If you’ve called in to a telco or cable customer service line any time recently, there’s no doubt that whatever your question you’ve been hit with a plethora of special offers and upsell pitches. After years of less-than-stellar call center processes and siloed databases, voice and video carriers have gotten much better at this type of customer engagement. Which makes AT&T’s move this week into more full-featured, on-screen customer self-service on its U-verse service all the more interesting.
Will customers like more Web-style self-service? Will they upsell or cross-sell themselves? And is the money saved from eliminating some call center calls worth the trade-off?
From Connected Planet’s Briefing Room, more details on the U-verse Account Manager:
… an on-screen app that gives U-verse customers quick and easy access to make U-verse TV package upgrades, compare TV packages, view channel lineups, view their account summary, view product overviews and ordering information on U-verse High Speed Internet and U-verse Voice, and more.
Now when a customer wants to learn more about a TV package or sees a show they want to watch on a channel they are not subscribed to, Account Manager lets them instantly upgrade their subscription at any time, without needing to make a phone call. Account Manager is available on channel 9910 and will roll out on a market-by-market basis to all U-verse TV customers at no extra charge.
Connected Planet’s take,
Susana Schwartz:
Well, for those AT&T customers who think picking up the phone is too arduous or energy intensive, it’s just become even easier to make updates or changes to a U-verse account via the new U-Verse
Account Manager, which allows upgrades and changes to be made through a remote rather than through a service rep.
This is a subtle but smart change for AT&T as it competes with other service providers, MSOs and satellite companies. Such a simple upgrade in terms of usability and ease of use may help improve customers’ perceptions of quality and loyalty to AT&T — perhaps even translating into better upsell and cross-sell numbers.
I doubt this is enough to mitigate common complaints about dropped service and screen freezes, but it won’t hurt.
I’m still waiting for the day when I can choose to watch a show on demand just for the day without having to subscribe to the channel — or for the chance to truly customize a package to the channels I want. I’d be willing to pay a premium for content I truly want as opposed to paying what I feel is too much for content that is under par much of the time. I’ll become a loyal subscriber to whatever company allows
that to happen first.
That’s our take on this. Let us know what you think in the comments section below:
Well lets see … Directv and Dishnetwork can reach most of all of the united states… Most cites have cable tv … yet ATT doesn’t have to follow the same rules that cable does with there franchise … When ATT can give there customers a true option to cable and satellite service then maybe they will get a node from me… That being said I live in a city in which U-Verse is available but only to a few … Yet that act like they have everyone signed up for service….When the day comes that U-Verse makes it to my neighborhood I will subscribe but until then they have no place to compare themselves…!!!
I really like the idea of choosing your own channel line up. Technically I think it is feasibe or at least can be made feasible particularly with a service like U-Verse. The question is how to mange and bill it, which is always a big issue to all carriers especially for TV where they have to pay royalty to most of the channel producers.
Have you directly suggested it to AT&T? I will (even to their CTO office where I happen to have some contacts).
I can only speak for the the Triangle area of NC. Here AT&T will have to overcome two negative perceptions when they broaden their U-Verse service footprint.
First, (and perhaps unfairly) U-Verse is being tarred with the same brush of spotty service as is their mobile servce.
Two, as it has been well reported that AT&T has targeted the most affluent neighborhoods first, there is a very negative reaction to this form of eliteism.
Surprisingly I almost go along with just about all you’ve stated. I reckon that it is good to re-look at the way you think because you get into numerous habits inside the head. Appreciate the comments.