It's easy to find companies who don't understand the value of customer experience and its impact on shareholder value. Examples are everywhere of businesses that insist on processes, pricing, and practices that conflict with what a Customer demands. I'd like to give an example of one company that is getting it right: USCellular.
I know what you are thinking; Telephone companies are generally not seen as customer friendly. Long term contracts with steep penalties, runaway overage and usage fees, and a lack of features to help you manage valuable things like contacts and battery life are a few of many gripes customers have with the major players. But some phone companies are waking up to the fact that there is a mass of unhappy customers just waiting for a business to understand them and give them what they want. US Cellular is one of these companies.
With the "Belief Project", US Cellular has put forward revolutionary changes in its business model designed to address customer pain points and provide unheard of flexibility. Unlike AT&T among others, US Cellular contracts have more flexibility and fixed rates that won't change without warning. It offers a program for handset upgrades and environment friendly battery returns. Ever lost your contacts off a defunct phone? US Cellular understands and enables you to back up your contacts in the cloud. US Cellular also passes on discounts to the customer for using autopay and going paperless. us cellular belief project
It's amazing to me how revolutionary these business offerings seem compared to general phone industry practices. Revolutionary that is, only if you accept that businesses dictate terms. But take a look at other industries where the forces of competition and the elevation of customer choice in the buying cycle (e.g. consumer electronics w Apple, retail banking w Charles Schwab, Insurance w Progressive. In each case, an upstart disrupted the established industry leader by designing their business model with the customer as the defining principle. In doing so, they established dominant position and created a competitive advantage that the other business-centric companies were not capable of copying.
I know what you are thinking; Telephone companies are generally not seen as customer friendly. Long term contracts with steep penalties, runaway overage and usage fees, and a lack of features to help you manage valuable things like contacts and battery life are a few of many gripes customers have with the major players. But some phone companies are waking up to the fact that there is a mass of unhappy customers just waiting for a business to understand them and give them what they want. US Cellular is one of these companies.
With the "Belief Project", US Cellular has put forward revolutionary changes in its business model designed to address customer pain points and provide unheard of flexibility. Unlike AT&T among others, US Cellular contracts have more flexibility and fixed rates that won't change without warning. It offers a program for handset upgrades and environment friendly battery returns. Ever lost your contacts off a defunct phone? US Cellular understands and enables you to back up your contacts in the cloud. US Cellular also passes on discounts to the customer for using autopay and going paperless. us cellular belief project
It's amazing to me how revolutionary these business offerings seem compared to general phone industry practices. Revolutionary that is, only if you accept that businesses dictate terms. But take a look at other industries where the forces of competition and the elevation of customer choice in the buying cycle (e.g. consumer electronics w Apple, retail banking w Charles Schwab, Insurance w Progressive. In each case, an upstart disrupted the established industry leader by designing their business model with the customer as the defining principle. In doing so, they established dominant position and created a competitive advantage that the other business-centric companies were not capable of copying.
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