You won't believe why a T-Mobile manager took away a rep's iPad
T-Mobile continues to ask its reps to perform super human feats during its digital transition.
A T-Mobile rep, who wrote about his story on Reddit, had his company iPad taken away by his manager. That sounds like a harsh punishment. What did this rep do that led his boss to take away his company tablet? Did he steal the manager's pudding from the fridge in the break room? Did he accidentally refer to his employer as a carrier instead of calling it the Un-carrier? Did he forget to wipe his shoes off the doormat before stepping on the magenta carpet inside the store?
This is why the T-Mobile rep had his company tablet yanked away from him
The answer is more shocking than any of those. It seems that this T-Mobile salesman used T-Life on only 84% of the customer transactions he handled, well below the 100% T-Mobile wants its reps to score. T-Mobile, as we've mentioned many times before (and we were among the first to spot this change) is turning into a digital Mobile Network Operator (MNO). The T-Life app will eventually handle all transactions from phone upgrades to accessories purchases, adding lines, taking payments, and more.
Having the T-Life app handle all of this will allow T-Mobile to close retail stores, layoff reps, and move more gross revenue directly to the bottom line. There will be no commissions to pay, and no leases to pay. The result will be higher profits, raising the price of T-Mobile stock (in theory).
Having customers use the T-Life app to place orders or make payments left one T-Mobile rep pointing out the obvious to another T-Mobile rep. "You realize your job has become to teach customers to do your job, which is going to make you unemployed in the near future," said Redditor SalesGuy561.
It's nuts, but last year a T-Mobile rep refused to sell a phone to a customer who needed to buy one
Some responded to the Reddit post by noting how crazy it is that a score above 80% results in a punishment. Apparently, the customers who did not use the T-Life app to handle their transactions had broken phones that could not run the app. You might recall that last year we told you that a T-Mobile representative refused to help a customer who needed a new phone to replace his broken handset. Since the customer's phone could not connect to the T-Life app and the rep didn't want his T-Life metric number to fall, he decided not to help the customer.
Former T-Mobile CEO John Legere, the man who made T-Mobile the Un-carrier. | Image by T-Mobile
Not helping a customer because his phone is dead and won't connect to the T-Life app could leave T-Mobile in a bit of hot water. That's because a telecom company that won't provide service to a telecom customer could end up being punished by the FCC. Current FCC chairman Brendan Carr, as EchoStar discovered, wields a mighty painful whip.
Is this the best time for T-Mobile to go digital?
T-Mobile now has a new CEO and Srini Gopalan has had the position since November 1st, when he replaced Mike Sievert. Gopalan seems to be just as eager to have T-Mobile make the conversion to a digital carrier as anyone. Gopalan recently hinted that T-Mobile is considering changing some aspects to the company's current subsidies program.
Many are questioning whether now is the best time for T-Mobile to be focusing on a major shift as it is doing now. After starting its climb to the top in September 2012 when it hired John Legere as CEO, T-Mobile seems to be taking a step backward and does not appear to be putting its customers first. That might have been a feature of the Legere era, but the Sievert era seemed to be about putting the stock first. That's not to say that under Srini Gopalan T-Mobile can't find the magic that took the carrier on its amazing journey from fourth place to become the Un-carrier topping Sprint., AT&T, and eventually Verizon.
It used to seem as though only Legere had the magic to make T-Mobile so customer friendly. In the face of the controversial digital transition, it remains to be seen whether Srini Gopalan has what it takes to bring back the Un-carrier we all know and love.
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