Not all his choices center strictly on the balance sheet, though. Some have to do with ensuring the company puts on a nice face. That's apparently why the Verizon Community Forum is being shuttered.
Shutting down a platform
The Verizon support forum is closing its doors to customers. | Image by Verizon
The Verizon Community Forum existed to facilitate communication between customers and tech experts, serving as a hub to discuss problems and share advice.
The digital space has officially been closed, though posts remain available for viewing until July 17. Customers who want to access, edit, or scrub their personal information from the forum have until August 17 to make the request.
On August 18, all the content will be wiped clean and will no longer be accessible.
Enough empowering?
Verizon is pivoting away from a bustling community to a standardized support model. | Image by Verizon
According to Verizon, the forum empowered subscribers to create helpful content and elevate the overall customer experience.
Though the forum was managed and moderated by company employees, it mostly relied on customers helping one another.
Verizon claims it's shutting the platform down to simplify the user experience and has pointed customers toward automated self-service tools and support documents instead.
The company also offers the standard assurance that its support team is always standing by to help.
Customers will be on their own
Verizon's recent job cuts were more about transferring employees to third-party payrolls than making them jobless by shutting down stores. For reference, the company had 89,900 employees as of the end of last year.
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The company sold 274 company-owned stores to franchise owners this month, following a divestiture of 200 stores in November. Six different operators bought the locations and will run them as authorized retailers.
This leaves Verizon with direct control over 1,000 locations, while entrusting 5,000 locations to franchise operators.
Even though Verizon hasn't shrunk its retail footprint outright, customers might still bear the brunt of the change. Third-party stores are notorious for aggressive sales practices due to a lack of corporate oversight.
Schulman is a big proponent of AI and envisions the tech replacing customer care agents and disrupting certain traditional functions.
While Verizon has denied that store sell-offs had anything to do with AI, it's hard to believe that, especially with the community forum simultaneously being sunsetted.
How important was the Verizon Community Forum to you?
The real reason
Finance may not be my strong suit, but it's hard to imagine the community forum severely depleting Verizon's resources. Employees weren't obligated to get back to customers. Fellow subscribers did the heavy lifting for free.
Apparently, Verizon doesn't want customers to air their grievances with the company publicly. Sure, Reddit and other social media networks exist, but they don't carry the same immediate brand clout as an official forum.
This signals a scrappier Verizon that's eager to offload customer care to AI wherever possible. While it's an effective way to trim the budget, a lot of customers find AI chatbots inept at solving their problems. That doesn't align with Schulman's goal of delighting customers.
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Anam Hamid is a computer scientist turned tech journalist who has a keen interest in the tech world, with a particular focus on smartphones and tablets. She has previously written for Android Headlines and has also been a ghostwriter for several tech and car publications. Anam is not a tech hoarder and believes in using her gadgets for as long as possible. She is concerned about smartphone addiction and its impact on future generations, but she also appreciates the convenience that phones have brought into our lives. Anam is excited about technological advancements like folding screens and under-display sensors, and she often wonders about the future of technology. She values the overall experience of a device more than its individual specs and admires companies that deliver durable, high-quality products. In her free time, Anam enjoys reading, scrolling through Reddit and Instagram, and occasionally refreshing her programming skills through tutorials.
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