage.

I guess AT&T is getting smug.
Reply to this comment
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5.
My service isnt through Sprint but form what ive heard their customer service isnt that great, its good to see a positive change.
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9.
Now if they would only get rid of the foreign call centers that mess your account up every time you call in to fix something they messed up... Lost "grandfathered in" free text messaging due to a foreign call center...
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12.
Alot of the time if you have problem during buisness hours you should goto a store and have them help.
They hate it but its beter to talk to a acutal person. On other thoughts its good to see this Sprint Needs good
plublicity to get their feet reset. Now if they could promote New phones with beter advertisment then they'd be going somewhere.
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14.
Good job Dan!
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16.
My advice is go to a REAL (corporate) Sprint store for account problems anyway. The third party stores seem to mess up stuff a lot and those customers have to call to get things fixed thinking that the store cannot help them. If you aren't sure if it is a REAL Sprint store you're in, ask them. They have to tell you if they are a third party store. I've been confused before because sometimes they wear the same uniforms even.
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19.
Actually, in my opinion, you are better off finding a good knowledgeable rep and asking for them by name. Corp or third party. I have seen just as many idiots in an actual Sprint Store than at a dealer. Find someone you like dealing with and do all of your business with them.
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21.
i agree if you find some one who actually knows what they are talking about and knows what they are doing they aren'y going to mess up your account. i have gone into many sprint stores and the people working them are morons and dont know what they are talking about so i found a store that did all the services in my area and they knew way more than the ones that only sold sprint. find a store that you like and do all your service through them instead of dealing with different people all the time, let them know you so they will spend more time trying to help you
Reply to this comment This comment is posted in response to #19 ( Show )
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25.
it really depends on whom you talking to. i have worked with sprint (third party store) for nearly 3 years and i bet ; i can answer and help u faster with every question without working for sprint (corporate). it also truly depends on who is training you. just because you talked to one person that didn't have answers doesn't mean everybody working there is stupid.
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22.
Who the *@#& is Pali Research? The only number 1 spot that maters is the J.D. Power and Associates. O yea VZW got that number one spot. Who cares about some random poll.
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