Small Business General

Yesterday, I have written about Verizon’s internal communication problems within the company. If you have read my post, you know the case.

Our latest installation was scheduled today, and nobody showed up.

A big corporation like Verizon, their main product (phone service, and DSL), a customer willing to purchase their product, and THEY DO NOT WANT TO SELL THEIR PRODUCT.

This is what happens when you become a giant corporation. I am sure if the CEO or founder of Verizon read this, they’d be so disappointed.

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All companies say they care about their customers, in fact big corporations spend millions of dollars on CRM softwares, trainings, etc.

Ok, it all sounds good. You are a big corporation, you have millions of customers, and with the state of the art softwares, now you know all the information about your customers. But how about the internal communication within the company? Isn’t this an important part of CRM?

Here’s a story of what happened recently;

We have decided to move to a new suite within our building. It is 3 times larger, and it has a great Manhattan view. We have moved all the office within a day or two, and Verizon was supposed to come over to setup our local phone line and DSL. This was in July 17th, and today is August 3rd. At the floor where our office is, there are 40 offices, most (almost all) use Verizon as their local phone company. Verizon’s headquarters are across the East River, and I can see them from my window everyday. Now, after so many phone calls, they can’t figure out why couldn’t set the service up.

After a few days, I have called them and reminded them that we had still been waiting for the installation. The lady on the phone talked about some cabling problems outside the building, and has blamed the engineering department. Today, after 5-6 phone calls, some customer service person used this exact sentence:

“How am I supposed to know why your phone wasn’t installed?”

And I replied:

“I’m sorry, I thought I have called Verizon.”

Then she said:

“Yes this is Verizon.”

Then I said:

“I guess I will take the subway to your headquarters and start screaming at the lobby”.

She was confused…

I was confused…

As a small business owner, I never thought about blaming an employee or a department if a problem occurs with a customer in the company.

I have had similar problems with different corporations in the past.

I remember spending 3 hours 30 minutes within a phone loop (customer reps in India) when I tried to solve a wrong shipment with Dell.

As a prospective customer, I will give a few more days to Verizon, then I’ll call another company for local phone service, and DSL.

I’m sure they are losing so many customers even before they officially become their customers.

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My last post was on October 9th. I have received numreous encouraging emails from my readers to update Small Business Arena. I appreciate all the support, and I am very sorry for not updating the site for a long time.

What has happened since october? I have started my business and was struggling with the known issues of a startup, but now I have way more experience than I used to have.

I will have a series of posts about how I have started my business in depth.

I’m happy to be able to write again, and I’ll try to update the site as often as I can.

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Hurricane Katrina bruised the economy in September, causing the first nationwide job loss in two years, but the damage wasn’t as awful as many had feared.

Payrolls fell by 35,000, with jobs in retailing, lodging, bars, restaurants and leisure pursuits such as gambling all taking a hit.

The unemployment rate climbed to 5.1%, from a four-year low of 4.9% in August.

The snapshot, released by the Labor Department, provided the most extensive picture of the jobs climate in the aftermath of the deadly and destructive Katrina, the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.

The impact of the next hurricane, Rita, was “negligible” on the latest figures, the department said.

To be sure, the loss of lives and livelihoods in the ravaged regions is devastating and will be long felt. But yesterday’s report suggested overall economic activity and national employment – which each showed stamina before the storms – will withstand the trauma and not thrust the economy into recession.

“The job market was not as severely impacted by the hurricanes as initially feared. Outside the affected region, it would appear that job growth remained fairly solid,” which helped temper overall job losses, said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services. [click to continue…]

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