Disagreeing with Seth Godin and Sprint

I almost can't believe that this is happening or that I'm writing about it. I partially disagree with Seth Godin, a man I admire, respect and whom I consider a friend though I've never met him face to face.

Seth wrote about Sprint and their decision to fire customers who call customer service too often - http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/07/treating-differ.html - His point is that some customers should be treated differently and asked the very provoking question "What would happen if you fired (nicely) the very few customers that take your best effort but rarely appreciate it or spread the word?"

The quesiton is a good one and the idea of firing those customers that take most of your effort and supply very little of your income is solid business advice because they don't bring that much to the business.

But here is where my disagrement is. When over 1000 customers call that often you are looking at a representative sample of people who are really pissed off, chances are high you are doing something very wrong. It is imperative at that point that you look at the cause of their extreme disatisfaction (calling 20 times a month) -continued-

and see where their lack of satisfaction stems from. I'm guessing if you looked at the reasons they were calling and the number of people who had the same concerns who did not call 20+ times a month that there would be a strong correlation between the issues the largest volume complainers had and those who did not. Polls to be considered statistically accurate need only around 1500 people to give us a clear picture of opinions of Americans, I'm betting that 1000 Sprint customers gives a very accurate depiction of the level of customer satisfaction across the board, in an industry that already has one of the higest levels of customer disatisfaction in any industry.

A better choice than firing customers would be to actually focus on correcting the problem. Having someone take personal responsibility for these 1000 people and actually serve them and fix their problem once and for all and convert them into raging fans who would go out an tell everyone how someone actually cared for them. But and this is a big but, that action would have needed to be taken before they had to call 20+ times a month!

Customer service is not really that hard, even at Sprint's level. Take a look at what is driving your customers mad and fix it, turn your ability to solve problems into a market defining benefit rather than a "we do it as well as anyone in the industry" thorn in their side.

Seth, I still love and admire you, but you may have got this one wrong.

Comments

[Ben Griffiths]

I'm with Seth on this one.

Sprint said it well in their "Dear John" letter here: http://www.gadgetell.com/images/2007/07/sprint_dear_john_425.jpg

"...we are currently unable to meet your current wireless needs."

Firing their customers was the customer centric thing to do. My guess is that it would be impossible to convert a person who calls 25+ times per month to complain into a loyal fan (even if Sprint did everything right the first time).

Let's face it, some customers have unrealistic expectations. Some people just like to complain no matter what you do. Sometimes there's just nothing you can do to please the customer....and that's OK.

It's about time the 80/20 rule became a brief side note in the History of Marketing textbook.

[Paul McCord]

Ben,

I think you've missed Dave's point. His point really isn't about the 1,000 customers. As he said, it's probably way too late to convert these customers because they're issues have been neglected for far too long.

Dave's point is that Sprint is missing the point--they need to take a serious look at the issues that have brought things to this point.

By eliminating the 1,000 complainers, they're getting rid of the thorn in their side, leaving the problems unaddressed. If they have 1,000 dissatisfied enough to be this big a pain in the butt, how many simply complain and then live with it--until they silently are so fed up they leave with Sprint never knowing--or possibly caring--why?

Their issue isn't with these 1,000 it's internal. The 1,000 is just the symptom. They've chosen to get rid of the symptom and leave the illness.

[Mike Artherton]

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[Ben Griffiths]

Paul,

I understand Dave's point. I even agree with it to an extent. Of course companies should focus on what their customers are saying. Of course they should analyze how they can do better. Of course they shouldn't take the "easy way out".

But, Seth wasn't suggesting that companies should take the easy way out. Seth was talking about firing customers who are "actually happy to be unhappy".

As Seth put it:

"If you're going to be obsessed with delighting customers, it's a lot more efficient to focus on customers that are able to be delighted."

Seth was saying that you SHOULD focus on delighting customers, but that at the end of the day, when you've done everything you can think of to bend over backwards for your customers there will STILL be unhappy people who want more.

I don't believe Sprint was just trying to get rid of a thorn in their side, leaving the problem unaddressed. I believe they fired these customers after very careful examination of their complaints.

You're right, it would be a bad idea to fire customers without sincerely trying to improve the company based on their input.

But, I do agree with Seth that SOMETIMES firing your customer is the right thing to do.