Monday, February 16, 2009

How not to do customer support

Interesting story that happens to be about WiMAX, but is really about customer support.

The modern on-line business model which is all about self-install and phone or on-line support sounds great in theory, but as the case study demonstrates can fall apart in practice. And it doesn't instill confidence in customers when you tell them they have to source from third parties equipment necessary to make the network happen.

As to the relevance of the article to WiMAX, this actually reflects another interesting aspect of telcos, that the support model chosen is usually deficient for the problems discovered on the network early. Even Telstra with its 3G network had problems with the device choices of consumers for connection and the need for external antennae.

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