Telecoms Fail To Provide Online Customer Service Is anyone surprised that their sites suck? If you head to a website that requires a secure login, you expect to be able to do that from the site’s home page, right? Maybe not if you’re working with an online phone provider. A recent study shows that nearly 70% of telecom service home pages don’t offer this basic convenience to their customers. But that’s not the only problem with their web pages; basic online customer service is lacking at all levels. Only one third of the sites studied offer a “help” function and less than two thirds have a “site search” function. Of the sites studied, Sprint and Vonage are doing better than the rest and Skype is down at the bottom of the barrel.
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  Romney2012Defeat Obama 2012-Chg we can believe inPremium
join:2002-03-03
USA
kudos:4 |  Verizon looks OK to me
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|  | fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | Re: Verizon looks OK to me Same with Qwest... and they also have that site search option and a "customers with disabilities" link on the page too.
I think, personally, who ever did this study should find something worth studying. I'll chalk this up with the 5 million dollar grant a Southern CA College was given, about a decade ago, to study why so many illegal border jumpers from Mexico were being hit on the freeway while trying to run across the border to get into our country illegally.
Also for the record, MCI, who scored among the lowest, right on the home page has a "manage your account" link under each class of service which takes you to .. oh my.. a place to search for help, manage your account, browse for help, get a contact number.. etc.
Silly study if you ask me.
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"Complaining is the least path of resistance for the self-serving, the lazy, and I’m told it’s a woman’s prerogative..." | |
| | bruzrPremium
join:2007-05-05
Essex Junction, VT | said by Romney2012:Verizon has secure login; site search on 1st page. And help & customer service is one page in by clicking on the "contact" link on the front page. Verizon's secure login seems to work specifically with IE, as of their last webpage redesign in the past few months. Previously, I could use Firefox, now I need to use IE to log in and pay my bill online. | |
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openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA
kudos:2 | Not a Big Deal Considering that a large customer base for the "traditional" telecom carriers is still a population that is used to handling customer support via phone and snail mail, I don't see this as a big deal...yet.
Most carriers don't take into consideration customers with special needs and site performance. Only 15% of carriers link to information for the disabled. About 8% of sites are available in text-only or low bandwidth view, while 15% of carriers offer a browser recommendation for viewing their sites. There are laws in the US to deal with the "disabled" so I'd be curious to see what isn't being done IAW the law. As far as text-only/low bandwidth, I'd agree but more out of an annoyance rather than a necessity. Unless your business is media/graphics, Flash-based, as well as other media rich, sites need to go away from the business place. And finally, the ever famous, "sorry, you need to use IE to view our site" issue. Standards are a great thing. Too bad it's so each to be a MS slut. | |
| | | Dumb pipe Let's first complain that the ISP isn't just a dump pipe, then let's complain about their support and web portal. | |
| |  KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | Re: Dumb pipe Heh, if we could get just "Dumb pipes" to the internet, we wouldn't NEED any tech support or web portals. The rest... well, stick with AOL. | |
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 click_310Eat my shorts
join:2002-12-06
Savannah, GA | Throw peanuts catch monkeys Thats what we get if we ask for rock bottom prices :/
It may not take a rocket scientist to implement it, but you gotta pay a lot of $'s to someone in management / middle management to figure that one out. Throw peanuts and you'll catch monkeys! If you are cutting costs, to increase profitability the chances are you are hiring people / consultants / sub-consultants who do the work at rock bottom prices and have mediocre (i.e. dumb) 'human resources'.
Once in a while ,(mostly), the decider's don't know much about details. Thats when the simplest idea or solution is ignored. 
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(757) 644-3863 | |
|  CPUYODA
join:2003-01-25
Johnson City, TN | Embarq Never had a prob with them.......here.
Always fast and nice.
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"In God We Trust,All Others Pay Cash" | |
| | | Sprint's New Website I've been a Sprint customer for over two years. The previous version of the website was professional - the backend database permitted login without insisting your Sprint cellular number was invalid; it didn't look like a third-grade class project in website design; it was easy to navigate and conduct your business.
The new website is the exact opposite. It's garishly amateurish in design; it was built by fools who can't accurately track their own customer's cell phone number to provide authentication of user ID. Calling for assistance is pointless, and there is no way to email the web design nebishes and say "please fix your website so I can access my account online".
The website sucks. As a suggestion to Sprint, before you spring any more nasty surprises like your new site on the public, please conduct a beta test. It's not rocket science. I'm looking for another cell carrier. | |
| | | | Re: Sprint's New Website Whats that I hear, off in the distance "Iceqube come to Alltel." Make it so, Sprint don't care they have over 100 customers waiting to take your place. As for 3rd grade project LOL Show me on third grader that knows just enough basic html to even create a link. | |
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| | Skype Skype is at the bottom?,I recently upgraded to newest version of Skype and had a serious driver conflict,when I clicked on the shortcut icon,my comp shut down! I found their forums and the members in there very helpful-I consider that very good on-line help! | |
| |  ArmainaNot every saint is a foolPremium
join:2002-11-06
Tempe, AZ | Re: Skype problem is, not everyone is intuitive enough to go through the forums on the site, if the company has them. | |
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