Sprint employees to become phone counselors

For most of the consumer electronics industry, this may seem like a 'doh!, but for Sprint it's a step in the direction of assuring that customers understand their new mobile devices before they leave the store. Sprint employees are now phone counselors who set up email access, move contacts from old phones, connect Bluetooth headsets and explain other functions during 10-minute to half-hour sessions.

St. Louis and Pittsburgh markets got a taste of this "Ready Now" program during a trial in July where customer satisfaction rates soared, Sprint said. The company shut down all its stores Aug. 17 to train employees on the program.

As mobile phones have evolved into personal media devices, set-up has generally lagged and customer satisfaction has drooped. Sprint, of course, has more than altruistic reasons for the program: it's expected to reduce churn rates and spike data services sales because an informed customer is a buying customer.

For more:
- see this article from the AP
- and this ZDNet article

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