Recently, I had an experience that brought home the impact frontline employees have on customer retention. The last thing I want to hear is “I can’t” when I’m trying to save money.
I’ve been a customer of Sprint for more than a decade with multiple phone lines for my family. After evaluating several monthly bills I noticed the overall shared usage had changed and that all but one of the lines no longer was under a termination penalty. Rather than talk with a Sprint representative over the phone I decided to stop by the store near my home and review the bill in person to determine a way to lower my monthly cost. I also wanted to evaluate mobile Internet options for two business laptops.
When I got to the store and began to explain what I wanted to review the store representative told me he couldn’t make any changes. I asked for the manager who came over and introduced himself. Then, after reviewing my monthly statement looked up and said, “I can’t make any changes.” What transpired over the next ten minutes shocked me. Without going into detail, the most repeated words from the store manager were, “I can’t.” He had no interest in lowering my bill or helping in any way if I wasn’t going to spend more money. I finally told him I have five family lines with Sprint and two lines for Internet air cards and all except one have no termination fee. My business cellular service is with AT&T who I am sure would like me to add personal lines. When I asked, “Why should I continue doing business with Sprint when you have no interest in helping me fit plans to my actual need?” He said, “I can’t tell you what to do.” My response was to say I’ve heard “I can’t” for the last time and left the store. I drove away with every intention of transferring all my business from Sprint.
The next day while driving to the AT&T store I passed a Sprint store and decided to stop. My reason for planning to transfer seven lines from Sprint was my experience with a store manager. When I walked into the second Sprint store I was fortunate to be greeted by Najma. When I explained that I wanted to look at options for my plan she was pleasant and offered to pull up my account information. I handed her my previous month’s bill and when she confirmed information on her monitor screen she looked up and said, “My first reaction is you are spending too much money.”
She spent fifteen minutes going over options and I never heard the words “I can’t” one time. Her recommendation resulted in reducing the monthly charges by almost twenty-five percent. I told Najma I would like to meet the store manager to express what great service I had received and that she had saved me as a Sprint customer. She said thanks and that she was the store manager.
I sent a letter to the Sprint district office sharing my experience with two store managers. I explained that although I’m spending less money with Sprint I continue to be a Sprint customer because of how a frontline employee did a great job.
In this week’s issue of CSW’s One Idea newsletter we provide ways to “Improve Communication Etiquette.” One of the store managers was exceptional.
I stopped by Najma’s store a couple of weeks later to check out their Android phones and was greeted with a smile. She thanked me for my letter and told me she had received a bonus from her boss. And yes, I’m now carrying one of Sprint’s Android cell phones thanks to an “I can” store manager.
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