In May I decided to finally switch my mobile from AT&T to T-Mobile. AT&T had been like a severe older sister for too many years. Inflexible, expensive, difficult to deal with. Legers T-Mobile brand appealed to me – the “Un Carrier”. I also think his Slow Cooking shows and other public persona establish his personal brand as unique and more genuine. Sort of like an American version of Virgins Richard Branson albeit less global impact.
The first approach to switch was online and it soon morphed into a phone call. Fast, painless. The sim card was shipped. Nice marketing stuff arrived. Nothing we agreed to, except the tariff plan was in place. No auto pay. No porting of my AT&T number. And it wasn’t clear how to activate. After the fact I was told the sim card was activated but there was no clue of that. The sim card wouldn’t work. I went off on a two month overseas business trip. A very nice benefit of this tariff plan – unlimited overseas data roaming – was not available.
This is where the story gets interesting. Upon my return I followed instructions from online help and went into a retail store to get this fixed. I picked Dillon, CO. a small sleepy place for a cell phone retailer but very hot tourist destination – skiing, biking, mountain activities. I even made an appointment online. This wasn’t necessary when I arrived as the store was empty. One employee. No greeting. Just eye contact affirmation I was there. I explained. He pretty quickly told me he could not help me because he had access to some support system which was different from T-Mobile on line (corporate). His solution was that I had to call in to deal with it. So – calling in tells me to go local. Local tells me to call in. When I explained this dichotomy to him he quickly and defensively told me he doesn’t work for T-Mobile. It is a sub contractor in spite of his pink t shirt and T-Mobile brand on the store and pink everywhere in the store (a pure T-Mobile store). I tried to tell him he represents T-Mobile but he would have none of that and since he was a little defensive I left to avoid an argument. If I had been given an NPS survey the rep would have received a 2 or 3. T-Mobile, as presented by the rep, would also have received a 2 or a 3.
Two days on 16th Street Mall in Denver and I happened upon another T-Mobile store.
This part of Denver is loaded with tourists and also has a high representation of homeless and transients. I enter. Greeted happily by a woman on her first day of work. She of course did not understand what to do but quickly got me to the manager. The manager was polite, asked short questions, listened to the answers, and step by step fixed the problem – reinstated the account, made adjustments for the amount due from when the phone was not working, set up auto pay, ported the AT&T number (so long older sister), all within about 45 minutes. During this time there were a couple transients with less than average cognitive skills with the baggage cart and dog generally raising a ruckus about not knowing his mobile phone number. Loudly repeating “I want someone to go to jail”… and his dog was polite probably having experienced this before. The staff handled this and the other situations with class, aplomb, professionally and communicating with these customers. The NPS survey in this case would have received a 9 or a 10. And T-Mobile would also have received a 9 or a 10. I give credit to the people in the store.
After the initial online sign up and activation I was doubting the T-Mobile mystique. After the first shop in Dillon I seriously thought I made a mistake. This customer journey was not going well. But my hat is off to the team on the 16th Street Mall. I’m a believer again. This is how it is supposed to work. Low key, effective, professional, treating everyone in the shop with dignity and respect. Well done! (Now please, go up to Dillon and straighten this guy out. He doesn’t understand the brand he is representing.)