Some Phone Companies just don’t get it.
I wrote this article because of the reaction of a couple companies but afterwards decided not to post it. But then I got the following email from a senior lawyer at a major nationwide phone company that seemed to illustrate the point better than anything I could say.
[Company Name] did not request and does not appreciate the “service” you purport to be providing for us and our customers in regard to requests for 855 numbers. We prefer to communicate directly with our own customers regarding their communications needs. As you are well aware, it is not possible for either TollFreeNumbers.com or [Company Name] to assure any customer that they will get the particular 855 number they desire, nor is it possible for a customer to place an advance order or reservation for any particular 855 number. We are concerned that by soliciting and accepting customers’ requests for such numbers and charging them a fee for doing so, you are misleading them and creating unreasonable expectations that neither you nor we can fulfill. Please be advised that we will hold you responsible for any complaints or claims our customers may make as a result of your practices.
This is the email I sent him back. I didn’t hear anything back
Dear Mr. Lawyer,
You are correct, [your company] did NOT request any help or service from us. But I’m not giving you the 855 requests we’ve sent you at YOUR request. I’m giving them to you at our mutual CUSTOMER’S request. Whether you are willing to help your customers or not and how you chose to do so is your decision.
I have not guaranteed anything on my behalf or yours. Most of these customers checked a box in the request process stating that that realize these are requests, not reservations. They’re clearly labeled REQUESTS not reservations. Nothing I have said or done is misleading them to believe that I represent [Company Name]. Actually if you had looked at my websites you would see that quite the opposite is true. I take great strides to maintain my independence and have always represented this quite clearly.
Further if you look closely at your statement, you clearly don’t want anyone else to communicate with your customer as if you owned them, and you’re also saying that it’s wrong to solicit customer requests because that might cause a customer to think the Request is guaranteed. So not only are we not allowed to contact your customers but you’re not going to solicit their requests for the new area code either. I’ll be happy to not solicit your customers if you could either give me a list of them or send me a secret decoder ring or whatever I should be using to tell who we’re not allowed to talk to.
I merely offer to send the requests of my customers to their phone company. I do this, not for you but for the customer, and to increase the customer’s chances of obtaining the number they’re requesting. This actually decreases my chances of obtaining the number for the customer, even if only slightly in this case since lawyers don’t really help many customers get 855 numbers. But unlike some other companies, I put the customer’s needs first, and am doing everything I can to help the customers.
You seem to imply that taking customer requests is wrong, but I think failing to take their requests is much worse! If you wait until they come out to start taking requests and checking them you’re clearly doing your customers a huge dis-service and you clearly have your priorities wrong. I realize it’s a lawyer’s job to stop people from saying or doing anything that would get the company into hot water, but when you turn that into a reason not to help your customers, it makes me wonder how long a company can exist with that kind of attitude.
We’re not competing with you, we’re merely trying to help the customer get the number they want and then transfer it back to whatever company they want to use for the ongoing service. We try to be a resource for other phone companies and help you and look how you react. On a personal note, I understand the need for lawyers, but most of them really don’t understand anything about marketing and when they jump in without actually looking at or understanding the whole situation, they can wind up making their company look bad and hurt the situation more than help it.
Bill Quimby, TollFreeNumbers.com
Here’s the original article that I wrote a couple weeks ago, well before receiving this email! We’ve stopped sending the requests to the customer’s regular phone company because we had to have time to get the 855 request lists to them and for them to add them or contact them ahead of time if necessary.
Some Phone Companies just don’t get it:
It’s probably true with almost any industry, that some organizations put the customer needs first and some organizations, especially bigger companies, tend to lose track of the customer’s needs and end up putting their policies ahead of their customers. And in any large organization there will always be at least some people that don’t get it, so I don’t mean to be overly critical of a whole organization just because of one person.
At 855numbers.com, we are allowing customers to request 855 numbers but instead of just trying to get them ourselves for the customer, we’re also giving the request to the customer’s phone company if they have one that would be helpful. This’ll reduce the amount of numbers that we can get for customers and decrease the money we make to some degree, but it maximizes the chances of a customer getting the number they wanted which is our number one goal. We hope this makes it easier their regular phone company to help their customer but we obviously can’t control them.
If a phone company doesn’t want to take the requests from their customers, they’re not hurting us, they’re probably helping us, but they’re hurting their own customers. I don’t care if they don’t want to request 855 numbers for their customers, but it kind of makes me wonder a little about companies that stand on a policy, that all requests have to go through customer service and twist that into a reason not to accept customer requests. Even if a company says that their requests have to go through customer service, why in the world would they ignore requests from their customers. If they need to confirm the information or get anything else, they should contact the customers.
Any phone company that uses a policy as an excuse to ignore their customer’s requests has clearly lost their focus.
If they need some more authorization take the requests and contact the customer, but simply saying that you won’t allow anyone else to bring requests to you not only makes you look nasty but sure makes it sound like you don’t care about the customer or their requests. I’m not identifying the company or the individual’s name here because I’m not trying to be nasty back.
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Frank tremmel (1 comments.) says:
October 6, 2010 at 11:09 am
Bill, this is another great post. I have always respected your “to the point” attitude in helping our company and many others with such a high level of service.
I have found that you are unique to this industry and your level of service is greatly appreciated, not only for getting me the numbers I have been looking for at a reasonable price, but more importantly, for the education you have provided us.
You have saved me more money by preventing me from making the wrong toll free number purchases as to the savings we received using your services.
Have a wonderful day in the Neighborhood,
Frank Tremmel
Neighborhood Nursery