Service providers across the world were warned today that it was “now or never” in terms of showing their commitment to improving what were described as unacceptable levels of customer service.

The warning came from Emotum Executive Director Rob Butler, who was addressing the Broadband World Forum conference in Paris earlier today. Butler, a HTI (human technology interaction) expert, explained that as end user devices became more complex, instructions and support for people to help them make the most of their equipment was getter harder and harder to access.

“Why are we treating our customers so poorly?” he asked.

“We pay thousands of Euros for advertisements which promise them the world, yet we so often fail to deliver. People are encouraged to buy technology they don’t understand and when they cannot cope with it we make it as difficult as we can for them to learn how to use what they have already paid us for. I mean – do we really want customers or not?”

Butler, whose company Emotum has over five million people using its software to set-up, configure and manage their broadband internet and services, pointed out that many of the problems came from the fact that services promoted by the service providers were actually delivered by third parties. The end users were quickly frustrated by their inability to create access to services and often had literally nowhere to turn to.

“There’s a well known smartphone on the market right now that everyone seems to want and yes, it has some incredible applications. But have you ever tried to find an actual telephone number to call on their website if you have a problem with the application that they sold you?

“I find it amazing and staggeringly bad that the telecommunications industry, of all people, cannot seem to get this sorted out. If you bought a new car and it wouldn’t start you’d feel pretty bad if you could not call anyone to fix it, wouldn’t you?”

Emotum’s presence at the event in Paris – dubbed as the world’s premier broadband gathering – centres around the question of “how much are you costing your customers?”. They claim that the increasing number and complexity of devices means that people are going to need even more support, not less, and the industry has to get its house in order very quickly or face a technology backlash from the market.

But Butler sees an enormous opportunity for service providers with the drive and vision to take up the challenge. Devices which a few years ago had 2-3 application options now had around 100 and faced with this reality the providers that put customer service at the top of the list of priorities could be very successful.

“While there will always be a small element – and I mean small – that want everything for free, most people will pay for a service they can benefit from,” he explained.
“People will pay for quality and people will understand they have to pay. Using the car analogy, you don’t buy a car and then not expect to have to service it, do you?”

Butler highlighted a new service powered by Elisa in Finland called Oma Guru (My Guru), where technical expertise across a wide range of devices, from phones to televisions and other digital home devices, had been gathered in one location and people could pay a small fee to access an expert to “talk them through” their problems and help them.

“If the service operators can sort out their own backyard in this way, then the market can embrace the new technology that is becoming available and this in turn will drastically reduce churn and boost brand loyalty in a way this industry has never seen before.”

ENDS