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.
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