Comments on: Best Buy vs. AT&T – A Tale of Two Customer Experiences

By: Brad Shorr

Brad Shorr — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:39:09 +0000

Andrew, You're so right. I really felt sorry for this rep. She was completely unprepared to do her job. It wasn't her - she was obviously poorly trained and not ready to talk to customers. Sales is really hard. You can't just throw someone to the wolves, and shame on her managers if that's what happened. Brad Shorrs last blog post..Is Your Website Working? Take The Content Competence Quiz

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:17:20 +0000

Hi Brad, I'm glad to hear that the story had a happy ending, and that you ended up getting a great deal. Too often, in these types of cases, I think that it is all too easy to blame the sales representative. But in most cases, I would be wiling to bet that in the vast majority of cases, the behavior of sales representatives is reflective of the broader corporate culture. To be sure, there will always be some cases where responsibility for poor service rests with individual sales assistants, but I would certainly have thought that in the vast majority of circumstances, the primary responsibility would rest with management, who for whatever reason fail to either to provide proper and effective training or resources or who fail to instill an organizational culture in which people take pride in service which they provide. None of this is to condone the behavior of the AT&T representative - based on your description, she failed to fulfill her responsibility to you as a customer - but the primary responsibility for poor service rests with management more than with individual service representatives. Andrews last blog post..Pehaps Hong Kong’s tycoons don’t always get their way after all

By: Brad Shorr

Brad Shorr — Wed, 06 May 2009 11:20:29 +0000

Cath, You got that right! What did she expect me to say? If they had any sort of proper sales training, management would surely equip the poor girl with a better response, knowing they are almost $150 high. You'd think this wasn't the first time the problem had come up. Brad Shorrs last blog post..Words that should be banned: Solutions - Guest Post by Clare Lynch

By: Cath Lawson

Cath Lawson — Wed, 06 May 2009 07:00:09 +0000

Wow Brad – That’s a huge price difference. I almost fell off my chair when the Sales Assistant asked you if you were sure you wanted to buy it online.

By: Brad Shorr

Brad Shorr — Tue, 05 May 2009 13:59:58 +0000

Hi Fred, Commissioned reps do tend to see the web as a threat. They fear sales will be "stolen" from them, and even if management works out an equitable compensation program, there is still that nasty issue of "control". Commissioned reps often see themselves as independent agents, and as a result, they are very protective of their customer relationships. Brad Shorrs last blog post..Best Buy vs. AT&T - A Tale of Two Customer Experiences

By: Fred H Schlegel

Fred H Schlegel — Tue, 05 May 2009 13:36:30 +0000

@Brad - Interesting question on the commission issue. I've always considered the consumer benefit of a non-commission policy as proving 'advice honesty' - salesperson wouldn't be swayed by a temporary spif. On the other hand I would expect the commissioned salesperson to be highly motivated to make sure that the goods in their care were sellable - so the situation you outline would be a cause for anger and frustration among employees at AT&T. Maybe, when the corporate office appears to be incompetent it drives their best salespeople out. Do that and there is no one left to complain about the web experience, customer service failings and all the other processes that could improve in-store sales. (Or do commissioned sales folks hate an efficient web experience? Can the web kill commissions?) Fred H Schlegels last blog post..Physics and Ideation: Customer Entanglement

By: Brad Shorr

Brad Shorr — Mon, 04 May 2009 20:28:09 +0000

Hi Fred, You are much better suited than I to hypothesize on what motivates AT&T to do the things they do. As the discussion suggests, though, it strikes me as ironic that the non-commission Best Buy sales department outhustles the commissioned folks across the street. I think AT&T is all tangled up in wireless knots. The BlackBerry Curve is fabulous. Easy to use, reliable, well designed all the way around. If you do a lot of mobile web browsing, it's exceedingly clunky compared to an iphone, for sure. Brad Shorrs last blog post..Best Buy vs. AT&T - A Tale of Two Customer Experiences

By: Fred H Schlegel

Fred H Schlegel — Mon, 04 May 2009 19:58:24 +0000

I've been wondering if stores like AT&T are so terrible because they are focused on selling long term contracts and assume they will only see you every couple of years anyway. Versus a place like Best Buy that has to win you over every single time you decide to buy a gadget. (I've had terrible experiences with Sprint and irritating experiences with AT&T so far - Don't have the energy to keep trying others... Plus the I-phone does make me happy) Do you like the new Blackberry? Fred H Schlegels last blog post..Marketing Should Be Everywhere All The Time

By: Brad Shorr

Brad Shorr — Mon, 04 May 2009 18:52:12 +0000

Hi Bill, Thanks for sharing your insights and phone tip. Sure, I may be biased toward a distributor, but in this case it's more a function of having multiple lousy experiences with AT&T. The main reason I use gmail is the horror show that was a recent AT&T/Yahoo server upgrade. Brad Shorrs last blog post..Best Buy vs. AT&T - A Tale of Two Customer Experiences

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:11:19 +0000

Had a similar – in that it was lousy – experience with AT&T in porting my cell phone # to another carrier. AT&T did everything possible to drag their feet on the changeover, including saying I had to open a new account with them as part of the process – and then I could cancel it later! As an aside, Consumer Cellular, a reseller based in the Northwest, is excellent if you use your phone on a limited basis and don’t want/need too many frills. My monthly bill for 2 numbers, a 200 shared minute plan, is about $40. The irony of it all is that their national coverage is the same as AT&T’s since I understand they use AT&T towers! Found them through AAA Auto Club.

On the Best Buy vs. AT&T thing, could their be some leaning, based on your background, towards what a distributor vs. direct sell manufacturer is prepared to do for a customer?