Of Changing Customer Needs, Knowledge Bases, And Call Centers

I’ve had a Blackberry for three years now. When I first got it, I wanted it for its e-mail capabilities. I wanted to be able to respond quickly to e-mails no matter where I was. The Blackberry exceeded my needs.

But as I spent more time on Twitter (@txglennross) and began using it to research topics of importance to me such as quality assurance, CRM, social CRM, and more, I found myself spending more time using my Blackberry to access the Internet.

Over the last four or five months I ran into increasing instances of getting error messages when I would attempt to open a link through either the Uber Twitter app or the browser. "Error 413: Page too large," was the most common error message I received.

I started longing for an iPhone, but my company doesn’t support iPhones or Droids, only Blackberrys. Next, my wife went from a Blackberry to a Droid and she loves it. I was developing a bad case of smart phone envy.

I became frustrated every time I failed to reach a blog or website. Each time I did, my loyalty to Blackberry dropped.

Then one day I decided to call my cellular carrier, T-Mobile. I have always experienced great customer service from them. My first call resulted in the customer service representative (CSR) consulting her knowledge base then telling me to reboot by removing the battery. (I already cleared the cache on a regular basis.) Complicating that answer was the fact that I use an Otter Box case to protect my phone. It takes several minutes to disassemble, and isn’t good for the Otter Box. That didn’t solve the problem.

We then escalated the issue to RIM tech support. This CSR offered a solution which I thought worked, so I disconnected. But I was wrong, and the problem continued.

Three days later I called RIM directly using their toll-free number and giving the case number I had written down. This time the CSR asked me to make a simple settings change. I opened the browser, went to “Options” and switched from "Blackberry" as the browser to "Internet."

Bang! That was it. No more error 413s. It’ seems that the Blackberry server was acting as a proxy and was creating a bottleneck.

Question #1: Why wasn’t this simple solution available to the very first CSR I called? Only my persistence in calling back multiple times got the problem solved. A fair number of people would have just dropped the Blackberry and bought a Droid or iPhone.

Question #2: Are you sure that the simple solutions are in your knowledge base so that you can offer a one-call resolution? (Never underestimate the "How cool is THAT!" feeling a customer gets when they receive great customer service the first time.)

Question #3: As I mentioned, my needs regarding smart phones have evolved over the last three years. Are you doing anything to determine if your customers’ needs are changing? To Blackberry, I am NOT the same customer I was three years ago.

I’m interested in Blackberry’s new Torch, which seems to be better at surfing the Web than its other models. But that Droid is awful alluring. Frankly, I’m curious if Blackberry will be able to offer phones closer to the Droid and iPhone. My IT department is currently studying how it can support other smart phones besides the Blackberry so I’ll soon have a wider choice. Rumor has it that T-Mobile will soon be offering the iPhone so there’s another option I can consider. To RIM’s credit however, their customer service is great (although not perfect, otherwise I wouldn’t have had to make three calls here).

There are two morals here. First, don’t take your customers’ needs for granted. I’m moving into the segment of RIM customers who want to be able to surf the Web faster and who rely on e-mails less. E-mail alone no longer cuts it. Other external factors such as T-Mobile offering the iPhone and my organization supporting more smart phone options are making it more competitive for Blackberry.

Second, anything less than one-call resolution negatively impacts loyalty. Therefore be sure your knowledge base and your CSRs’ ability to search that base are where they should be.

Regards,

Glenn