What if you experienced life from our end of the phone?

Dear Ben,

I want to thank your team for resolving a nagging problem. I read your profile in KLM’s magazine and was touched by your personal service commitment. Your senior people do a good job of handling customer issues… of course I might also jump if an order came down from the corporate office.

I tried to call you, but the switchboard transferred me to your press office. I became concerned efforts by them on my behalf might seem improper. I repeated my real questions were about BT’s internal communications process. It was then that BT’s fault management policy was explained and how quickly you move to ensure all service is promptly restored.

I was surprised when the engineer scheduled to arrive 24 hours later, was here less than one hour later. He explained he needed to climb 1.5 kilometres of telephone poles to resolve this nine-week-old problem. An initial cable was replaced on February 4 but a lightning strike nearby caused other issues.

I had a follow-up conversation with your press office and a few questions came up; can every BT customer receive this level of service?

They marked the main fault as resolved on the 4th yet no one checked if things were sorted here. For three weeks I quietly fumed, waiting, as instructed, for it to clear and paying for a service I could not use. How can a fault show as resolved without checking with the customer?

Since you own the lines, you used to “pay” for my customer query calls. Not over the last nine weeks. But I was pleased to learn BT is doing away with their own 0845/0870 inbound numbers and will again provide free customer service calls.

Since you created the 0870 beast though, what can you do to influence other companies who continue to charge Me to talk to Them about My account?

While grateful my phone is operational, what about that engineer who magically appeared? From whose doorstep was he pulled because of the “squeaky” wheel? Can you assure me someone else did not endure a cancelled call to service me?

151 is the main BT faults entry point. Mention the keyword “broadband” under your breath and bingo! Call this 0845 number for your passage to India where young kids read computer help screens in the middle of the night. Have you ever found the specific answer to your question via a help screen? Might you consider dedicating resources to 151 to ensure satisfaction?

Please ensure strong blood- pressure medication and snacks are by your desk as it will involve anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour with the likelihood of 1-2 dropped connections midway through, meaning you get to start all over again. They have my number on the screen, could someone please figure out we were not finished and call me back? You would win a lot of hearts and minds with that simple gesture, it’s not like you’re paying for the call.

It may take a while, but like Walt Disney, what if you experienced life from our end of the phone. My least favourite is the disembodied, recorded woman’s voice chiding me with – “we are very busy” (I’m not?) who then tries to get me to go to bt.com.

Ben, can we at least agree to have your folks just stop, listen, examine the data in front of them, raise their hand and say, “I’m going to take responsibility, get to the bottom of your issue, resolve it and I won’t end this call or clear my screen until you are satisfied it is done.”

What a wonderful world that would be.

As appeared in The Western Mail