I expected easy. It wasn’t.
It should have been easy to take your work phone number with you when you leave a company. But Verizon decided to make it complicated. Let me tell you a brief story and share a marketing lesson.
As many of you know, my last day at Nomacorc was July 1st.
The company graciously said that when I leave, I could take my cell phone number with me. The IT department checked with Verizon and sent me the paperwork. They didn’t tell him that the liabilities associated with the phone AND the phone go with the number. He thought, as did I that we were just porting my number to my current phone.
It Should Have Been Easy
When I arrived at the Verizon store in North Hills, they told me they couldn’t help me since they don’t deal with business transactions. I would have to call the toll-free number. That is when the phone fun began.
I won’t bore you with the rest of the story, but it took two hours on the phone to get things resolved. However, it wasn’t what I or my former employer expected.
I Can Hear You Now
- Why couldn’t this be easy for the customer?
- Why didn’t Verizon accurately explain the process to the IT person at my former employer? (He is very smart, and I’m sure asked all the right questions)
- Why did the store personnel say, “I can’t help you?” Instead of, let’s work together to get this solved.
- Why did I get the wrong information from an employee in the Verizon store two weeks before this situation, when I asked her to explain the process to me.
Dialing for a Lesson
I wonder how often someone from Verizon personally walks through these situations to see what a customer experiences. What is it like to walk in his or her shoes? How easy (or difficult) are we making the transaction?
Could Verizon make this so easy, that customers want to share how remarkable they are instead of writing how difficult they make transactions?
Verizon spends millions on advertising. Maybe they should carve out a few of those dollars to enhance the customer’s journey. Make things easier. Do a better job training in-house staff. Get the business office and the stores on the same page.
If you have a better answer, call me. 919 720 0995. I won’t place you on hold for two hours.
P.S. I did have a good experience last year at a Verizon store. Read that story here.
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Photo Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2007Computex_e21Forum-MartinCooper.jpg
