Having worked for corporate Sprint for 5 years and having used Sprint personally previous to my employment with the company, I have always had a personal loyalty to the company. I realize the sentiments were not reciprocated and accepted that.
I left Sprint to work for the competitor and felt as though I was cheating on my spouse to change the "we" referring to Sprint and my representation of Sprint to "we" as in the new partnership with my new employer.
What is more, the new employer treated me like a traitor and never really got over the fact that I had a previous affair with Sprint. I was known, not for my conviction, drive for results, positive customer experience and work ethic, but only for my previous employer. I was actually referred to as "the Sprint person."
While I accepted it as a label, the intent of that label was not flattering. It was a condemning projection of my efforts to a slam on my previous employer. So if I came up with a great sales contest, then it was not as a result of my own thoughtful creation, it was "a Sprint idea."
I grew weary of the opposition I faced at this wireless provider and left the company and still today will feel as an outsider to a company that I spent nearly 2 years growing and molding their sales team. While I still represent and sell their service, I am quite certainly an outsider.
I have experienced cliques before in school and this wireless generation is very similar to that. People are defining themselves by which carrier use or work for.
Sprint's identity was lost with the merger of Nextel and I would say that Nextel employees and customers felt abandoned.
The facts are that Sprint has some incredible differentiators with the Nextel services and the upcoming releases of Air Rave (using phone to make calls over wireless data network) and QChat (push-to-talk between Nextel and traditional CDMA Sprint devices) and of course the high speed data network.
Now that Sprint is brining it's headquarters back home, I would love to see it bring its customer service back home too!
Sprint back to Kansas City
"I want to throw away my Treo!"
"I want to throw away my Treo," were the laments of a recent customer expressed to me. She had owned her PDA/Smartphone for over a year and was driven crazy by the constant sleep mode and need to hit the center navigation key to turn off the key guard.
Before you pitch your high dollar device into the garbage out of frustration, know this: If there is anything you don't like about your Treo, there is a way to change it. If there is something that you wish your device would do, there is almost guaranteed a software download that will make your device function per your desire.
Taking off the key-guard for example is a simple setting in the preferences. On your device, from the home screen, go to the preferences menu. Under the General tab, there is a Keyguard option where you can alter how and when that keyguard is activated.
If you need help or want additional education on using your device, Top Priority Wireless, LLC is available to visit your location or schedule a mini-PDA class to train users on the uses of your investment.
New Year's Resolutions - Help is a "phone" (call) away
Every year millions of people make their resolutions to change their lives. Each year millions fail. There are tools to help that many people are not even aware of or had not yet considered.
Take for instance the resolution to become organized, spend more time with the family or kids, or any other time management related focus. While not a unique desire, the ways in which people have been trying to manage their life are not time effective. I still see people carrying around big day-planners filled with sticky notes and other unanswered mail or "to-do" items.
The answer may be as simple as going electronic. More and more soccer moms are adapting the technology that was once targeted almost exclusively to the business executive. Look at the new Palm Centro for example and tell me that I am wrong.
What many people may not realize is that not only can a device such as the Palm Treo or Blackberry phone help you stay organized, they are also able to help you with other goals like losing weight.
LOSING WEIGHT? How can a phone help someone with their love-handles? Well I am glad you asked!
There are plenty of down-loadable programs for these wonderful devices that are tailored to everyday life needs and wants. For example Treo offers one called "Diet and Exercise Assistant" which allows the user to input daily activity and exercise and has a phone food guide with a daily tracker.
Users of the Treo devices can choose from a wide variety of Health and Wellness, prescription, diabetes tracker etc as well as programs designed for your professional life.
Check out www.palm.com for more details.
Links to all the major carriers are available from Top Priority Wireless's website as well. Just go to: www.topprioritywireless.com
Isn't Voicemail Annoying?
Great ideas for Sprint, Nextel, T-mobile, AT&T, US Cellular, Alltel and Verizon text messaging customers.
I have been in the wireless industry long enough to see the trends come and go. As text messaging gets more popular, out goes the desire to actually listen and respond to voice mail.
Why is that? Well for one thing, voice mails are lengthy and can ramble. I should know as I have left some incredibly long voicemails in my day. Additionally, there isn't a great way to capture just the information you need without having to listen to the entire message again.
I personally dread having to listen to my voicemails and purposely do that at the end of my day when I can sit and capture all the information on paper or in a calendar item on my computer while listening to the message.
What would be better for users of the "new wireless genre" is to be able to easily skim through messages, get the information you need, skip voicemails that are not pertinent and streamline daily life.
One way I have found is to use one of the many voicemail to text or email services available. I have found one that I recommend called CallWave which is pretty affordable as an option. You can try it out for a month for free to see if it works for you.
In a nutsell, the service provides a transcribe of the voice call into a log on your computer that you can skim through, choose the voicemails to listen to from either your phone or computer (via email). A "gist" text message is also sent to the user's cell phone summarizing what the gist of the message is about.
In summary what you can do with a service like Callwave:
- Read it. With our Vtxt Gist feature, you can read summarized text transcriptions of your messages.
- Hear it. Listen to messages on your mobile phone, in your email or in your message portal.
- Organize it. Search, save, sort and delete voicemail in your message portal.
- Screen it. Screen calls on your mobile phone or PC just like an answering machine.
If you want to check it out you can click this link:
Save money - It's Your Bill!
There are plenty of ways consumers can take control of their wireless experience. I can show my clients how to save money on their cell phone bills most of the time. The analysis doesn't cost a thing, so where is the harm in having it reviewed.
The truth is that you can have your bill analyzed at any of the wireless providers as well. The differences are these: What is the incentive for them to really drastically reduce your bill? The higher the revenue that you generate for the company, the better. I am a small business and work exclusively off of referrals, recommendations and networking. The incentive for me to help you is great. The more I save you, the more likely you are to refer me to your friends and family.
There are still plenty of very savvy and genuinely caring people who work for the wireless carriers who will help you save money if you call them or go into the store and request it. That brings me to the next difference. Would you rather go the store and wait to have someone review and analyze your bill or would you rather just contact me and have me visit with you personally at a mutually convenient time?
Here are some of the things I look for when analyzing a bill and perhaps if you have the time and want to review it yourself you can look for these things on your bill.
1. Rate plan is too small. An allowance of minutes that comes with a rate plan should be enough to cover your user's monthly needs and leave a small buffer. A plan that is too small will cause significant charges in overage. I tell my customer that they can do a rough calculation of every 100 minutes of overage costs roughly an extra $50! How many customers would upgrade their rate plan by $50 and expect only an extra 100 minutes? Answer .. not any that I know of.
2. Rate plan is too large. Some users have been burnt by the overage charges in the past, so in order to prevent that from happening they have bought into a rate plan that is grossly more than they use on average. I have seen users who are paying for a $99 unlimited plan just because they have been grandfathered into it. The irony is that they were using roughly 600 minutes per month on average. They could have easily fit into a $69.99 plan and saved themselves $30/month.
3. Believing that just because you do not subscribe to a service on a monthly charge that users on your account are not using the features at a per/use charge. Example: one customer erroneously believed that because she did not sign up for text messaging service that she (and the users on her account) did not have access to it. Her daughter managed to use 3000 text messages in one month multiplied by the per/text rate at the time of 10 cents/text = a whopping $300! She believed she was saving $20/month by not adding the feature to her plan and it cost her.
4. 4-1-1 ... Information service. When a user dials 411 from their handset, they are provided with the requested information. They are allowed to request multiple phone numbers at each call but few users actually do. Users are told on the line that they can be connected to their party for no fee. Users have misunderstood that this service itself was free. The truth is that using 411 costs users a cool $1.79 or greater per call. There are several ways to get the information for free. I helped a customer last week in utilizing the other ways to get the information and saved them $28/month. Here are a couple quick tips: Text to: GOOGL (46645) with the name of the person/business you are searching followed by the zip code if you know it or if not, the city, state. You will receive a reply text with the phone number and address. Another way to get the information is to call: 1-800-GOOG-411 . Both of these methods are free other than the use of your minutes or text allowance. Worst case scenario, if you do not have text messaging, you will get charged for 2 text messages: 30 cents total versus the $1.79 charge.
5. Premium services. What does this mean when you see this on your bill? It means that the user signed up (either online or in response to a commercial with a text enrollment). An example of this can be found on many commercials with "Free Ringtone" offers. The offer details are usually printed small at the bottom of the screen and the cost of that "free ringtone" is a monthly subscription that is charged to the users bill each month. The savings for identifying these extra and often unknown charges is typically $9.99/month per subscription. Canceling these subscriptions can sometimes be confusing but most of the time they can be canceled by replying to the enrollment text to "cancel", "end", or "stop."
At the end of the day, it boils down to this, many wireless customers are over-paying and do not ever realize it. There are a significant number of customers who do not bother to review their bill unless it is grossly different than what they have been accustomed to paying each month.
Feel free to contact us (913-220-2370) if you want help analyzing and reviewing your bill.
Cell Phone Boosters
Cell phone boosters are now an affordable solution for customers who have holes in their coverage needs. Here is what you need to know when you are looking for a solution.
As a long time wireless phone expert, I have had the opportunity to hear the various complaints and short-comings that each wireless carrier has. In the past when customers have complained about a dropped call or lack of coverage in various areas, the response of the wireless industry has been a pretty consistent, "that is the nature of the beast."
Wireless networks were developed with the mobile customer in mind as the end-user. It was not anticipated that the consumer base would so quickly adapt to the freedom of the mobile handset and begin eliminating their landline phone service. The desire for customers to have mobile coverage everywhere they go has grown and the wireless providers are spending billions of dollars on their network by upgrading current towers, adding towers, and acquiring smaller network providers.
As each carrier continues to develop their wireless coverage and work to improve and eliminate drop spots, so has the consumer's expectation that the phones work everywhere and never drop a call.
Users who travel consistently and want to ensure their calls are not dropped as they move from coverage area to coverage area and in and out of roaming networks should consider the use of the cell phone booster. Cell phone boosters that are little stickers that you apply under the battery are not effective at all in acquiring a better signal. What you want to look for in a cell phone booster is an antenna amplifier and a power source that do not have to be attached to your handset.
Here is an example of one that I recommend if you are researching one for your personal use. Click on this image to check it out.
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