Re: The death of non-regulated ISPs?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dave Crocker <dhc2 () dcrocker net>
Date: February 13, 2007 10:13:07 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Cc: ip () v2 listbox com, Rodney Joffe <rjoffe () centergate com>
Subject: Re: [IP] The death of non-regulated ISPs?
Reply-To: dcrocker () bbiw net


> Earthlink seemed to be one of the more professional, stable ISPs,  
> despite their occasional market missteps. And when they reach the  
> point that they can survive by creating an impervious support  
> barrier that takes care of run-of-the-mill problems, but ignores  
> unusual problems to the point that THEY have spent 14 hours of toll- 
> free time...


Rodney (and Dave and IP...)

The problem is not specific to ISPs.  It has become the common  
experience for most companies' customer service model.  For some  
years, I've characterized this as as "Customer service personnel are  
willing to spend any amount of time explaining why they cannot fix  
the problem."  Rodney has merely gone to particular extremes to  
demonstrate this reality.

Front-line support -- Level 1, if it's a real human that you get, and  
Level 0, if it's an automated response system by phone or email or  
the web -- is entirely defined by time per call.  By design, as you  
imply in your note, their scope is limited to cover only the most  
common problems.

So the issue is not with that part of the service.

The problem is the way escalations are handled.

What the Internet has enabled, is a new diversion technique:  email  
and the web.  It justifies reducing human customer support staff and  
for returning no responses.

Ultimately, the problem is that consumers do not generally make  
purchases based on evaluations of customer service quality.  (The San  
Jose Mercury News had a story today about American Airlines holding  
its passengers captive for 8 hours and charging them for sandwhiches.  
Unfortunately the silliness of the airlines' service model is  
entirely justified by the public's unwillingness to demand better  
treatment.)

Yes, there are times when regulation makes sense:  When consumers do  
not have a reasonable choice available, at the time of purchase, or  
when the vendor can assert undue control after the purchase, such as  
by physically holding passengers captive.

Cingular has a better network, but they have aggressively bad  
customer service.  T-mobile's network isn't as good, but their  
service is recognized as quite good.

Which is the market leader?  Why?

d/


--

  Dave Crocker
  Brandenburg InternetWorking
  bbiw.net


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