Upgrading your smartphone has traditionally been something that should be easy, but often isn’t.
It wasn’t that long ago when you had to fumble with those tiny SIM cards, not knowing exactly how they should go in. Those could easily be lost or damaged, and of course, your phone did not work without them.
Related: Struggling mall anchor makes generous offer to win back customers
In a perfect world, your new phone would arrive, and you would be able to download all the information from your old phone in a matter of minutes. Your phone number would come with you, and everything would be ready to go in less than half an hour.
It’s supposed to work that way, but it often doesn’t.
Sometimes that means a call to customer service, and those calls can be massively frustrating. If you call AT&T or Verizon, getting an actual human being on the phone can be a virtual miracle.
Nobody wants to press buttons and be directed to the website when they have an actual problem. That, however, has become way too common as companies have tried to save money on customer service by using artificial intelligence (AI).
Don’t miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet’s free daily newsletter
Any person who has lived through an AI customer service experience fully understands why humans and robots so often go to war in movies.
T-Mobile (TMUS) seems to understand that upgrading your phone is a key part of your relationship with the carrier. Because of that, the company has decided to make some real investments in fixing that pain point.
Image source: Shutterstock/TheStreet
T-Mobile wants to make upgrades better and easier
While T-Mobile has had some customer interaction issues over the past few years, the company has been built around changing industry norms. It found its audience based on the idea of being different than Verizon and AT&T in customer-friendly ways.
T-Mobile’s CFO Peter Osvaldik spoke about his company’s efforts to make upgrading easier at JPMorgan’s 53rd Annual Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference.
“And so upgrades was the first journey. For those that are T-Mobile customers that have lived through upgrade experiences years ago, next time you upgrade, I definitely suggest you try this slick new experience. It’s really, really great, makes it much more smooth, and it allows the ability as we deploy more and more features to personalize it,” he shared.
Osvaldik made it clear that T-Mobile does not see problems in the same way as its rivals.
“And so the view – and this is the difference is a lot of companies approach digitalization, AI, automation with how do I take costs out of the system? How do I deflect more calls? I don’t want to deal with customers, I want the AI to deal with customers,” he shared.
More Retail:
- Costco quietly plans to offer a convenient service for customers
- T-Mobile pulls the plug on generous offer, angering customers
- AT&T makes generous offer to older customers
T-Mobile does not believe in shuffling off customer service to AI bots.
“For us, much like the ethos of this company has always been, how do you put customer centricity at the forefront, make their experiences better. And when you do that, of course, cost will naturally come out of the system,” he added.
The CFO made it clear that if more problems get solved over the phone, then T-Mobile needs fewer retail locations, which saves money.
T-Mobile focuses on customer needs
Osvaldik explained that T-Mobile works to put the customer and their needs first. That includes understanding what they want and delivering it proactively.
“When you think about things that are important to customers around this product space is, am I getting the speed and reliability that’s necessary for me? Our product – if you just look at Q4 to Q4, third-party reports recently released, speeds have increased by 50% Q4 versus Q4. So in a year, we’ve increased speeds by 50%,” he shared.
Offering a better product has helped T-Mobile grow its brand and retain existing customers.
“We continue to win customer satisfaction recognition from multiple, multiple third parties. So it’s a product that’s resonating, it’s durable and that’s what’s continuing to drive the growth and the lower churn and the higher ARPU (average revenue per user),” he added.
Related: Iconic convenience store closing down all locations
The CFO also wants to win over the whole family, because that’s good for T-Mobile.
“Bundling is a way to drive churn down. Bundling is a way to drive discounts as a result. You think about family plans in the U.S., there is a reason that the second line, third line, fourth line, fifth line is a lot cheaper than the first one, and that is you bundle things together, you get reduced churn and you get higher value on the account basis, similarly when you bundle an iPad or a watch together with your mobile phone,” he shared.
Great Job Daniel Kline & the Team @ TheStreet Source link for sharing this story.
