Tweet
I was reminded about this particular customer while talking with my dad over dinner the other day. I don’t recall the exact conversation since this was over 6 years ago now. At the time I had been working for a big box cable company taking customer service calls. This company provided telephone, internet, and television services.
This particular customer was one of the first calls I ever took while working for this company. I was still being trained, so I had a trainer listening to the call while I talked. The basic gist of the call went like this:
The customer had a $90 per month cable bill, and like a $25 per month phone bill. She was calling in because her payments on both services were a month overdue and she got a letter telling her she needed to pay by X date in order to keep her service going. She was complaining and bitching up a storm because she was on welfare and she relied on both services. She started listing of the channels that her kids liked and used to keep them busy, like nickelodeon and cartoon network etc. She also proceeded to state that she NEEDED her phone service because her son was very sick and she needed to be able to call the doctors office etc etc.
So the guy training me shows me how we can give her the basic cable package and add extra channels she wants ala carte in set packages like kids programming (IE cartoon network, nickelodeon etc) This knocks the bill down to like $16 per month for TV. Of course the customer would have none of this, she could afford the best for her kids and she NEEDED those extra channels, but she NEEDED her phone service. In the end she ended up opting for a cheaper version of the phone service sans the bells and whistles like caller ID call waiting etc and kept her $90 per month cable package. She cut her phone bill down to the most basic which was like $5 per month.
After the call was over I just stared dumbfounded at my trainer. “She just turned down a $74 per month savings in favor of saving only $20?” My trainer just nodded, “I don’t get it either man.”
Now granted I have no idea what this woman was or was not capable of paying, but to me if you’re on welfare I would be trying to save as much money as humanly possible. I would jump at the $74 savings. I really just don’t get some peoples logic or complete lack thereof at times.
This particular customer was one of the first calls I ever took while working for this company. I was still being trained, so I had a trainer listening to the call while I talked. The basic gist of the call went like this:
The customer had a $90 per month cable bill, and like a $25 per month phone bill. She was calling in because her payments on both services were a month overdue and she got a letter telling her she needed to pay by X date in order to keep her service going. She was complaining and bitching up a storm because she was on welfare and she relied on both services. She started listing of the channels that her kids liked and used to keep them busy, like nickelodeon and cartoon network etc. She also proceeded to state that she NEEDED her phone service because her son was very sick and she needed to be able to call the doctors office etc etc.
So the guy training me shows me how we can give her the basic cable package and add extra channels she wants ala carte in set packages like kids programming (IE cartoon network, nickelodeon etc) This knocks the bill down to like $16 per month for TV. Of course the customer would have none of this, she could afford the best for her kids and she NEEDED those extra channels, but she NEEDED her phone service. In the end she ended up opting for a cheaper version of the phone service sans the bells and whistles like caller ID call waiting etc and kept her $90 per month cable package. She cut her phone bill down to the most basic which was like $5 per month.
After the call was over I just stared dumbfounded at my trainer. “She just turned down a $74 per month savings in favor of saving only $20?” My trainer just nodded, “I don’t get it either man.”
Now granted I have no idea what this woman was or was not capable of paying, but to me if you’re on welfare I would be trying to save as much money as humanly possible. I would jump at the $74 savings. I really just don’t get some peoples logic or complete lack thereof at times.
Comment