Question

Project Description:

Day in and day out we are at times a customer and other times a service provider. Reflect on your experiences as a customer.

Write at least two paragraphs (6-8 sentences each) describing an experience as a customer, either in the U.S. or in your own country (For example, contacting technical support or going to a store to purchase goods or services) which address the following questions:

1. What were your expectations for service and support? Were your expectations met?

2. What did the customer service provider do well and not so well in your opinion?

3. How could the service provider have done better?

Answer 1

There are many different times that I can think of that I have had to contact customer support for my cell phone service. Cellular providers tend to have many different companies that they outsource their support. From my own personal experiences, Sprint Nextel Inc. has one of the worst support systems. I had called to figure out why my account showed that I was being charged for a 40GB data plan on my line. I brought my own device to Sprint so I was on the Bring Your Own Device plan. The website would only allow me to change to a 2gb plan. I tried to use their chat support feature first, but it was not available at the time, which happens quite often. I can rarely contact someone via online chat. I was immediately put on hold when I called. I expect, as a paying customer, to have my calls answered quickly and my issues resolved quickly. I ended up being on hold for about 30 minutes before someone answered. I explained the situation and was transferred to another agent that could help me. I was on hold for another 20 minutes. When I was finally connected to the proper agent, I was forced to explain my situation again because the previous agent did not explain it to the next agent for me. This agent was able to fix my plan issue after just a couple of minutes. Needless to say, my expectations for service and support were far from met. The only thing they did well was resolve my issue. Now, I don’t mind speaking with people with a foreign accent, but both agents had such thick Indian accents that I could barely understand a word they were saying. I think they could have communicated with each other better so that I did not have to repeat myself. This seems to always be a recurring problem when I call them.