Having just roasted TELUS for their terrible customer service, I want to throw a bouquet to the occasional employee who is pleasant and helpful, and to wish them every success in their careers.
Diana, in 6 minutes solved a simple problem that could have taken another employee 30 minutes or more.
THANK YOU.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Why TELUS Stock Must be Rated Buy Now
My finance profs said you have to look at more than the financial statements when evaluating a company.
In an act of reductio ad absurdem, I will now analyze TELUS (phone / internet / mobile phone company) without looking at any numbers. Well, without looking at any financial numbers. There are some numbers that are very relevant to my analysis.
57: Approximate number of minutes spent in conversation with customer agent, resulting in a booked service appointment at a specified time, date & place.
80: Minutes it takes me to drive over and back to the place where the phone and internet service appointment was booked for (not my house).
120: Minutes waiting in the "window" for the service guys to arrive.
15: Post-"window" minutes waited before calling TELUS to find out why no guys arrived.
37: Minutes on phone to TELUS being told that the work had been done remotely the day before. No one thought I needed to know the appointment had been unilaterally cancelled.
81: Minutes taken to drive up to the house, test each phone jack, determine none of them actually work, and drive home.
170/120: Approximate blood pressure during and after each of these events.
7: Days required to get enough self-control to be able to face calling TELUS again.
29: Minutes spent talking to TELUS today trying to cancel service and being talked out of it.
1: Self-esteem rating after letting self be bamboozled.
3: Average rating given on customer satisfaction survey (out of 5) at end of call.
0: Number of viable competitors to TELUS for home phone service. (That's another issue).
So - terrible customer service - legendarily so, but a semi-monopoly means TELUS has some kind of assured income stream from those of us afraid to move to an alternate phone service.
The customer service depresses the stock price (it has to) and must be costing TELUS overhead dollars in employee recruitment & retention (morale has got to be terrible), advertising, customer loyalty programs and incentives (not that I see any of those but somebody must).
The two opportunities for unlocking value in TELUS:
1. Improve customer service.
2. Divest or at least restructure and rebrand. There may actually be a division or two within TELUS that would perform better once freed from the albatross of the overall TELUS brand. Whatever synergies they may think they reap from being one brand are totally illusory. The smell of my experience with the home phone and internet people today has me traipsing round the mall looking for the best deal on cell phones.
Based on a sample of one, I rate TELUS a strong buy.
In an act of reductio ad absurdem, I will now analyze TELUS (phone / internet / mobile phone company) without looking at any numbers. Well, without looking at any financial numbers. There are some numbers that are very relevant to my analysis.
57: Approximate number of minutes spent in conversation with customer agent, resulting in a booked service appointment at a specified time, date & place.
80: Minutes it takes me to drive over and back to the place where the phone and internet service appointment was booked for (not my house).
120: Minutes waiting in the "window" for the service guys to arrive.
15: Post-"window" minutes waited before calling TELUS to find out why no guys arrived.
37: Minutes on phone to TELUS being told that the work had been done remotely the day before. No one thought I needed to know the appointment had been unilaterally cancelled.
81: Minutes taken to drive up to the house, test each phone jack, determine none of them actually work, and drive home.
170/120: Approximate blood pressure during and after each of these events.
7: Days required to get enough self-control to be able to face calling TELUS again.
29: Minutes spent talking to TELUS today trying to cancel service and being talked out of it.
1: Self-esteem rating after letting self be bamboozled.
3: Average rating given on customer satisfaction survey (out of 5) at end of call.
0: Number of viable competitors to TELUS for home phone service. (That's another issue).
So - terrible customer service - legendarily so, but a semi-monopoly means TELUS has some kind of assured income stream from those of us afraid to move to an alternate phone service.
The customer service depresses the stock price (it has to) and must be costing TELUS overhead dollars in employee recruitment & retention (morale has got to be terrible), advertising, customer loyalty programs and incentives (not that I see any of those but somebody must).
The two opportunities for unlocking value in TELUS:
1. Improve customer service.
2. Divest or at least restructure and rebrand. There may actually be a division or two within TELUS that would perform better once freed from the albatross of the overall TELUS brand. Whatever synergies they may think they reap from being one brand are totally illusory. The smell of my experience with the home phone and internet people today has me traipsing round the mall looking for the best deal on cell phones.
Based on a sample of one, I rate TELUS a strong buy.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Dyck Insurance Fire #3
Saw flames on the roof of Dyck Insurance, along with heavy smoke. Fire trucks were rushing to get there.
CBC Radio reported that one woman was taken to hospital for smoke inhalation and possible CO in bloodstream. No other injuries reported.
It was also reported by at least one news outlet that the business has copies of the many insurance policies it deals with, offsite.
Being in the insurance business for so long, they probably know a thing or two about risk.
So glad that a bad accident like this was so contained and well-managed and of course that there were apparently no injuries other than as mentioned. Hope that lady with smoke inhalation is OK now.
CBC Radio reported that one woman was taken to hospital for smoke inhalation and possible CO in bloodstream. No other injuries reported.
It was also reported by at least one news outlet that the business has copies of the many insurance policies it deals with, offsite.
Being in the insurance business for so long, they probably know a thing or two about risk.
So glad that a bad accident like this was so contained and well-managed and of course that there were apparently no injuries other than as mentioned. Hope that lady with smoke inhalation is OK now.
Dyck Insurance Fire #2
Still moving at speed limit (80 km/h on Crowchild) - snapping shots through car window, wondering what's burning and where this fire is.
Friday, August 08, 2008
Calgary Under Construction
Calgary Tower seen from Centennial Parkade on 5th Street SW. This is the view now that Penny Lane and Cowboys, Nellie's Break the Fast and the other buildings are all gone.
We have a lot of revealed and ephemeral views in Calgary. Would love to capture more of them.
It was a particularly lovely August evening around 10 p.m. My son & I had just been to see Mongol at the Uptown.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
He's Homeless, Let's Kick Him
According to radio reports today, a man was brutally beaten last night. I am glad to live in a place where this is still shocking news and I hope to God we never become so callous that it's not attention-getting.
The victim came here by bus from some other province, like so many people do. Those of us who weren't born here come to improve our circumstances. Usually we come for jobs, or the rumour of jobs, the rumour of streets paved with gold. Sometimes we come for fun, for the summer, or the Stampede, or to get a job in the famed oil patch.
Some of us come here with connections and a place to stay, or at least the money to pay for one.
This poor man apparently didn't have that. He got off the Greyhound bus and walked about half a mile west, probably following the road in front of him, moving west away from the city centre. Was he trying to get a better view of the mountains? Trying to avoid the downtown - was he afraid of it? Or just picking the road of least resistance, maybe.
There's an underpass where the railroad crosses above 14th Street. I think that's about where this happened. Something about that location is ringing a mental bell. My daughter had a friend who lived in a nice neighbourhood about a half mile further west. There was a murder by that underpass a week before my daughter went to the friend's place for a sleepover. She was just a little kid then. I was speechless and impotently frightened when I heard later that the girls had walked downtown via that street, past that murder place.
I'd forgotten about that until today.
This man from out of town went to sleep somewhere near that underpass. While he slept some violent person or persons beat him so badly that he is now in a coma awaiting surgery. The miraculous thing is that he managed to get himself back to the Greyhound station where someone called 911 for help.
This is not the city I want to be part of. I want civility and the absence of violence. We shouldn't have to ask for it.
The victim came here by bus from some other province, like so many people do. Those of us who weren't born here come to improve our circumstances. Usually we come for jobs, or the rumour of jobs, the rumour of streets paved with gold. Sometimes we come for fun, for the summer, or the Stampede, or to get a job in the famed oil patch.
Some of us come here with connections and a place to stay, or at least the money to pay for one.
This poor man apparently didn't have that. He got off the Greyhound bus and walked about half a mile west, probably following the road in front of him, moving west away from the city centre. Was he trying to get a better view of the mountains? Trying to avoid the downtown - was he afraid of it? Or just picking the road of least resistance, maybe.
There's an underpass where the railroad crosses above 14th Street. I think that's about where this happened. Something about that location is ringing a mental bell. My daughter had a friend who lived in a nice neighbourhood about a half mile further west. There was a murder by that underpass a week before my daughter went to the friend's place for a sleepover. She was just a little kid then. I was speechless and impotently frightened when I heard later that the girls had walked downtown via that street, past that murder place.
I'd forgotten about that until today.
This man from out of town went to sleep somewhere near that underpass. While he slept some violent person or persons beat him so badly that he is now in a coma awaiting surgery. The miraculous thing is that he managed to get himself back to the Greyhound station where someone called 911 for help.
This is not the city I want to be part of. I want civility and the absence of violence. We shouldn't have to ask for it.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Restaurants I Never Heard of Are Making a Big Splash
I don't get out much. I was in some waiting room yesterday and there was a copy of the latest Avenue magazine on a table. March 2008 edition.
Avenue, you've put on weight! You're big and glossy and I bet you cost a lot. Weren't you free at one time, or was that one of your less glossy cousins, perhaps.
Anyway, for those who love condo and interior design pron (the way to spell it if you don't want an x-rating) - what a great piece of literature.
What I got out of it was a lot of news about places I've never heard of that are apparently on the "hot" column of the what's hot and what's not lists around town.
I feel so inadequate now.
Avenue, you've put on weight! You're big and glossy and I bet you cost a lot. Weren't you free at one time, or was that one of your less glossy cousins, perhaps.
Anyway, for those who love condo and interior design pron (the way to spell it if you don't want an x-rating) - what a great piece of literature.
What I got out of it was a lot of news about places I've never heard of that are apparently on the "hot" column of the what's hot and what's not lists around town.
I feel so inadequate now.
Friday, January 04, 2008
Calgary's First Murder of 2008 - No First Baby?
The first week of the year and already the news is full of serious crime stories.
On New Year's Day, an Altadore homeowner found a dead man on her lawn, according to local media reports. Calgary police identified the man and yesterday said that 33 year old Mohamed Aman died of stab wounds in a homicide.
On New Year's Eve, there was a murder, apparently gang-related.
I don't remember hearing one word about the New Year's Baby. When did we switch our focus from welcoming life into this world, to watching - appalled - as it is hastened out?
On New Year's Day, an Altadore homeowner found a dead man on her lawn, according to local media reports. Calgary police identified the man and yesterday said that 33 year old Mohamed Aman died of stab wounds in a homicide.
On New Year's Eve, there was a murder, apparently gang-related.
I don't remember hearing one word about the New Year's Baby. When did we switch our focus from welcoming life into this world, to watching - appalled - as it is hastened out?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)