Posts tagged phone contract

Yesterday I posted a factual but admittedly scathing post about my experience with Telus customer support; in particular their loyalty and retentions department.

I was very polite for 98% of the conversation until all communications broke down with the particular rep I was dealing with. This was two days ago and I just did not want to think about this till today. It just left a really bad taste in my mouth after being on the phone for over an hour hammering home the same point.

Casie DMed me today and got me thinking, so this morning I called Telus back to follow up on my previous call with them and I was shocked at the difference one person can make in a company. I spoke to a very polite lady named Shawna and she calmly and professionally explained the benefits of sticking with Telus at the end of my year and signing up. With regards to the mandatory new phone issue, she was attentive and empathetic while still upholding the company’s policies. I could not help but be receptive and listen attentively due to her pleasant and sincere manner. This person really cares about her customers and the real kicker is that she’s not even in the retentions and loyalty department! As far as I know, she’s a front line rep!

It goes to show two things:

1. I am reasonable and not above conceding a “defeat” when shown the indisputable error of an opinion I may have or the blunt edge of an axe that I may have been grinding.

2. Anyone can make a big difference at any level of an organization if they stay professional, courteous and sincere.

Shawna’s customer service was so great that by the end of the call I was more than ready to sign up with Telus, and come Christmas season you can be sure that I will be speaking to Telus again, pen in hand. She really listened to me and did not interrupt me. It was really relieving to not have to go to battle and the call was not long at all. Shawna stayed on the high road of professional conduct and used her ears and mouth in the proportion that she was given them: two to one.

I understand that maybe the rep from Loyalty whom I initially had contact with the other day may have just been having a bad day. In fact, during the “honeymoon” part of our long conversation, I even told her that I am sympathetic about the fact that she probably has to deal with hundreds of irate customers as I could already sense a distinct lack of patience from the get go. However professionalism still is paramount and I don’t want to fault Telus as a whole just because of one isolated incident where only negative variables and factors lined up to make a bad experience – it was the end of the work day, she could have had a particularly bad day, she may have just finished a call with someone way worse than me and had no break.– it’s no excuse for that rep and I don’t know what it was that may have put her in that mood before even talking to me, but I’m willing to forgive and forget in light of today’s very different experience.

Thank you Shawna for making my experience with Telus 100% better and thank you Telus for having the good sense to employ fantastic CSRs like Shawna. Keep it up and your competitors will follow your example.

My humble apologies.

With humility,

Nus.