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Articles 'We're sorry for the poor service', In struggle with competitors. Things are better now, exec says Published: May 18, 2007  Print Bell Canada apologized to its clients for spotty customer service over the last three years as it struggled to adapt to new technologies and compete with cable providers under tight regulatory restrictions. Bell, which has been quickly losing phone customers to telephony rookies like Videotron, has been long maligned for the teeth-gnashing inconsistency of its client care. Tales of callers going through numerous, often clueless representatives have become common lore. Things are better now, Patrick Pichette, Bell's president of operations, said in a speech to the Association des MBA du Quebec yesterday. After a three-year reconstruction code-named Galileo, customers can now call a single support help desk and receive one bill for different services, like satellite TV and Internet. "If you were affected in a negative way during this difficult transition period, please accept, on behalf of all our employees, our sincere apologies," Pichette told the audience of MBAs at the Ritz-Carlton hotel. In 2004, the former telephone monopoly was faced with three challenges, Pichette said. The adoption of Internet Protocol technologies, which allows many types of data to be transmitted over the Internet. The resulting rise of cable operators that offered voice-over Internet Protocol telephone service. Clients who demanded better service, such as quick resolution to problems and a single point of access for different services. At the same time, he said, federal regulators did not give Bell the same freedom to change pricing and offerings enjoyed by the cable newcomers. "Bell had to improve its service in a radical fashion while offering integrated solutions and a single help desk, while seeking to cut $1.5 billion in expenses to conserve its margins and invest in its future," Pichette said. Doing this was no easy task, he explained. This required merging the customer databases for the phone service, Sympatico, Bell Mobility and Express-Vu, which operated independently. It also meant training 9,000 customer service agents on new tools and processes. Customers can now expect seamless service when moving and enjoy discounts when bundling services, Pichette said. "There's no more reason to quit Bell because of price," he proclaimed. The apology and justification may come as cold comfort to customers who still have it in for the company. Irate clients continue to vent their anger on message boards and blogs online. Ellen Roseman, a newspaper columnist and consumer advocate, said in her blog the number of complaints about Bell are going up despite management's declarations of progress. An anonymous blogger started a blog called Boycott Bell Canada, and Randy Charles Morin, a software developer in Brampton, Ont., urges people to complain about Bell to the CRTC in his Web journal. Picking on Bell alone ignores the bad service of other phone providers, which all share a mediocre level of support, said Kevin Restivo, a telecom analyst at the SeaBoard Group in Toronto. "Some companies are a mish-mash of different companies. Combing them can be troublesome," he said. And while service has improved across all firms, they still must overcome the public perception that they don't care about clients. "Consumers don't see them as good customer service organizations," he said. 548 Views Most Read Articles
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