Customer Experience and Customer Expectations

I recently had a conversation with my cell phone carrier that went something like this:

Me: Hello, my phone sometimes won't receive calls until I power it off and then on again even though I am in a location where I receive calls all the time.

Rep: I see. How many times per day do you turn your phone off and on again?

Me: Unless I have to, I never turn my phone off.

Rep: I think you should turn your phone off and then on again at least 3-4 times per day.

Me: (incredulous) 3-4 times per day! Why?

Rep: The longer your phone stays within 1 cell tower the lower your signal strength gets. When you power your device on and off it re-registers you on the network and increases your signal strength.

Me: (still incredulous) Shouldn't the system take care of that? Why should staying near 1 tower cause me to not receive calls?

Rep: You should do it 3-4 times per day and that should solve your problems.

Me: I understand what you're saying, but I don't think this is a reasonable solution.

Rep: (exasperated) Do you leave your computer on all the time or do you shut it down?

Me: Actually I leave it on 24 hours a day.

Rep: But don't you find that it slows down the longer you leave it on? Its kind of like that.

Me: (several seconds of befuddled silence trying to decide how deep I should get into this)

Me: Yes, I see what you are trying to say, but do you think that is the way things should be?

Rep: Is there anything else I can help you with?

Me: No thanks.

Rep: Thanks for using T-Mobile

<click>

So rather than commiserating with me about this unfortunate “feature“ and telling me why this might happen. (I'm guessing this allows more phones per tower or something like that) she tries to tell me some lame story about another industry that has had a poor customer experience. As if that justifies what she is telling me. I expect my phone to work without “rebooting“ it every 2 hours. My expectation is that it works the same as my land line. I know that technologically they don't have anything in common except a speaker and a microphone, but that is my expectation. And normally my expectation is met, which is why I'm frustrated by this issue.

 

3 Comments

  • I love it :)



    &quot;Yes, this is an horrible user experience. Why? Well you see, it's ok in other, completly unrelated industry and you accept it, so that's the way it is for us too.&quot;



    This is the worst possible excuse I have heard in a long time :)

  • your computer slows down after time? Hmmm. strange. my box has been up for the last 2 weeks no problem. running winxp pro, and the board is designed for servers/workstations, but its still windows xp pro. also, mobile technology in the US must not be as good as here in Europe. my phone has been on for, well i dont know. nobody wrote an uptime app for my phone! but it hasent been off in a long time and its grand. i sit in work for 8-9 hours a day, more then likly on the same cell site, and at home for an other 12 hours or so, also on the same cell site, and no problems there. weird!

  • I work in Ann Arbor Mi and I had the same problem with my T-mobile phone. The signal is a little weak here too. I took it back to the place I bought it a couple of times, they opened to back up and re-set the chip - It didn't help.



    Then one day I made a discovery. If I don't clip the phone to my belt (or place it in my pocket), the phone works fine. (I don't have to turn it off and on periodically like I used to) I keep it about three feet away for me on my desk and I no longer have any trouble with it.



    Don't know if this will work for you, but I thought I would mention it.

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