Telephone Hookers

I wrote this blog entitled Telephone Hookers about five years ago... and i was wondering has the majority of the telecoms sector changed for the better?

I would love to know your thoughts....

Being an outsider coming into the mobile industry for the first time as a marketing and business development manager, Ive found it an almighty challenge! considering in my previous and ongoing career as a creative director was always an exciting and colourful environment to be in!

From the first initial research I did on the mobile industry, all I could find were complaints after complaints, businesses being put on the wrong tariffs, getting the wrong handsets, finding out the sales person doesn't work for the company you thought they worked for! They sent wrong bills, ignore complaints, fail to return calls, . . . the list was endless. 

A Money Mail investigation had revealed these staggering facts:
? One in four adults in the UK made a complaint about a mobile phone, broadband or landline last year;
? One in five of all complaints to phone companies are about bills being wrong, or overcharging;
? Just 30 % of people who complained were satisfied with the result - while a whopping 42% were left unhappy.

With all this in mind, I wanted to work out why this happens.

I may be wrong, but it might be down to the fact that nearly all the sales people you deal with are commission driven, small basic salary with huge commission structures, and when they rely on landing a big salary at the end of the month, I truly believe they would pull your pants down to get the deal. It must be bred into them from the very start of employment.

These sales people all seem to be excellent at there job, SELLING!, but they put a fake smile on the phone and want to be your friend, only in the end screw you over. I would like to say that this is only a small percentage of companies, but when you look across the internet it looks like an epidemic. These sales people never seem to stay with the same company either, which I can only believe is because the company rapes them of all of their previous contacts, or after a period of time they cant reach the outlandish targets that they're set out or, they are not great sales people.

I know that's business but where's the customer care and attention gone in THIS industry.

Where I used to work was started off the back of one of these styled mobile businesses, but the MD thought, enough is enough and asked me to bring my creative blue sky thinking to the table. What I soon learnt was like myself the MD also had no background in the mobile industry, only that he had partnered up with somebody that had, and believed that it was going to be a success like all the other telcoms business out there. What really surprised me was that the MD's background had been in corporate finance, which to my knowledge is a highly regulated industry, "fancy stepping out of a regulated industry to one that has none!!!".

With the agreement of the MD we soon drew to the conclusion that you will never change this industry, especially where there seems to be no regulations.

So how could we be different!

We needed to understand that the mobile phone had become a major keystone to everyones business. It is much more than just a communication device for you, it is a remote control for your business, it's your organiser, entertainment device, payment device and security centre, it can open doors to your office, it can even run your bath, but we STILL call it a mobile and sell it like a mobile. . . but it's not, it's your business!!!!

How can you put all of that into a quick sale. . .  YOU CAN'T, and if you do you're missing a trick!!