Customer care should always be at the heart of any company; in this economy that goes double. That's why I'm continually amazed by the poor level of customer service provided by so many consumer product companies.
Near the top of that list is AT&T. If AT&T took a strategic view of things, they might view the iPhone as an amazing lead generation device. Through the iPhone AT&T is gaining millions of subscribers who would never otherwise switch to AT&T. However, they know that their window of exclusivity won't last forever. Whether Apple chooses an additional partner this summer or renews the exclusivity for a year or two longer, the deal has a finite life. So, the strategic view from AT&T should be to use this period to deliver excellent service and quality so that users will stick with the company even when other carriers can offer the iPhone.
Well, that would be the strategic view, but the reality is far from it.
Last week, in preparation for a trip to London, I tried to activate an international dialing plan on the phone. I'd used the plan previously, but since my overseas travel is modest, I turn the service on and off as needed, rather than incurring a monthly fee when I don't need it.
I won't bore you with the details here, but after spending 15 minutes online, then 45 minutes with their call center, then a 30-minute drive to an AT&T store, they were unable to activate my calling plan.
So, as I arrived in London, instead of using AT&T to make calls, whenever I've been connected to WiFi (particularly in my hotel room), I've used Skype on my iPhone. Rather than paying the discounted $0.99 per minute or non-discounted $1.29/minute rate, I'm paying about two cents per minute to Skype and AT&T gets nothing but my continued enmity.
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson has been quoted saying that he believes that customers who sign up for the iPhone are becoming loyal AT&T users. Well, the next loyal AT&T wireless user I meet will be the first.
