Did anyone else catch the suggestion in the NZ Herald today that the highest paid CEO in the country might be seen hanging out at the contact centre?
According to British telecommunications analyst Mike Cansfield, Telecom’s new CEO Paul Reynolds could be doing time on the floor, getting to grips with what the customer’s think and feel. Cansfield told Herald journalist Helen Twose:
“Don’t be surprised if he does spend some time in a call centre, either talking to customers directly or sitting with one or two of the agents understanding the questions that the very front line of the organisation has to take from customers.”
If this guy is correct and Reynolds does walk a mile in an agent’s shoes then I say hats off to him. No one bears the brunt of management decisions quite like the agent on the end of a call from a disgruntled customer. And I’d say, given the last couple of months that Telecom’s CSRs have had, they deserve some attention from the top.
The last time I called the Telecom number (about three weeks ago, in the wake of the Yahoo!Xtra fiasco) I was told it would be a 45-minute wait before I even got to speak to an agent. I can only imagine the reception their CSRs got from the customers who bothered to hold on.