Telus Customer Satisfaction Survey in Alberta -Scribed By Lord Narayana 1997 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *Thanx go out to Stratix Research, Angus Reid, and a few other* *researchers and customers for their participation and assistance.* Has the telco, with it's change from AGT, to TELUS, changed much? Six years, ago, they went private, and witheld "TELUS" until the full amalgomation with AGT (Alberta Government Telephone) and EDTEL, (Edmonton Telephone) was complete. We all know the name had differed in it's respects, but has anything else? You decide for yourself with a few small comparisons of now, to back when they were still using the name AGT earlier last year. NOTE: AGTD - Alberta Government Telephone. Y/P - Yellow Pages (I was hoping not to recieve any questions regarding this. ie: "It's not in my acronym list..") But before I begin, I got to get something out in the open about the most noticable and probably greatest change about the Alberta telco. We had a change, with the AGT, getting rid of ED TEL and all the rest, and it was indeed "designed" to "bring us better service" from $.228 to $.201 (within Alberta), and likewise, a similar change of about .027 cents per minute elsewhere in Canada and North America... Wow. I still haven't noticed any difference. That's great and all, but there are other issues at hand with them. They still send you change for overpayments at a pay telephone, and the operators are the same. But, who's the faggot who came up with purple and green for the telco sign? Ever look downtown and see that shit beaming from the top of their tower? It looks like hell. Next time you're really bored and have nothing to do, make calls complaining about the butt ugly sign on their trucks and building. Hopefully, after many many many calls, they will consider changing it. Either way, let them know. Just call your local operator, complaints dept, suggestions, main switchboard, repair, (Yeah, we got a problem on the top of a building here... can you come and fix it?) anyone who you can get to, tell them that their logo leaves much to be desired, and they should change it. Give them anyone's info if they ask, putting in suggestions, and giving advice is only illegal in communist countries. We don't want to be like that now, do we? Speaking with unsatisfied customers... The following should show the irony of them improving their service, this took a while, but it was fun talking with a lot of people. Names and companies are not released in order protect the victims. -customers who recieve personalized attention or have less complex needs are most likely to be satisfied with the service they recieve from AGT directory. -customers who had any of the following problems: difficulty contacting AGT representative, found the representative could not answer all their questions, did not recieve a proof of their display advertisement, or were not satisfied with the final version of the advertisementtended to rate their overall service satisfaction low. -70% of customers who contacted AGTD to discuss the problems they had, did not feel that the matter was resolved to their full satisfaction. -the third largest response for increasing their overall satisfaction was "more contact with representative" -average of 8/10 rating for reps returning calls promptly. -average of 8/10 rating for spending enough time with the advertiser. -main complaint mentioned by a significant percentage of customers was that they did not have enough contact with their representative, that there was a lack of communication. -for respondents who contacted AGTD, 85% did not have any difficulty contacting the y/p representative. -firms 25-100, 25% had difficulty contacting a y/p representative when they first called AGTD. -firms 100+ 50% had difficulty contacting a y/p rep when they first called AGTD. -20% of display advertisers had difficulty contacting a y/p rep. -25% of medium to large display advertisers had difficulty contacting y/p rep -55% of respondents who said they had difficulty accessing their rep, said the trouble they experienced was getting the rep to return their calls. -firms 25-100 split their response 50/50 with reps not returning calls and not finding the right person to help. -firms 100+ had 100% of their troubles concerning reps not returning calls as did the medium-large size display advertisers. -the quality that was ranked third for determining excellent service from their y/p is a regular contact/personal contact. -overall 35% of respondents rated their reps a score of 7 or less on returning calls promptly. -45% of firms 100+ rated their reps a score of 7 or less -30% of firms 100+ and 31% of medium size display advertisers rated their reps a score of 7 or less for their reps spending enough time with them. -when the respondents informed AGTD of a problem or error, an overall 70% total said the matter was not resolved to their full satisfaction, and 100% of firms 25-100 and 100+ said their problem resolution was unsatisfactory as well. AGT Yellow pages Directory Service Quality Criteria and Usage -advertisers appear to be dissatisfied wit hthe level of service provided by AGT Yellow Pages sales representatives. (Call them up and bitch... "Hello operator, put me through to a Calgary yellow pages salesman." "But sir, the yellow pages are free.") -advertisers identified they want sales reps to return phone calls quickly and to be easily accessable. ("Yes, I'm inquiring about purchasing a redbox. could you phone me back at...") -they also want the guarantee of follow up calls after the Yellow Pages are published to ensure their satisfaction. (Like they'll change it, after the phone book comes out) -participants dissatisfaction with service they recieve from AGT sales reps appears to be dependent on the percieved quality and amount of contact. -one of the participants suggested improvements to AGT Yellow Pages advertising was to provide more attentive sales representatives who conduct follow-up activities to ensure customer satisfaction. (ie: customer appreciation night, with a big party to follow) Exploring Consumer and Advertising Reactions to AGT Directories -one of the issues which surfaced in the course of the discussions is the lack of responsiveness of some ad sales reps. ("Sir? You still awake?") -most advertisers noted that they would like to see more of a feedback mechanism instituted, in which the performance of ad sales reps could be rated, and have AGT respond to some of their concerns. -advertisers want guidance, or feedback about what has happened in previous years in their section ("Normally sir, you list your companies name and phone number, and mabye even a picture. That usually worked great.") Advertiser quotes. (May not be completely exact, but yes, these are from real people.) Nov 8, approx 6:00pm "That was one of my biggest issues was the rep. I've had nothing but problems with them for six years. When we first opened up, they wouldn't come and see me. I had to go to AGT to place my ads. The next year I insisted that someone come and see me and I find their attitude deplorable. I've never had a good AGT representative come and see me, you make an appointment with them and they don't show up, or they say, I'll get there when I get there... When they show up, they are extremely rude, they stand at the counter and go, "well hurry up, I've got to go", and then throw the ad at you. Six years and I've had no one that I would give any kind of good approval to. Basically they stink." "Sometimes I wonder if AGT doesn't try to pass the buck because I've phoned their customer service and talked to the managers and one of the ladies that was helping us all the way through this was told to shut her mouth, she has nothing to do with the file and she better no have any more conversations about it. The sales rep was very helpful, but a lot of the times I'm finding that you phone AGT and you ask a question, if you ask for the head guy, they won't put you through. This guy came down to me and said what do you want to do, and I said well, short of cancelling all my phone numbers what can I do? they have no answering machines, they say they will get back to you and they don't get back to you. The rep was the only good thing that the yellow pages did. But this rep and that one other lady whose name I won't mention because she's still employed there, they were the only good things but when they tried to help me they were very quickly told to stay away from it." "He had a nice ad for me, he had misspelled it, I told him how to spell it for me, and he said he got it. I never got the proof back, I phoned for two months, every second day I was phoning up the rep, and then he was out of town and then I got a hold of him and he said yeah, it was fixed up and they'd send me some proof. No proof came. And now I'm selling flowers instead of furniture. I'm selling credencias instead of credenzas." Most commonly heard: -respondents in the advertisers group reported that it was important for than to develop rapport with their sales rep. -the general impression given to the advertisers by their sales rep is that they "don't care" about them. -they indicated that sales reps behaviour and service does little to show that they are an individual customer and that their sastisfaction is of primary concern.