Don't hold back, they say

‘You’re a bit direct at times,’ some people say.

‘Don’t hold back on the blog, will you?’ They say, ironically.

‘I agree with you,’ most say. .

I’m a huge fan of mobility. I have a huge problem with mediocrity though. I can’t tolerate it from big, well funded companies.

I can usually forget it for a few days. I can push the stupid, the idiotic, the mindless, to the back of my mind whilst I’m working at home.

But when I’m out and about in society – when I am observing how people are interacting with wireless services – dear me. I compare the wireless industry to others I experience.

Pret a Manger, the sandwich shop chain, for example. Or the Renaissance Chancery Court Hotel on High Holborn. Both examples of well run organisations, with a total obsession for delivering top quality and continually innovating service. Innovating not for the sake of it, but to refine and improve their customer experience (and of course, the bottom line).

If other industries can do it, why can’t the wireless / mobile industry? There’s no black art.

The problem is simple: This industry is being run by disinterested, despirited, dull, neolithics with next to no concept of customer service.

Sweeping generalisation I know…

But answer these points:

– What bright spark decided the top line Orange ‘unlimited’ plan would include ‘unlimited’ off-peak data only?

– What idiot thought it was fine to charge 75p a minute for a wireless connection in Starbucks?

– What idiot allows their customer to run up a 1,000 data bill without giving them a call?

– What idiot launches a nationally televised call to action text campaign and sends back a return message telling people to piss off to Woolworths for ‘more information’?

– What idiot let’s its customers walk out the shop with a new, but misconfigured, handset?

– What idiot prevents its customers from accessing the internet so that they have to stay inside the operator’s walled garden?

The idiots in question are mobile operators and mobile service providers. Each example above is one I’ve had direct experience with in the last two/three months.

I’m not complaining without solutions and suggestions for rectifying the industry. I’ve got tons of them – I’m sure you do too.

But no one’s listening. It’s not a problem – I just do what everyone else does – shake my head and make sure I’m not giving any money unduly to the industry. It doesn’t deserve it.