The Power of “I’m Sorry” and Actually Listening: The AT&T Outage Story
Nov 21st, 2008 by Capsun
Executive Summary: Saying “I’m sorry”; AT&T service outage; Pros and Cons of how it was handled.
Saying “I’m sorry”
After my tirade on go! the other day, I want to show that I can also use this blog to praise someone for doing something right. The power of “I’m sorry” is that it allows one party to take responsibility for their part in a problem. It also allows both sides (or more) the opportunity to move on to more productive ventures than bickering about blame and venting anger.
AT&T Hawaii Outage
If you are an iPhone user in Hawaii, you probably noticed the service interruption that AT&T experienced yesterday. Being a power user of my iPhone 3G, I was forced to go without connectivity (either voice or data) from about 7 a.m. until after lunch. Until that happened, I thought that would be doing the impossible. I wonder how President-Elect Obama is going to go his entire administration without his Blackberry, when I don’t want to give up email for even a day. However, I did “cheat” a little in that I had my office connection and could use my work Blackberry that uses Verizon.
For great coverage of the outage, check out Ryan Ozawa’s blog post about it. I was actually planning to say much of what he said, but he published his post while I was still compiling notes, so guess he got the blog scoop on me. I’ll leave it to the pro to do the scooping.
Coping With the Outage
It was an ordeal, but we had our Motrin Moms moment in Hawaii. We made our Twitter voices heard. Thank goodness AT&T has far better sense than Motrin did. And the best part is that AT&T said two powerful words: we apologize. Even former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s mistress can do that (not that it would always be accepted).
By assuring us via Twitter that even the PR guys were aware of the problem and they were looking into it, it showed AT&T really cared. They even asked us to report if and when our service was restored. Talk about instant and direct feedback from their customers!
First, here’s what I didn’t like:
- While they were pleasant on the phone, they weren’t very helpful: “We are aware of the outage…we are working on it…we have no estimate of when the problem will be fixed…we hope it’s soon.”
- Their email us link didn’t work, so that’s why I had to call them in the first place
- It took AT&T until 11:15 to respond via Twitter, nearly four hours after the problem started
- They continued to post AT&T PR releases after Hawaii Tweeps were reporting problems
Now, here’s what I liked:
- When I called AT&T, I punched in a few options and was connected to a customer service rep in about three rings.
- They specifically addressed Hawaii customers on their national Twitter account
- AT&T is offering a one-day service credit if customers request it. I was offered $1.25, so I told the customer service rep I’d pass. But it was a matter of principle and I’m glad to see AT&T was willing to make an offer. Note that works out to one day on my plan.
In the end, I have to hand it to AT&T for listening to our reports and really making an effort to let us know what was happening. I’m new to AT&T, having switched from Sprint, a company with the worst customer service I’ve had for anything I pay for. When I’ve complained to Sprint, they’ve never offered a service credit or even a solution to my original problem, so I am a satisfied AT&T customer and happy Apple iPhone user. Nice job on this one, folks!
Mahalo!
I don’t really like it when companies pro-rate like that. Sure, it’s “fair” in some regards, but I’m not paying a-la carte. It’s not like I could call them tomorrow and say “Hey by the way, I never used the EDGE network yesterday, how about you refund that?”
It’s a 2 year contract, billed monthly. If service is spotty at any point during the month, I would have been better off on a 2 year monthly contract somewhere else.
Would a whole month’s reimbursement be fair? Perhaps. Or perhaps if they don’t want to lose that much revenue, upgrade something on my plan. If I don’t have unlimited texting, give me unlimited texting free for 3 months. Or double my minutes. If I wasn’t using them before, I probably won’t use them again – but if I DO and I enjoy it, you may have just upsold, puppy dog style.
Making us wait on the phone to get back $1.25 is not a completely unnacceptable solution, as I agree the principle is correct. While they certainly avoided the Motris Moms type of fiasco, I think they missed an opportunity.
Or perhaps I have just been reading Seth Godin’s blog too much
$1.25? What about pain and suffering? I am certain some people were frantic. In fact, when I called my boss and a recording told me her phone had been cut off, I wondered if I needed to order flowers for her funeral. My boss’s phone is NEVER off.
There’s an interesting question. Instead of a service credit, how about 1 month off my contract? That wouldn’t cost anything. I’m surprised I’m not more upset about it; I guess coming from Sprint, any level of decent customer service is appreciated. So, while they may have missed an opportunity, it’s better than I’m used to.
And I never thought about pain and suffering. I’m like your boss. Most people think I’m on a flight or sick if they don’t hear from me for more than a couple hours.
Love blogs that bring the humor out in people, like “Quilly”. I hate phones unless I’m stuck on the side of the road, want to be found, or want people to assume I’m somewhere else. We are truly spoiled. Try being with someone who has 2 phones competing with each other and ringing at the most inopportune times. Personally, I like to look people in the eye when conversing…a true Scorpio trait.
Good point about looking people in the eye, but I couldn’t very well fly to Texas to talk to AT&T…
On the other hand, I wonder how much better customer service would be if representatives had to talk to customers in person. Imagine that!
I need more blog lessons.
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