Last month, I wrote about acting on feedback from customers’ calls.

In the past few weeks, I have dealt with some call centres that don’t seem to get it.

First experience was with Staples. I had received an electronic coupon that provided a hefty discount on printer paper and I decided to order a case. But, the website simply would not accept the coupon:

The coupon number entered is invalid or the coupon has expired. The coupon can not be used.

I called the telephone ordering department and reached an agent who told me that the coupons had not been loaded into the online ordering system and she had been getting calls for the past two weeks from customers complaining. Whew. At least I’m not alone.

But, before she processed the order for me, I asked why any customer-centric company would take more than a couple hours to fix this, once the call centre found out about the problem? I picked up paper at a local discount store instead.

A second experience was with a bank that sent out an email to encourage customers to use direct deposit for tax refunds. I thought that the email looked a lot like a phishing emails we get. I called into customer service and it became clear that there was no place on the agent’s screen to enter such customer feedback, let alone a process to act on it.

How do you make sure you are actively listening to your customers? We have a session at The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit that is looking at making better use of information about your customers. We call the session Mining for Data Gold. On June 15, we’ll be hearing from leaders in managing customer information. Have you registered yet?

The popular book says that all you really need to know, you learn in kindergarten.

Vodafone and Telefonica have learned that by sharing their networks in 4 countries (Germany, Spain, Ireland and Britain), they can save capital and spend the money on more customer-facing improvements.

This kind of capital saving is hardly news in Canada, with Bell and TELUS having agreements in place to share their mobile networks.

Will any of the new AWS licensees enter into similar agreements with incumbents or other new entrants?

The chief executives for new entrants Public Mobile, DAVE Wireless and Globalive will all be speaking at The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit in June. Have you registered?

Technorati Tags:
AWS, Vodafone, Telefonica, Dave Wireless, Public Mobile, Globalive, Bell, TELUS

I received a bizarre email last Thursday that tried to appeal to my nationalist sentiments. According to the email, I should be recommending Nortel equipment to my clients because it is Canadian.

Not because it is the best way for service providers to deliver leading edge solutions to their customers; not because it is cost effective; not because it makes my services run faster and jump higher. The appeal says that we should buy Nortel’s stuff because Nortel’s stuff is Canadian; because Canadians created 5000 Nortel patents and Nortel invests pantloads of cash in Canadian R&D.; [You can see a web version of the email here.]

There is a promotion [ pdf, 674 KB] that provides cash incentives to consultants who recommend Nortel business solutions to their clients and I guess it is trying to appeal to my colleagues’ patriotism.

It seems to me that Nortel’s Canadian roots may be an interesting factor, but is it a reason to buy? I used to look to the Detroit 3 automakers because of where my in-laws live, but that loyalty seemed to be a one-way love affair.

How relevant is the flag flying in front of your suppliers’ headquarters?

Technorati Tags:
Nortel, Canadian

After a lengthy examination, the CRTC has come out with a decision dealing with a dispute between MTS Allstream and the City of Vancouver over a number of disputed clauses in an agreement to permit construction of fibre on municipal property.

The resolution even covers issues such as lost parking meter revenues and whether to compensate the city for lost opportunities to issue tickets for expired meter violations during the time that construction blocks parking access.

On that point, the Commission ruled against the City:

The Commission considers that there is also the potential that a reduction in parking meters available during construction activities could lead to increases in illegal parking at other locations.

The review of this file must have been a change of pace for the CRTC staff and commissioners, dealing with division of powers between levels of government, a lot of legalistic contract drafting and mundane construction issues.

The adversarial relationship between cities and carriers seems to be rooted in the boom times of a decade ago, when cities looked at freshly IPO’d dot-com generation carriers as a potential windfall of non-tax revenue. In today’s environment, cities should be trying to encourage construction and renewal of telecom infrastructure.

Which cities will be first to welcome, encourage and even promote the placement of competitive information infrastructure on its rights-of-way?

Technorati Tags:
CRTC, Vancouver, MTS Allstream

Are search engines responsible for policing the legality of content that they find?

That appears to be the question in front of a BC court that is examining a dispute between IsoHunt and the Canadian Recording Industry Association [petition pdf 534K].

While the press accounts are asking if the BC court action could threaten the legality of Google and Yahoo! searches, the real question may be whether search engines will need to respond to requests for take-downs, similar to how YouTube deals with notices of infringement.

It is a case worth watching.

Technorati Tags:
isoHunt, CRIA