Sprint has such shitty customer service because they don’t give customer service reps enough leeway to disburse billing adjustments, nor do they provide enough support, asserts our inside source.

Customer service reps have goals to meet for every call they take UPDATE: This is the average reps shoot for per call, over time. You only get an average of three dollars per call to give back to the customer. Calls need to be under seven minutes. All companies have these metrics, but Philip says,

I have never seen any company enforce metrics as strictly as Sprint and truly give no consideration to impacting factors either…”

philip: Even a valid, justifiable adjustment (meaning we were crediting for our own mistake), specialists have a very very small limit. And if they don’t make the goal, they don’t get their raise. So it’s motivation for them to say no.
benpopken: is the limit per call, or per day, or what?

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philip: Even a valid, justifiable adjustment (meaning we were crediting for our own mistake), specialists have a very very small limit. And if they don’t make the goal, they don’t get their raise. So it’s motivation for them to say no.
benpopken: is the limit per call, or per day, or what?
philip: The goal varies depending on Line of Business (be it corporate accounts, consumer general, retention, etc) but averages $3/call. Trust me that is not a fair amount or remotely realistic. Today in our manager’s meeting the VP of Operations made it clear that it would no longer be acceptable for supervisors to make adjustments for specialists (for instance a specialist might have a supervisor make an $800 adjustment for a billing error instead of getting disciplinary action for being over goal)
benpopken: $3 a call is nothing!
philip: And that amount includes courtesy credits (which are actually technically no longer allowed), billing corrections, etc; There are specialists [customer service representatives] right now who literally are scared to go outside for break because they are worried their badge won’t work when it’s time to come back. I see it happen every week.
benpopken: is that how they fire people? just deactivating their badge?
philip: Depends on how many people have to be let go that day and for what issue
benpopken: crikey
benpopken: climate of fear is no way to run a place
philip: If its an attendance-related issue then we make every effort to sit the specialist down and advise them that we have to sever their employment and what not. But in some cases it happens that they go out for a smoke break and their badge doesn’t work when they try to go back inside.
philip: There is a lady who is on four Level 3 warnings. Any day now she is going to be terminated for not meeting goal. She is the only specialist I have ever met that has never, ever failed a Customer Satisfaction call. It’s a shame because she is so wonderful at what she does and you see her break down and cry at lunch because she is going to lose her job for doing her job without regards to bureaucracy
philip: But definitely many people who come to work and really do live in fear of not being able to keep their call time at goal (usually below 7 minutes, again depending on line of business) or keep their adjustments at goal… And then at the same time, they are held accountable for CSAT Surveys (which is when a third-party company calls the customer back a couple of days later and asks them about their experience). It’s a very difficult job and Sprint really does not give specialists the support they need to take care of customers realistically.
benpopken: hm 7 minutes
benpopken: that stinks for them
philip: It’s hard to pull that off when a lot of people are calling in for the 7th time desperately trying to get that valid adjustment.
benpopken: so maybe if they gave more leeway on the valid adjustments they could save a lot of grief
philip: And here’s the thing- metrics exist in every occupation and industry and are extremely necessary to operate a business. But I have never seen any company enforce them as strictly as Sprint and truly give no consideration to impacting factors either.
benpopken: where did the metric obsession come from?
benpopken: gary forsee loves metrics?
philip: Gary could care less.

— BEN POPKEN

Previous leaks from our Sprint moles

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