Sprint's Hesse: call centers may close, but panic will not reign

I'd say it's time to panic - Sprint closes call centers, lay off people, stops CAPEX spending on infrastructure, loses millions of customers. Then they claim the network is performing at "optimal" levels. Hey wait - that's the iDEN model!

Great comment. The one thing Hesse left out was That's really cool, huh! To me it seems Hesse is single minded in his focus. Instead of serially addressing the issue of customer care and gross adds he could have addressed them together or at least without the long gap period between the two. A small incremental uptick in customer care is really all Sprint needed prior to going on the prowl for new adds. What I hope they do is also concurrently work on new devices to compete with Verizon and AT&T. Sprint needs some device "nukes" as Hesse calls his ideas. I don't think I would call all of my ideas nukes though, how full of himself can one person be. OOPS now that was personal..my bad!

Sprint's customers are not calling into Customer Care anymore. Correct, they are LEAVING in droves!!

Excellent thinking Herr Hesse. When you don't have customers, you don't need call centers. Or is it...when you don't have call centers, you don't have customers.

You idiots will be all over Sprint once their 4G network is up and running 2-3 years prior to the so called great companies. Gee I hate a company that offers its consumers the best priced, best value, on basically every package they offer. Why the hell would I want that?

I wonder how many customers that left Sprint, did so because Sprint has too many employees? No one is fixing the root cause, they are just addressing the symptoms.

4G network? Have you heard the news? Nokia dropped its WiMax tablet. Time Warner, Intel, and Comcast are already writing down their investments in Clear. What 4G network?

Castles made of sand, fall into the sea, eventually...

When does the pre-planned bankrupcy begin. Clearwire gets its company back and spectrum on the cheap and Public Service gets a network (iDEN) cheap and Verizon gets to pick and choose which CDMA lease's to honor.

Based on my past experience with Sprint call centers, I would say that closing them might actually boost customer retention.

Same past experience - They have too many call centers organized into different arms. One doesn't know what the other is doing. Close some and centralize. Thier historical service was very poor.

To be sure Sprint has made errors in the past and some would say that viewing customer support as a cost center rather than a strategic differentiator would be one of the more significant ones. With the economy being the way that it is, mobile operators like Sprint and others are of course looking for ways that they can cut costs without impacting customer satisfaction or damaging the brand. Obviously firing customers is not the right answer, so what is?

For a company in a position like Sprint, they would probably be best off investing in MDM (Mobile Device Management technology). MDM is a relatively new technology that helps reduce the support burden of smartphones and complex featurphones, allowing CSRs (in the remaining call centers) to close more tickets, faster, the first time. Currently most wireless support is surprisingly manual, with far less automation than one might imagine. MDM gives the CSR the ability to see into the phone, such that he or she is no longer dependant upon (often incorrect) subscriber reports of what is going on with the phone. MDM also gives the CSR the ability to configure and set up the phone over the air, which avoids the problems associated with trying to manually guide often frustrated, confused, hard of hearing etc subscribers through fairly complex menu hierarchies and settings (what, I don't see any 'at sign', what is an 'at sign', is that like the 'any key'?).

Times like these are not times to mindlessly cut and run, they are times to seek advantage over the competition and go for the throat. Then again, maybe support is just a cost center and firing more customers will save on support costs...

Well I worked for Nextel then Sprint-Nextel for just over 12 years. When it was Nextel we would do just about anything to satisfy even a small number of our customers. You own a business, have Nextel phones and bad coverage in your office? We would put in a amplifier to boost the signal in your office to keep you happy and as a customer. When Sprint took over most of that ended. Money was mostly only being spent on the CDMA system. iDen the money maker was ignored. Twice they thought they could just convert the iDen customer over to CDMA. It did not work the first time or the second time.

Dan Hesse said several months ago they were going to put money into the iDen system now that they have seen the value in it. That was a lie. Nothing has changed, no money was put into iDen but CDMA was still the prefered child for capital spending.

Most iDen employees have left the company one way or another. The few employees left are mostly from Sprint and still dislike the iDen system. Until that attitude is changed the company will continue to spiral downward.

My Prediction is the company will be sold off in parts. They just sold off part of it to Clearwire. What part is next? It is like after a car wreck, too expensive to fix so you sell it for parts.

Though Sprint is responsible for destroying the differentiator that iDEN was, Mr. West@Nextel missed a golden opportunity to combat Sprint's only-CDMA focus, when he threw away Flarion's Flash wireless broadband system after running it for a year. If he had done this instead of barking up the wimax tree, Sprint-Nextel would have had a mature solid broadband offering today, and actually beat verizon (at something that people want).

Does it really matter if Sprint cuts more Customer Care jobs? Most of those jobs are outsourced, and most of the reps are worthless at their jobs. Only the few reps in the USA are any good, and their aren't even Sprint employees! They work for T.A.G! I left Sprint months ago because their Customer Care was just so horrible, and two weeks ago called their CC because they kept spamming me. So what happen? Long wait times and I was hung up on 3 different times!

Sprint can cut all the jobs they want, because they is just asking for the rest of the customers to leave.

So I guess Sprint won't make it past 2010.

Sprint is so incompetent they have two CEOs on the payroll. Yep the last CEO still gets a million dollars a year and for the rest of his life. This is one of many miscues made by the boobs on the BOD at Sprint.

Friends don't let friends use Sprint wireless

As long as they close the call centers that are outsources overseas, then I think it's a good move. BUt if they lay off the American workers, then that is just wrong.

Also, get rid of the part timers in the company stores. Hire full time employees who are looking to really make a living and not just make beer money for the weekends. And get rid of the miscellaneous regional directors that duplicate other sales director territories, but have no one reporting to them. Sell off iden, and call Bill Esrey to see if he would come back and be CEO again.

Before the merger, Sprint was a cool company.

My personal experiences with Sprint were frustrating because I could not get a representative at customer care that spoke english well enough for me to understand. In turn, with the end result of the poor communication skills inevitably causing an issue with my next statement, I looked for someone to complain to. The funny thing about call centers is this.... Who do you complain about the call center to? Do you really think they would report a complaint on themselves? After a year of frustration I gave up and switched carriers. That should say enough about my frustrations. I was willing to and did gladly pay a 200.00 per line termination fee just to get away from them. I have been with my current carrier nine months without a single issue. I actually added two more lines and the reps were actually American. No confusion or issues with my statements. I don't care if Sprint offers 5G!!! The experience I had was so frustrating I would not carry a phone if they were the only provider on the planet.

I completely agree with that statement: Sprint was a cool company before the merger.

Opportunity lost - You are definately lost. What on earth are you talking about???

Typical executive reaction to losing customers due yo inferior service is to cut employees, while proclaiming they can improve customer service by improving productivity of the remaining employees. How's that working for your M. Hesse?

Call center employees sent home within one hour of going in to work because customers have left for competitors. Drive by a Sprint or outsourced call center and you will only see the parking lot full on payday!

>Than 20 call centers WILL close this year. The call centers are fighting each other for survival.

do you think the call centers in asia will close down?

You know why Sprint customers are switching over to other carriers?

1. A lot of customers want to add a line but a lot of them are only allowed two lines and the credit dept would not give them a third line.

2. Customers are not allowed to get a discount anymore if they want to upgrade their phones.

3. Customers with corporate accounts who are looking to upgrade their phones would have to pay the activation fees. Sales are not allowed to waive them.

4. Sprint phones suck and there are no Nextel free phones.

5. The free phones online cannot be offered by telesales which makes customers upset because the websites have all sorts of problems.

want to know more ....???

do you know if the call centers in southeast asia will close down?

1. Those customers who want to add a line but a lot of them areonly allowed two lines is because their credit rating is so poor that is all they qualify for and even after that their payment history is also so poor that they are still a risk so why should Sprint give them more lines so that they have a bigger bill they are not going to on.
2. Customers are allowed to get discounts on their phones it's just that customers call in demanding free high end phones even though they don't qualify for them, when you take a hard look at Sprints upgrade program it actually is better than other carriers.
3. If you upgrade a phone you should pay the upgrade fee regardless of the type of account you may have.
4. Sprint phones are just as good as the other carriers what people do not seem to realize is that Sprint does not make the phones ALL carriers phones are made by Motorola, HTC, Samsung, Sanyo, Nokia etc.
5. Like any other carrier out there web prices on phones stipulate the prices are for NEW activations not existing lines of service that is why carriers offer upgrade programs for their existing customers. But what customers do not realilze is that any carrier out there offers free if not greatly discounted phones for new activations to entice people to sign up with them. The Sprint phones currently being offered yes have their problems just like any other carrier out there and no we don't offer a lot of flashy shiney teen/young adult based phones, but what we do offer is great equipment on a 3G network that we have been using for years but Verizon/AT&T only recently started touting as if they invented the 3G network.

I have been a Sprint employee for years and a Sprint customer longer than I have been lucky to be employed by Sprint and yes some of the things going on with the way the company irritates the hell out of me but speaking from experience by working for other cell phone carriers it the past every company has its troubles it just so happens that Sprint seems to be the poster child for bad service. We have made great strides in our customer service and yes we still have a long way to go but we are moving in the right direction and if closing call centers and tightening the belt helps then I'm all for it but one thing I will admit is that Sprint should stop outsourcing and focus on the american based centers.

I have been working for Sprint for 4+ years, heard alot of stories about why customers are not happy. Have came to the conclusion that customers must be told about every aspect of their account .They have to be told about their account spending limit (done by outside credit agency) that is put there because of their credit history. This effects amount of lines allowed on account.
Customers at time of activations, through stores,(Sprint,3rd party,or telesales) should be told all about their plan,pro ration,spending limit,ACTIVATION FEE,and whatever else may effect their bills.
As a rep (and a bill payer) it is not a good thing to receive a bill and have unexpected charges.
Now, as far as the customer goes, you have to realize that you have to pay their bill on or before due date. You have at least 20 days, when bill is printed to pay your bill.
When your phone has been interrupted, if it is our (as a Sprint rep) fault, we will do our utmost
to correct the issue. Otherwise, the rep will listen, research, and assist as much as possible to getting services restored. A customer has to realize that if they try to "milk the system" they will be disappointed. Yes, Sprint may be a big company, but as we know, even the giants fall and any honest rep will do their best to serve the customer, while keeping in mind that Sprint has to survive too. Sprint's survival forecasts our jobs
As far as outsourcing, one must realize that if a center goes down ,for example: business, that a center in a different country can take their calls (been there, done that, different q). Outsourcing may not be appreciated, but is necessary.
I have worked with the public in many different aspect, from many different countries, enjoyed them all, especially the ones that have a smile when they are talking.

Wow I just got hired a week ago at a call center in MN. Now I'm wondering if this job is going to last because I really plan to stay with the company. I really hope the Sprint image will improve, I take my job seriously and truly care about the customers. It's unfortunate that most of these outsourced employees are giving some of us a bad name. Overall I have to say that I have been a Sprint customer for almost 6 years and aside from one minor billing error, I've actually been pretty satisfied with my service. I do agree that the customer service really needs to step it up though.