T-Mobile US refined focus on customer care earns J.D. Power recognition
In August last year T-Mobile US launched “Team of Experts,” its answer to the ubiquitous complaints about poor customer care from telecom companies. Now the operator, looking to win approval from lawmakers for its merger with Sprint, says the combined company could create 5,600 new jobs through continued investment in improving customer support.
According to T-Mobile US, once the two companies are integrated, the New T-Mobile would be in a position to build and staff five new “customer experience centers,” effectively scaling out the Team of Experts model and identified Overland Park, Kansas, where Sprint is currently headquarters, as the first new location.
T-Mobile US CEO John Legere, who is slated to helm the combined company, said in a statement, “We said the New T-Mobile will employ more people from day one than T-Mobile and Sprint would have separately–and we mean it!.”
The goal with Team of Experts is a provide a one-stop approach to solving customer problems. The carrier co-locates a group of representatives with end-to-end expertise on whatever the potential problem might be with the goal of avoiding call transfers and exchanges with off-shored representatives. And the approach is apparently working.
In a recent study, J.D. Power ranked T-Mobile US as providing the best customer care of “full-service carriers,” edging out Verizon and AT&T. And a better customer service experience has a direct line to improved satisfaction and, presumably, retention.
According to J.D. Power Managing Director Ian Greenblatt, “We found that nearly one-third of full-service wireless carrier customers who sought help via their carrier website experienced an issue and nearly half of customers had to use another channel to solve their issue.”
When T-Mo announced Team of Experts, industry analyst Jeff Kagan commented, “Great customer care and customer service is a winning strategy for any company…Seeing this as a way to strengthen their own customer relationships, T-Mobile saw this as an opportunity.”
