Hands0n
24th June 2010, 12:27 AM
Firstly I would like to extend a word of thanks to Michelle at 3MobileBuzz for facilitating the evening with Three's Justin Bull and Sarah Bolwell. It was a most enjoyable evening, and very gratifying to see the company reach out to its community.
The following are some notes on the conversation that was had. Three are making serious attempts at improving their customer image, not before time in my opinion, and for that they must be supported and appreciated.
And so to business:
Justin and Sarah were on a video link set up by Michelle (3MobileBuzz) who was a great facilitator for the evening. It was even better because only I turned up, Michelle had some other late cancellations, and so I had the three of them all to myself for a couple of hours.
Justin and Sarah were great, they took on board all that I offered them - much of the conversation revolving around Three's highly criticised customer service operation. Justin was brave enough to say that my feedback was not at all unusual to them. All in all the conversation ran for just under two hours (I can talk a bit!!!) and the conversation was excellent.
In terms of the customer services, Justin asked if I had experienced any improvement and if I'd heard any feedback on the forum/s that it had improved. Certainly, I think it was Solo2002 who had reported a better recent experience. My own call to Three's CS recently went well also, although it wasn't at all technical or a difficult problem. I think that it is too early for me to tell, but if you have any positive experiences of Three's CS to offer then please do so and I'll ensure they are passed on to Justin. There is an apparent strong desire to put this right.
Justin offered that the Mumbai operation is now being backed up by a more technical set up in Poona where the staff there are trained in greater technical detail. Three's wish is that the Mumbai/Poona operation will create an enhancement to the past experiences. I retorted that one of the biggest problems faced by a customer is that it is almost impossible to get beyond the front-line first-line call centre operative. Worse, that when that operative runs out of scope they [seemingly] have no ability or empowerment to forward the customer to a higher tier of support. And forget about asking to speak with the supervisor or manager. Justin acknowledged the issue and said that Three are working on enhanced support and to provide the ability to advance the call beyond the agent as appropriate. Only time will tell on this.
Talk inevitably came around to the iPhone 4. Justin could not tell me very much other than that Three had been in close talks with Apple about supplying and supporting the device. I asked Justin if Three really thought that people would be willing to risk a £600 handset on a 24 month contract with a company that has such customer service notoriety. Justin offered that Three has been receiving specialised training by Apple in supporting the iPhone and that they will have dedicated iPhone support lines available (I suppose much like O2 did with the original iPhone). That is nice to hear and increases my confidence in that respect.
I went on to talk about leveraging that support method into the other high-end handsets that they are supplying or due to supply, specifically Android at this time. I said that I thought that Three were at some considerable risk to their reputation if they did not ensure that these sophisticated and highly capable handsets were given the same [weak] support that their bottom-end handsets were. Justin was receptive to this and said that Three are looking at options to ensure appropriate support levels were in place.
We also talked about the network share - I cursed Bob Fuller for his Walled Garden and praised Kevin Russell for tearing it down when he took over. I also mentioned how I had recently perceived O2, Vodafone and Orange retrench their mobile data offering to miserly data caps (500MB and 750MB), and wondering how Three would respond. Justin said that Three were in the strongest position to supply and support the 3G data needs of their customer base. He said that they did not suffer from the legacy networking that existed in the "big four", and that their internal networking was of the most recent design and capability. He also talked about the transmitter mast back-haul circuits being high speed ethernet rather than the more traditional E1 that is used by the incumbents. This is good stuff to hear because if Three are to take their claim [to be the true mobile data network] seriously then they need to back it up with a mobile data service that is credible in fact, not just in name. So the question remains, what will Three do in response? Given the timing of the meeting I think that all will be revealed in the next 24 hours or so as Three make public their iPhone 4 proposition. I have to hope that they leverage the mobile data caps (if any) across to other smartphones in their portfolio.
Clearly Three have a strong desire to be a big player and all it takes is to match that will with action. I do wish them well and will be watching them closely over the next little while.
NB:
Three's blog is at http://blog.three.co.uk
Three's Twitter alias is @ThreeUKLatest and their Twitter page is at http://twitter.com/ThreeUKLatest
The following are some notes on the conversation that was had. Three are making serious attempts at improving their customer image, not before time in my opinion, and for that they must be supported and appreciated.
And so to business:
Justin and Sarah were on a video link set up by Michelle (3MobileBuzz) who was a great facilitator for the evening. It was even better because only I turned up, Michelle had some other late cancellations, and so I had the three of them all to myself for a couple of hours.
Justin and Sarah were great, they took on board all that I offered them - much of the conversation revolving around Three's highly criticised customer service operation. Justin was brave enough to say that my feedback was not at all unusual to them. All in all the conversation ran for just under two hours (I can talk a bit!!!) and the conversation was excellent.
In terms of the customer services, Justin asked if I had experienced any improvement and if I'd heard any feedback on the forum/s that it had improved. Certainly, I think it was Solo2002 who had reported a better recent experience. My own call to Three's CS recently went well also, although it wasn't at all technical or a difficult problem. I think that it is too early for me to tell, but if you have any positive experiences of Three's CS to offer then please do so and I'll ensure they are passed on to Justin. There is an apparent strong desire to put this right.
Justin offered that the Mumbai operation is now being backed up by a more technical set up in Poona where the staff there are trained in greater technical detail. Three's wish is that the Mumbai/Poona operation will create an enhancement to the past experiences. I retorted that one of the biggest problems faced by a customer is that it is almost impossible to get beyond the front-line first-line call centre operative. Worse, that when that operative runs out of scope they [seemingly] have no ability or empowerment to forward the customer to a higher tier of support. And forget about asking to speak with the supervisor or manager. Justin acknowledged the issue and said that Three are working on enhanced support and to provide the ability to advance the call beyond the agent as appropriate. Only time will tell on this.
Talk inevitably came around to the iPhone 4. Justin could not tell me very much other than that Three had been in close talks with Apple about supplying and supporting the device. I asked Justin if Three really thought that people would be willing to risk a £600 handset on a 24 month contract with a company that has such customer service notoriety. Justin offered that Three has been receiving specialised training by Apple in supporting the iPhone and that they will have dedicated iPhone support lines available (I suppose much like O2 did with the original iPhone). That is nice to hear and increases my confidence in that respect.
I went on to talk about leveraging that support method into the other high-end handsets that they are supplying or due to supply, specifically Android at this time. I said that I thought that Three were at some considerable risk to their reputation if they did not ensure that these sophisticated and highly capable handsets were given the same [weak] support that their bottom-end handsets were. Justin was receptive to this and said that Three are looking at options to ensure appropriate support levels were in place.
We also talked about the network share - I cursed Bob Fuller for his Walled Garden and praised Kevin Russell for tearing it down when he took over. I also mentioned how I had recently perceived O2, Vodafone and Orange retrench their mobile data offering to miserly data caps (500MB and 750MB), and wondering how Three would respond. Justin said that Three were in the strongest position to supply and support the 3G data needs of their customer base. He said that they did not suffer from the legacy networking that existed in the "big four", and that their internal networking was of the most recent design and capability. He also talked about the transmitter mast back-haul circuits being high speed ethernet rather than the more traditional E1 that is used by the incumbents. This is good stuff to hear because if Three are to take their claim [to be the true mobile data network] seriously then they need to back it up with a mobile data service that is credible in fact, not just in name. So the question remains, what will Three do in response? Given the timing of the meeting I think that all will be revealed in the next 24 hours or so as Three make public their iPhone 4 proposition. I have to hope that they leverage the mobile data caps (if any) across to other smartphones in their portfolio.
Clearly Three have a strong desire to be a big player and all it takes is to match that will with action. I do wish them well and will be watching them closely over the next little while.
NB:
Three's blog is at http://blog.three.co.uk
Three's Twitter alias is @ThreeUKLatest and their Twitter page is at http://twitter.com/ThreeUKLatest