July 22, 2006 Disservice Manual
By Dan Mitchell NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/22/business/22online.html A copy of what appears to be a manual for use by America Online customer-service employees arrived at the headquarters of the Consumerist in an unmarked manila envelope this week (consumerist.com). It seems to suggest that despite AOL's claims to the contrary, employees are expected to do everything they can to dissuade customers from canceling their service. This was shown a few weeks ago when a customer posted audio of his attempt to cancel over the phone, only to be put through a tortuous sales pitch (see insignificantthoughts.com). One section of the manual is titled "Think of Cancellation Calls as Sales Leads," and is rife with tips for persuading customers to keep the service. "Take whatever the customer says and keep digging!" it advises. Is the manual real? AOL won't say. "We're not able to offer any comment on that," Sarah Matin, a spokeswoman, said. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
