ATT And The Old Way Of Running A Business

Alexander Graham Bell

I've posted about Southwest Airlines, possibly the best run company on earth in an industry so difficult to operate in that I can't figure our why anyone would enter. On the flip side is ATT. I can't figure out why they're in business or why anone would work for them.
The biggest problem with the company, from my limited but disappointing experience, is that the employees I've met don't like management, management doesn't listen to customers, and management hasn't clearly or effectively communicated to the employees that their gola is customer satisfaction.

It started simply enough, a crew came out to install lines an service. Job done, they were walking ou the door without even checking to see if the new line worked. They told me it was a customer self install and instructions came with the box. I insisted they stay anyway. The line didn't work. They tried. Again, no service. They speculated it was a line outside he house an not their job. NOT THEIR JOB!? I thought all AT&T customer service was everyone at the company's job!

Anyway the second crew came out and then left without so much as knocking a saying hello. Again, no service.

I went to the AT&T store where I ordered the service to complain. They called the same multilevel phone answering help line I tried earlier and handed me the phone. Yes, handed me the phone to hold for an answer! Again, it wasn't their job at the store. I held for what seemed like forever and finally got through to someone and then another and finally some help.

A third crew came out and finally fixed the problem. I lost two full days dealing with this issue. The employees were rushed and unhappy and clearly were on opposite sides of the fence from management.

 I sent a letter to the CEO. Underlings responded and offered me a discount on service. They missed the point. I didn't want a discount (I took it) I wanted to let these guys know how bad things were in the field and that management needed to make some serious changes. My appeal appeared to go right over their heads.

 AT&T needs to read my post about Southwest Airlines and take a page from their playbook. It's no secret, Soutwest is happy to share with everyone. Define vision, mission in terms of the customer, empower the employee to act accordingly. Poor Alex must be turning over in his grave.