You've Come A Long Way Baby

Yes, I'm an employee of AT&T and the following is my opinion.

   

     It's difficult to know where to start with this one.  I was surfing around the web last night and came across a story from Cnet about AT&T.  It seems that AT&T was rated the worst cell phone carrier for the second year in a row.   The funny thing is, according to the article, AT&T still added 2.1 million new subscribers just in the third quarter alone.  Does that mean that people just don't care about poor service?  Are the numbers wrong?  Did they only call the unhappy ones?  Or, just the ones whose calls were dropped?  We'll probably never know the actual truth.  However, it might be a good time to have a short history lesson...

     Here is the funny & famous video by Stephen Colbert about all the telecom mergers creating the one network again.  I laugh every time I watch it.  A much more detailed look at the evolution of the current behemoth is this article form Wikipedia.  Most of us forget about all the regional phone companies and the fact that Southwestern Bell Corporation is the one that came out on top with the AT&T brand.  I found it interesting looking at their history and their efforts to purchase Cox Cable and later Comcast.

     AT&T's December 29, 2006 acquisition of Bellsouth Telecommunications was my first company change in twenty eight years.  I became an employee of AT&T and am still working each day to make my customers happy, just like in the old Bellsouth days.

     BellSouth was known for good customer service.  They won the J.D. Power customer satisfaction surveys in 1996, 1997,1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2005, & 2006.  The 2006 award stated Bellsouth "leads all carriers in majority of customer satisfaction factors".  We were proud of it and the company printed it on our trucks.  We are all customers of someone and we all know when we've been treated badly.  I appreciate having worked for a company that placed their customers on such a high regard.

     I would like to tell you why I believe that service has gone downhill somewhat, but my opinion would serve no purpose nor would any large company listen.  There are those of us who remember the good old days and make an effort to please.  Hopefully all the mergers and buyouts will be over soon and companies will refocus their efforts on good customer service.  Till then, hang on...