International research firm, ATLANTIC-ACM, Monday released a report slamming the customer service record of many of the nation’s top DSL providers.
In its xDSL Market Sizing: Provider Report Card, ATLANTIC-ACM said
while most DSL do an adequate job at customer service, their efforts fall far short of the level customers expect.
However, Judy Reed Smith, ATLANTIC-ACM chief executive officer, said DSL providers still have a chance to rectify the situation since the market for copper-based broadband offerings is expected to continue growing rapidly.
“The robust market for DSL services will continue to expand at an
increasingly rapid pace in order to meet the exploding demand for
high-speed Internet access,” Smith said. “The report projects that DSL
business and residential market revenue will exceed $10.5 billion by 2004.”
“This do-or-die market, what will really distinguish the top-notch DSL
providers from the rest of the pack is the extent to which they are able to
remain focused on the customer’s needs,” Smith added.
ATLANTIC-ACM’s research was based on 92 evaluations of DSL providers by
their ISP customers. It found that
Rhythms NetConnections, Inc. slightly outscored NorthPoint Communications Inc.
, and Covad Communications
Group, Inc. .
Regional Bells such as SBC Communications Inc.
and its subsidiaries, Verizon
Communications Corp., among others, scored much lower than the new
data-based competitor carriers.
Despite the fact that DSL rivals to telecom companies received impressive
scores in network quality and network availability, the study revealed
that, in most other categories, ISPs are receiving mediocre DSL service
from upstream providers.
For example, the average scores for all wholesale DSL providers fall below
average in the areas of responsiveness of customer service, less than 4.9
on a scale of 10.
Eric Rabe, Verizon spokesperson, said customer services
improvements are being made daily and DSL service is a new technology that
is experiencing natural growing pains for every provider.
“You can always improve customer service,” Rabe said. “We keep trying to do
just that, and we’ve made great strides in improving customer service to
commerce clients and consumers.”
“When you rollout a complicated services like DSL access, it’s a huge
project,” Rabe added. “The technical problems are comparable to when
wireless phone services we’re first made available. Customers complained
about dropped calls, static, and limited service areas. But that’s all
changed now.”
Rabe said the rush to beat cable modem providers to the broadband
marketplace should also be factored into the ATLANTIC-ACM customer service
report.
“We’re heading in the right direction for improved customer services,” Rabe
said. “We’ve been lagging behind the cable rush to deploy broadband
services. Now, we’re reaching far more customers than cable. That can’t be
accomplished without a few growing pains”
Rabe contends that Verizon is at the top of the DSL supplier chain, so it’s
a natural destination for ISP complaints.
“ISPs in general complain a lot about big phone companies, seeing their
services as a starkly independent resource,” Rabe said. “While no one will
argue that there isn’t room for improving customer service, data carriers
and ISPs would not have broadband services, were it not for incumbent
providers.”
For ISPs, it’s more a frustration to resolve services issues, than bad
customer service. The only recourse for slow or non-responsive service from
an up
stream provider is for the ISP to file a complaint with its local
public utilities commission. That starts a timetable to hear the complaint,
but does not resolve the service issue.
Corpus Christi, Texas-based service provider The-I.Net is operated by President Cary
Fitch. The-I-Net has filed a statement with the Texas PUC about SBC subsidiary Southwestern Bell.
The-I.Net complaint cited SBC for spending $6 billion to deploy DSL
services, without Southwestern Bell being capable of providing basic
central office services.
“It took Southwester Bell three weeks to acknowledge the complaint,” Fitch
said. “After a series of delays and stalling tactics prohibiting other
providers from deploying DSL services, SBC moves its complete DSL
operations into a new business division and operates in Texas as a
competitive local exchange carrier, rather than an incumbent.”
Fitch said its not just communication issues that are a problem, it takes a
lot of complaining to get anything done about basic service issues.
“There is, generally speaking, too many people involved in terms of working
with former-Bell organizations,” Fitch said. “We’ve been involved over
jurisdictional disputes over 130-feet of line, with Southwester Bell saying
the service problem exists in our 70-feet of the line. Sometimes, it takes
two days just to get somebody to look at the problem in the line, with the
customer has no service.”
Therein lies the heart of the problem to resolve customer service issues.
When a client loses connectivity, it contacts the ISP to complain about the
service. From there, where the problem lines is anyone’s guess. Two or
three different provides have to open up trouble tickets to get the problem
resolved, laying blame elsewhere and pointing-fingers at others, every step
of the way.
