I don't blaim customer for customers being rude.
They have been well conditioned to be rude, by our monopoly competitors or
non-related retail chain establishments, where the only way they have gotten
any results was to scream and be the "angry customer". If that is not the
case, its because they usually just don't understand or comprehend the
situation. Customers are not technicians, and should not be expected to be.
And then lastly, there is the .001% that are just evil, and get satisfaction
in causing others trouble.
The good thing about being a WISP is that we are NOT OBLIGATED to serve
everyone. And 90% of the time we were the customer's last resort down the
line attempting to get Broadband from. (underserved). Because of this, we
often have the power of the "Soup Nazi" (reference Seinfeld).
There are only three ways to handle a troublesome end user....
1. Education. - Try and explain the situation in a way that they can
understand. Identify what they are misunderstanding. Explain the market,
your capabilties, his real options going forward, Why you can't resolve,
what you are doing for him above call of duty, why he is comming to false
conclusions, what he has to do and his responsibilties. EtcEtc.
2- Patience and Politeness - Don't let them get a rise out of you. Ignore
their harshness and attacks. Dont get offended by their screaming. Respond
back calmly and clearly, and do not reciprocate with attacks. Be sympathetic
to what they are going through, and express that. Understand their
frustration. Ask them what they want to acheive (by their screaming), and
what they want you to do. Don't tell them something that can't be done. Be
the better person. But stand your ground and don't give in, because
otherwise they won't learn, and the abusive way of communicating will just
keep repeating itself. But most important listen, so you can understand
their real issue, and decide whether it has merit. (maybe they had a valid
beef). And most importantly do everything humanly possible to try and help
them and solve their problem.
3- If the above doesn't work, and abuse continues, put them on hold, hang
up, don't take their calls, send them written notice that you have cancelled
them as a subscriber, and that their connection will be disconnected in 30
days. Then add, "If you have any questions on why this occured, you may
Email [EMAIL PROTECTED], and expect a repsonse within 7 days.". refuse to take their
calls. Go repo their outdoor equipment. Problem solved, and now spend your
time on customers and prospects that deserve your attention.
If you aren't willing to do #3, then you need to reconsider whether you did
#1 and #2 to the best of your ability. If you do do #3, 90% chance the
customer will come back begging and pleading for you to reconsider w/ a
polite attitude. If the customer does not, they had other alternatives,
your problem is solved and so is theirs.
If the customer still gives you a hardtime, and its possible because people
lie, and the Internet and consumer protection groups gives them that power,
you are just screwed, and not much you can do about it, other than Deal with
it, and recognize that its part of being a business.
Tom DeReggi
RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc
IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jack Unger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org>
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2007 12:46 PM
Subject: Re: [WISPA] PITA customers...
Nobody is proposing that customers should be disposed of "easily". We
fight to obtain customers and we fight to keep them but disposing of a
customer who is continually draining your resources or impacting the
service that you deliver to others is a wise business decision, assuming
that their complaints are not justified by your (not you personally
George - I mean business owners collectively) failure to deliver what you
told them to expect in terms of service.
Complaints are caused by:
1. Mis-set expectations. As a WISP it's easy to promise more throughput
than you can deliver either because you don't know how much throughput you
are actually capable of delivering (very common in the WISP industy), or
2. Intentionally mis-leading customers about the throughput that they
could expect to receive (not very common in the WISP industry), or
3. Poor system design or high interference levels (or the behavior of
other mis-behaving customers) causing customer slowdowns that you did not
or could not anticipate.
4. The small 1 percent or 2 percent of customers who "live to complain".
These folks who believe that it is their mission in life to complain
loudly, widely and continually to any and everyone within listening
distance (in person, on the phone, on the Internet, etc) are the real
culprits who, I believe, you should politely "invite" to find another
service provider.
Complaint causes number 1 through 3 above should be listened to
respectfully and addressed promptly, correctly and thoroughly.
But that's just my opinion...
jack
David E. Smith wrote:
George Rogato wrote:
Customers are hard to come by to dispose of them so easily.
I wonder, I wonder what it is that is causing the customer to complain?
I'll agree with the principle of this statement, that customers often
have a legitimate reason for their complaints.
Some folks, however, simply love the sound of their own voices. :)
For us, the biggest problem is file-sharing software. If two or three
customers are running Kazaa or Limewire or whatever it is the cool kids
are using these days to download music and movies of questionable
provenance, the other thirty folks on that tower will complain. Those
folks have a legitimate beef, and that's not a problem. We look at the
tower, see who's doing what, and make the problem go away (usually by
temporarily disconnecting the customer running the P2P software).
That's where the problems really start. That guy whose connection is
spitting out about 100 packets per second on Limewire? He didn't read the
contract, didn't listen to our installers (who are instructed to remind
customers this kind of software is a no-no, and to explain in gentle
non-technical terms why this is so), and it couldn't possibly be my
little baby boy why he's a perfect angel (no he's not, he's a teenager,
you remember what you were like when you were fifteen?).
Usually, once is all it takes, but we do have an informal "three strikes"
policy - if you continually annoy us (and all the other subscribers in
your area) eventually we will ask you to find another ISP. One customer
who persists in causing problems for dozens of other customers isn't
worth it.
David Smith
MVN.net
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Jack Unger ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) - President, Ask-Wi.Com, Inc.
FCC License # PG-12-25133
Serving the Broadband Wireless Industry Since 1993
Author of the WISP Handbook - "Deploying License-Free Wireless WANs"
True Vendor-Neutral Wireless Consulting-Training-Troubleshooting
FCC Part 15 Certification for Manufacturers and Service Providers
Phone (VoIP Over Broadband Wireless) 818-227-4220 www.ask-wi.com
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