We keep hearing that improving customer experiences, or at least being as responsive as possible, is a C-Level top priority. However, sometimes despite the rhetoric we need a reminder that all of the talk can be seen in the market. In fact, the decision by new Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure to commit to expanding that trouble company’s customer interaction capabilities while announcing major layoffs for the rest of the company is a prime case in point.
On a conference call with financial analysts Claure had the painful task of saying that due to under-performance by the company in Q2 2014 he had no choice but to announce that Sprint would be laying off 2,000 employees on top of staff reductions announced in earlier quarters. Getting back to the importance of contact centers for righting the ship by improved customer service, during the call he also said Sprint would be staffing up its contact center capabilities.
Claure noted, "While we're announcing cost reductions, we're also selectively investing in areas of the business that will help us drive growth…I believe that it's important that we have a call center serving our top customers located at our headquarters campus in Overland Park.
"We intend to bring the best, highest-level customer service representatives to this new center. ... This is a demonstration of our unwavering commitment to our hometown region as well as continuing to our efforts to improve the customer experience."
So if you think that all of the talk by C-levels about the differentiated value from enhanced customer experience is just talk, guess again. There is proof in the pudding.