Bell Canada's Great Story vs. Not-So-Great Reality
I like Bell Canada's television ads: "We are all connected" They are fantastic and make me feel warm and fuzzy about the company...until I realize it's Bell Canada.
I've had endless trouble with Bell Canada. In fact, this month, we are going VoIP and canceling everything we have associated with them. I got rid of my Bell phone in February and switched to FIDO (very user friendly and an easy-to-deal-with company). We've had endless problems
with our internet service (sent the wrong modem, when that one stopped working, it took them months and many phonecalls to get a working one and everyone I talked to I had to tell the story over and over again to) and have sometimes been whole months without high-speed service without any compensation. Our phone line seems to work just fine, but after returning from China two years ago, we discovered it had been disconnected after being one week late on a phone bill payment (we were in China for a month and the bill must have arrived the day we left). We had to pay a surcharge to get our phone reconnected (which was later credited after I yelled at 6 different people).
Their employees are not empowered to do anything for people. Their customer service staff is totally friendly, but are taught to 'go by the book' and aren't even given access to their supervisors if a customer wants to do something 'beyond the book'. I feel their frustration, but as one super nice service agent, Sandy, told me, "If they gave me the power to help everyone, I'd be sending out new modems every day."
Uh, yeah. And? The fact that they taught Sandy that this is a BAD thing is where their service model disconnects from their story model.
This is what I mean. 'We are all connected' denotes community. Community conjures up feelings of safety. Safety comes from trust. I watch those ads where they demonstrate our 6 degrees of separation and I feel connection and community and safety and trust.
Yet, when I actually engage with the company, I realize there is no trust. Their policies are built on the basis: Customers will rip you us if we let them. Don't let them. And, furthermore: Employees dealing with those customers will be influenced by those customers and make decisions that will help those customers rip us off. Don't give them the power to do this.
So, for all of the safety and community and connections and trust I feel from the ads and the literature Bell Canada produces, I end up with a not-so-neighbourly reception to my concerns as a paying customer.
This is a prime example of what Seth Godin warns in All Marketers are Liars - in order to be effective, the message has to be authentic. In other words, practice what you preach.
I wonder if you balance the customers they lose every year with the modems they don't send out to replace (not to mention the man hours at the complaints department), whether the profits would balance out - or even look better?
With VoIP now available, Bell Canada will have an uphill battle to fight. I can get my high speed for much cheaper than before and my long distance and telephone service for much cheaper than before. I just hope the customer service is much better than before...
I've had endless trouble with Bell Canada. In fact, this month, we are going VoIP and canceling everything we have associated with them. I got rid of my Bell phone in February and switched to FIDO (very user friendly and an easy-to-deal-with company). We've had endless problems
with our internet service (sent the wrong modem, when that one stopped working, it took them months and many phonecalls to get a working one and everyone I talked to I had to tell the story over and over again to) and have sometimes been whole months without high-speed service without any compensation. Our phone line seems to work just fine, but after returning from China two years ago, we discovered it had been disconnected after being one week late on a phone bill payment (we were in China for a month and the bill must have arrived the day we left). We had to pay a surcharge to get our phone reconnected (which was later credited after I yelled at 6 different people).Their employees are not empowered to do anything for people. Their customer service staff is totally friendly, but are taught to 'go by the book' and aren't even given access to their supervisors if a customer wants to do something 'beyond the book'. I feel their frustration, but as one super nice service agent, Sandy, told me, "If they gave me the power to help everyone, I'd be sending out new modems every day."
Uh, yeah. And? The fact that they taught Sandy that this is a BAD thing is where their service model disconnects from their story model.
This is what I mean. 'We are all connected' denotes community. Community conjures up feelings of safety. Safety comes from trust. I watch those ads where they demonstrate our 6 degrees of separation and I feel connection and community and safety and trust.
Yet, when I actually engage with the company, I realize there is no trust. Their policies are built on the basis: Customers will rip you us if we let them. Don't let them. And, furthermore: Employees dealing with those customers will be influenced by those customers and make decisions that will help those customers rip us off. Don't give them the power to do this.
So, for all of the safety and community and connections and trust I feel from the ads and the literature Bell Canada produces, I end up with a not-so-neighbourly reception to my concerns as a paying customer.
This is a prime example of what Seth Godin warns in All Marketers are Liars - in order to be effective, the message has to be authentic. In other words, practice what you preach.
I wonder if you balance the customers they lose every year with the modems they don't send out to replace (not to mention the man hours at the complaints department), whether the profits would balance out - or even look better?
With VoIP now available, Bell Canada will have an uphill battle to fight. I can get my high speed for much cheaper than before and my long distance and telephone service for much cheaper than before. I just hope the customer service is much better than before...
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