In 2007 I read an article from a marketer complaining about the relation of existing customers and him, an old and loyal client from AT&T (sorry, I forgot to take not of the author and title). Well, he was ranting about aggressive new customer acquisition policies and even quoted an example of AT&T sending 80-dollar cheques to newly-activated individuals whereas he only received the customary monthly bill.
The article came to my mind again when I had to cancel my cable, telephone and internet services. First I called the company, and asked them to transfer my service to another person. Later it occurred I could try something online. These days a lot of companies offer the world in the internet. Even ordering pizza and DVD rentals are now online. I would imagine a big Canadian telecom corporation could offer something else, something differentiated. I was right about being wrong. It wasn’t exactly a surprise to see how Telus deal with that. My bill comes by e-mail. The opt-ins are always there in case you want to come back to paper, but not to cancel the service. There’s nothing I can do online if I want to leave them, and that sounds quite incoherent to me.
Firstly, all these services companies have the technology to provide an easy online registration and/or activation. Is it ask too much they create an easy cancellation button? Secondly, it is not difficult to imagine why they want to avoid online cancellations. That would give the customer a real time power to leave them anytime they wanted. A single aggressive promotion would be enough to drag people from the company to another player in the market. Fair enough, that only looks a way to shade a poor, bad or not cost-effective service package. If a product and its delivery are solid, the customer service works, why being so afraid to offer a cancellation button on their website?
On the other side, BCHydro, the energy provincial authority and service provider of British Columbia, offers a very simple and visible cancellation option at their website. One might argue that this case is absolutely different from Telus and it is indeed. We’re talking about two companies totally different, though the market is still the same. Some other details should also be considered, like the fact BCHydro is almost a monopoly in that market so there are no competitors to migrate – and that gives them a certain level of comfort. Another difference is the fact that household needs basic services like energy. The same doesn’t apply to cable TV or internet. However, deep down the principles I mentioned earlier are the same. I have no reasons to go a BCHydro competitor because their online services are great, their customer services is fast, objective and educated, on and offline. I also never had a problem with their services, not a single drop down.
The article came to my mind again when I had to cancel my cable, telephone and internet services. First I called the company, and asked them to transfer my service to another person. Later it occurred I could try something online. These days a lot of companies offer the world in the internet. Even ordering pizza and DVD rentals are now online. I would imagine a big Canadian telecom corporation could offer something else, something differentiated. I was right about being wrong. It wasn’t exactly a surprise to see how Telus deal with that. My bill comes by e-mail. The opt-ins are always there in case you want to come back to paper, but not to cancel the service. There’s nothing I can do online if I want to leave them, and that sounds quite incoherent to me.
Firstly, all these services companies have the technology to provide an easy online registration and/or activation. Is it ask too much they create an easy cancellation button? Secondly, it is not difficult to imagine why they want to avoid online cancellations. That would give the customer a real time power to leave them anytime they wanted. A single aggressive promotion would be enough to drag people from the company to another player in the market. Fair enough, that only looks a way to shade a poor, bad or not cost-effective service package. If a product and its delivery are solid, the customer service works, why being so afraid to offer a cancellation button on their website?
On the other side, BCHydro, the energy provincial authority and service provider of British Columbia, offers a very simple and visible cancellation option at their website. One might argue that this case is absolutely different from Telus and it is indeed. We’re talking about two companies totally different, though the market is still the same. Some other details should also be considered, like the fact BCHydro is almost a monopoly in that market so there are no competitors to migrate – and that gives them a certain level of comfort. Another difference is the fact that household needs basic services like energy. The same doesn’t apply to cable TV or internet. However, deep down the principles I mentioned earlier are the same. I have no reasons to go a BCHydro competitor because their online services are great, their customer services is fast, objective and educated, on and offline. I also never had a problem with their services, not a single drop down.
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