When Dan Hesse took over Sprint as CEO, he made some big promises to improve the quality of the customer service. If you look at the numbers, Hesse has pulled through for his subscribers. Certainly, there have been losses, in terms of both money and subscribers, but the remaining Sprint subscribers are seeing better support call times, better headway towards solving their problems, and fewer support calls going to India.
The best tool that Sprint has for the Pre’s launch is called the “Ready Now” program. Hesse instituted it at his Sprint stores to help teach new customers how to use their devices, so they could spend one-on-one time with a sales rep who could walk them through the operations of the phone. Most of you reading this might be the type that likes to figure those things out on your own; I am the same way (who needs a manual?). However, the average consumer or businessman/woman doesn’t have the desire to sit and play with the device and learn how to use it. Otherwise my mom’s iPod wouldn’t be sitting at home collecting dust on the shelf as an overpriced paperweight.
This is the problem any company faces, and Sprint will have to deal with it on Pre launch day. Apple tackled this issue for their iPhone 3G launch with the practice that Sprint would imitate with Ready Now. After the fiasco from the first iPhone launch in which customers took their purchases home and then couldn’t figure out how to operate their devices or even simply set them up, Apple instituted a policy for employees to follow when selling an iPhone 3G at the retail stores. First, the Specialists had to make sure the customer knew what they were getting into as far as plans and if they truly could benefit from the device. Most people were in such a hurry to just buy the thing that they didn’t care to think about plans or costs. After that and the obligatory credit checks and ensuing purchase, customers were then given a small tutorial in the operation of the device. Any and all questions were answered right then and there from the specialists, and the customers generally left happy, armed with the knowledge and resources to use their new phone. As a result, fewer people came in complaining about the complexity of the device, and no one was left without an activated iPhone 3G. Sprint and other retailers copied this model for educating their customers. Best Buy even instituted it, but only if you purchased so many accessories (something Apple and Sprint never did).
So here we are at the Palm Pre launch day, and the soccer mom who couldn’t get an iPhone because she was on a Sprint contract has decided to upgrade to the Pre. Now imagine that there are going to be (hopefully) thousands and thousands more like her; people without the time or desire to put in the effort to learn the phone on their own. If the Sprint employees have their stuff together, those soccer moms and business people will be leaving the stores knowing their devices inside… well, at least how to make a call. Satisfaction ratings will be good (barring any actual flaws with the Pre) and that means a better public reception and image. Palm can only benefit.
The only flaw with this idea is for the third-party resellers. There’s a reason you could only get an iPhone 3G at an Apple store or AT&T store. Apple needed to make sure people knew how to use the devices and were being fed the correct information. With that control, the minimal PR damage done by some people having to drive a few hours to get their phones was overshadowed by the huge success that launch day was, sales-wise.
Since Sprint and Palm probably will not exercise that sort of Jobsian control over the distribution of the Pre, there are likely to be stores and sellers that don’t care that the customer walks out of the store with the best knowledge about the phone they can have; some sellers just don’t care. Those sellers are going to end up hurting Palm and Sprint.
So my recommendation to Palm and Sprint: This device is too important to the revitalization of your two companies. Be like Steve. Control every aspect of the Palm Pre’s launch, and don’t let anyone walk out of your stores clueless as to how to use it.
Palm Pre: 26-minutes live demo!
Palm Pre demoed on Sprint Webcast 03/12/09
Due to technical difficulties, the audio portion of the video did not get captured.
Palm Pre Calendar Synergy Live Demo at MWC09
Palm Pre gestures demo in slow motion
Vic Gundotra Demo HTML Google Map Palm Pre at MWC09
