For drivers in everyday situations, a manual transmission is not likely to provide any difference in fuel economy over an automatic transmission. The reason is that to achieve the optimum fuel efficiency a driver has to execute shifts at precise engine rpms (revolutions per minute). Given the challenges of city driving conditions, most drivers won't be able to realize greater fuel economy with a manual gearbox.

One consideration, however, is that usually an automatic transmission costs extra, which could factor into the buying decision. On the flip side, the majority of new vehicles aren't even offered with a manual transmission.

Best mileage: Automatic or manual? [Bankrate]
(Photo:Keylime Steve)

"An AOL representative declined to say whether the manual was legitimate or comment on the matter."

We know it's cross-eyed and with facial features askew, but gawd, that's sooo cold. How could they disown their offspring so out of hand?That manual is going to have difficulty with commitment when it grows up.

"AOL Customer Service Manual Posted To Web?" [Cnet]

Read our critique of the contents here.

Thank you, disaffected former AOL retainer.

After the jump, a few select preview pages...

A shot from the flowchart.

Related:

• AOL Retention Manual Revealed
• AOL Employees Slander Vincent Ferrari On Company Time
• BREAKING: Spitzer To Talk To AOL, Again
• AOL Updates Retention "Offer Matrix"
• AOL Internal Memos, After Vinny's Call
• We Interview Vincent Ferrari, AOL Canceller
• Dead Defeat AOL
• AOL Canceler on Today Show
• AOL Wants to Sell "Internet" to the Dead
• Consumerist on CNBC
• AOL Apologizes For Infamous Cancel Call
• The Best Thing We Have Ever Posted: Reader Tries To Cancel AOL
• AOL Officially Sucks More Than Anything Else

I used to work for AOL doing 'retention'..."

Come closer, my child.

In her letter, Tari, confirms the manual is bonafide. Also, according to her, most retention specialists would much rather skip over all the "discovery" and "rapport building" and get straight to the part where they give you a discount so you won't leave. But having spent all this time writing such an exhaustive manual, AOL gets a bit miffed (read: fires your ass) if you don't follow their elaborately constructed retention rubric.

And like most operations of its ilk, they show you its dark side inch by inch until one day you wake up with blood on your hands, a black cloak on the nightstand and no memory of how the sacrificed babies got in the bed, to wit, "i worked for a call centre contracted to do the retention and wasn't told that it was a sales job when i was hired..."

"greetings:

i used to work for AOL doing 'retention' and also for MSN doing the same thing.

to be more accurate, i worked for a call centre contracted to do the retention and wasn't told that it was a sales job when i was hired. it was hilarious when the call centre, which was doing AOL stuff won the MSN contract. they BUILT A WALL to keep staff separate. anyway, almost all retention is contracted out, but AOL execs visit and listen to calls remotely and provide strict guidance. the sales pitches and manuals are written by AOL and also, the call centre trainers are trained by AOL. these AOL marketing people are really stupid and have very fixed minds and don't want to listen to feedback from the people who actually take the calls.

anyway, i can verify that manual you mention is 100% accurate. they even make 11x17 inch cardboard ORANGE and PURPLE posters which are posted in the cubicles. punishment is swift and severe for those who don't follow the 6 steps, up to and including termination. most of the staff wants to immediately cancel memberships, but they are harassed and abused by supervisors when they do. it's called 'counselling' and you only get a few chances to stop 'screwing up' before you're out the door.

there is also another method for keeping lots of customers that can work to the advantage of the company and to the member. everyone is happy, it goes like this: what a lot of the workers want to do is skip over all the crap and get right to the 'right offer' which is where you offer them free months, as many as three, and a reduction in monthly fees. many people who call do so because U$23.90 is too much for them. when they tell you it is too much, why put them thru hell, is the thought of lots of the staff, why not just say, "if you're willing to stay for x months, i can lower your monthly fee to x"? so what happens is that they gamble that they are not being listened to and just make the offer. and almost always, it is accepted, and the customer is pleased, both at getting free stuff, paying less and not getting hassled. plus time is not wasted, and company gets to keep a customer. but that's not allowed.

lots of people who do want to cancel for other reasons and who come in hostile can actually be won over and got to stay just by skipping the really stupid steps and offering a free month or two and lowering the price for them. and if this is the case, why put them through tons of stupid stuff? the staff know this but AOL execs don't want to listen. all the steps can be skipped just by saying: something along the lines of, "i see by your records that you've been with AOL for a long time. as you know, it's great for doing research whether for work or school, and we're really kid-friendly. we have virus protection built-in now and we're adding new features all the time, like legal music and movie downloading. if you'd be willing to stay with us, what i can do for you is give you a x months free and see what i can do about getting you a lower monthly fee." no rigmarole, just straightforward info and a decent offer.

but NO, that's not what AOL's execs want and the call centre managers know it is a crock too, but they go along so they can keep the contract.

[snip]

it's too bad i just tossed all my printed materials for AOL and MSN or i'd mail them to you so you could get a nice good laugh.

kind regards,
Tari"

A plain manila envelope arrived on our desk this week. Inside was the eighty-one paged "Enhanced Sales Training for AOL Retention Consultants" manual. Upon opening, the flowchart, "Guide to a World-Class Retention Call," fell out.

It's amazing that the story has come this far, that Vincent could record his attempt to cancel AOL, that recording would shoot to national TV, and now, a mole has sent us incriminating company documents.

One thing quickly becomes evident after reading the pages of tips and tactics. Callers are viewed not as customers, but prospects. Under the heading, "Think of Cancellation Calls as Sales Leads," the manual reads...

If you stop and think about it, every Member that calls in to cancel their account is a hot lead. Most other sales jobs require you to create your own leads, but in the Retention Queue the leads come to you! Be eager to take more calls, get more leads and close more sales. More leads means more selling opportunities for you and cost savings for AOL.

In a public statement, AOL's Nicholas Graham claimed that John, "violated our customer service guidelines and practices, and everything that AOL believes to be important in customer care - chief among them being respect for the member, and swiftly honoring their requests." If this is true, then why is there such a complex system designed to thwart those very requests? Brevity thrives on simplicity.

To reel you back in, AOL has a six stage system:

1. Greet and Verify
2. Discovery
3. Tailored Value
4. Right Offer
5. Resolve Concerns
6. Motivate to Activate

In Vincent's call, John never got past step 2. He got stuck in "Discovery" where he used "digging" to try to get more information about Vincent. John's goal was to use this intel to build an argument for staying with AOL, and deliver what the manual calls the "tailored value." A bit of an ill-fitting suit, if there ever was one, since in his inquest, John never found out that Vincent was an IT professional.

Digging involves asking the lead questions that build a portrait of the prospect's wants, interests and needs. AOL cheerfully terms these, "WINS." From page 4-20 of the "Best Practices" section:

With respect to Vincent's computer expertise, John's attempts at digging play like a study in comedy.

VINCENT: I don't need it, I don't want it, I don't use it.
JOHN: So when you use this, is that for business or school?
VINCENT: I don't want the AOL account, can we please just cancel it?
JOHN: On June 2nd, I see 72 hours of usage...

Some sales cannot be made. There is a certain point after which you're just wasting your time. Past that, you risk enraging the customer. Then there's the point where the customer tapes the conversation and humiliates you in the national media.

"This call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes," goes both ways.

John had access to a program, "Merlin," apparently so-called for its ability to turn piss into champagne. If Vincent was more pliable, John could have used it. By clicking various responses a lead makes, the behavior matrix suggests phrases for the salesperson to utter and guide customers back to AOL's fetid bosom.

The soul of Merlin is the Member Profile Guide. It boasts four tabs, "Know," "Listen," "Feel," and "How you want them to feel." Apparently, "Manipulate" was too blunt. Each tab provides different stratagems tailored to the specific customer on the line. For instance, the "Know" tab, "identifies the Member attribute and the 'role' we should play for the member." For example, if a new member has a low amount of usage, Merlin suggests taking on the guise of a "helpful guide."

Alternatively, selecting the Feel tab gives users, "an idea of the emotions the member might be feeling and how we might appropriately respond to those feelings...in bullet point form."

The manual is full of more creepy delights, including:

• On "overcoming objections" i.e. customer's desire to not connect to watered-down version of the internet, the manual advises to, "allow your callers to talk comfortably about their concerns." By doing this you can literally, "watch their concerns and resistance drop."

• As we all know and love, the best way to "keep it real" is corporate policy mandating naturalness. That's why AOL developed, "Keep It Real"...a set of principles that will drive a world-class Member experience..."

• Then there's also this doozy from black-is-white land: "The reason that many Members are going to high speed is, because the actual internet connection is much more stable....we now have the perfect solution...a free modem." Ah yes, the hot-rodding superpower of 24kbps.

• Jason Watkins, an AOL Customer Care Consultant quoted in the manual says it best, "Consumers believe everything is a commodity, i.e. where can I buy the service for the least cost. My objective as a salesperson is to prove otherwise."

An AOL retention consultant's job is to trick consumers into being stupid.

It's hard to keep track of the array of tools at their AOL call center employee's disposal. There's "Member Connect," "The Discovery Wheel," "eSource," "ASQ," "CSS," "FBB's," "WINs," and "Drill Down Questions." Operators get advice and coaching from their team leaders and fellow employees. With over 160,000 calls a day, the sales force continually hones its craft.

To AOL's credit, John seems to have missed the section that advised to, "Never get angry with the Member...Don't criticize the Member by saying things like "you don't have to be so difficult with me" or "you're impossible to deal with." Maybe that's because most of the manual is devoted to overcoming customer's objections and selling them on AOL's awesomeness.

"Traditionally, when companies have profitable but shrinking businesses, like AOL's access service, they try to milk as much money as they can from them without investing new cash.," reported the New York Times on July 10th. The article hinged around CEO John Miller's proposal in two weeks time before his Time Warner overlords for a bold revamp of AOL's services. Included in the proposition are said to be plans to eliminate retention consultants entirely.

Instead of investing in a system that people actually wanted to use, AOL created a system for duping customers into not exercising their right to leave for cheaper, higher-quality services. Behind the rhetoric of "Member Services" and "World Class Value" are suits that see their members as spreadsheet numbers. The suits sleep soundly as long as one column is kept high and the other low.

UPDATE: Full copy of the AOL manual here.

Readers, please Digg this story.

• AOL Employees Slander Vincent Ferrari On Company Time
• BREAKING: Spitzer To Talk To AOL, Again
• AOL Updates Retention "Offer Matrix"
• AOL Internal Memos, After Vinny's Call
• We Interview Vincent Ferrari, AOL Canceller
• Dead Defeat AOL
• AOL Canceler on Today Show
• AOL Wants to Sell "Internet" to the Dead
• Consumerist on CNBC
• AOL Apologizes For Infamous Cancel Call
• The Best Thing We Have Ever Posted: Reader Tries To Cancel AOL
• AOL Officially Sucks More Than Anything Else

Contrast this with Nicholas Graham's assertion that cancellation requests are processed quickly...