“An average service call costs a wireless company $5 to $12”

If you have a few minutes to read a great article by the Globe’s Iain Marlow titled “Smart phones raise stakes for telcos”. It goes into detail about how the evolution of wireless devices from what used to the simple flip phone to now standard Smartphones is becoming a major expense for the carriers.

Marlow writes “An average service call costs a wireless company $5 to $12 to handle, while the fee for a complicated, lengthy call can soar to $30 or more. Yet Canada’s biggest wireless companies have no choice but to improve their customer service or risk losing customers to new wireless entrants… The cost of dealing with service calls hits directly at the bottom line. If a customer pays a wireless provider $40 a month, but calls twice a month on average with queries, he has essentially erased his profitability to the company.”

I’m curious to hear how many customer service calls each wireless carrier receives on a monthly basis. How many times do you call? Once maybe twice this month for me as my credit card on my account is expiring and needs to be updated, plus my contract is ending in 2 weeks. Other than these reasons I rarely call.

We’ve spoken in the past about how Bell CEO George Cope main objective in his “100-day plan” was to “Improve Customer Service”. So far this seems to be working out for Bell as they have recorded their second straight record quarter. In addition, Rogers talked about setting up a “Bill of Rights” that will see customer service be at the forefront of their business. Back in May of last year Rogers President & CEO Nadir Mohamed said “we have to get our customer service better. People say, ‘I know you have great products, but how do you treat me?’. It’s a view that every single day we come in and in our DNA is [the belief] we’ve got to get better. If we don’t change, if we don’t improve, if we don’t fix things, we’re going to be killed.”

If you’re treated really well you’ll ultimately become loyal. With all the new entrants such as WIND, Mobilicity, Public and all the Big 3 and their flanker brands have you seen a change in how you’re being treated? Are you experiencing better service, better rates. Is having the new carriers having an impact to you?

Check out the article here at the Globe