How T-Mobile rebuilt its customer service to be less sucky and more about you
Fewer bots, more humans...
This is how T-Mobile employees greet visitors to their customer care centers.
Roger Cheng/CNET
Thunderous applause erupts as I enter the building. I look around and blanketing my field of vision is a small army of black-and-magenta-garbed T-Mobile employees shouting, screaming and waving thunder sticks at me. They form a path deeper in, yet I'm already dizzy and overwhelmed from the sensory overload.
As far as greetings go, this is insane.
I walk through the lobby and past the security checkpoint, assuming the festivities end there. Nope. This parade of emphatic cheers goes on for nearly 240 feet, or two-thirds of a football field, to the other side of the building. It takes me a minute and a half to walk to the other end of the building. But as the center of attention for hundreds of extremely excited workers, it feels like an eternity.
Watch this: T-Mobile aims to dismantle crappy customer service
1:21
One sight catches my attention. It's my face. But in emoji form. On a poster. Again. And again.
Someone actually took the time to create my emoji and blow it up into multiple signs.
This is a small taste of the celebrity treatment T-Mobile CEO John Legere must receive.
It's an appropriate welcome given the nature of Wednesday's Un-carrier event, held here at the company's Charleston, South Carolina, customer care facility. (All visitors got the same treatment as they walked into the event.) The wireless carrier announced the nationwide launch of a program in its customer care centers to offer more dedicated service and the kind of treatment you'd normally get as a frequent flyer or patron of a luxury retailer.
T-Mobile offered this greeting to everyone at the Un-carrier event.
Roger Cheng/CNET
It's a curious swerve for T-Mobile, which garners a lot of attention for its Un-carrier events because of industry-changing moves like its elimination of contracts and phone subsidies or its offer of unlimited text messaging and low-speed data overseas. At a time when carriers have been busy introducing new unlimited data plans or hyping up 5G, T-Mobile opted to pull back the curtain on a project it's been working on for the last two years.
Consumers may be disappointed in the lack of a flashy new consumer perk or, as some had speculated, an update to T-Mobile's plans for an over-the-top video service. Others might be perfectly fine with their carrier's customer service. But Legere believes this focus will cause a ripple effect once consumers understand what they're getting.
"It's going to be the biggest thing we've ever done," he said in an interview on Tuesday.
But just as an insurance, T-Mobile also announced that its customer would get a year of free Pandora Plus service and special access to tickets through Live Nation.
I had a chance to visit the call center a day before the event to talk with some of the customer care employees who are part of this Team of Experts program. They provided me with insight into how the program has changed the culture at the company and how it's intended to lead to less frustrating, more capable service for you.
Team of Experts
T-Mobile chose to hold its Un-carrier event at this facility because it's the newest -- employees moved in here in February -- and, with more than 1,000 customer care workers, the biggest. Walking down "main street," the central hallway that served as the setting of that insane greeting, I see a movie theater, gym, video game room and even a row of massage chairs.
There's a wall dedicated to the employees who have served in the military, one of the touches Legere insisted be a fixture at all of the company's 17 nationwide call center facilities.
The Charleston facility is dubbed "Charleston Heat."
Roger Cheng/CNET
At first glance, the call center itself doesn't look different from the norm. A former K-Mart store, the area is massive, with customers working in an open space format. What's different, however, is the vibe. Customer care represents and managers are hanging out. They break into song and dance. There's a palpable energy.
"This is not like most call centers," said Matthew Dixon, chief product and research officer for Tethr, which offers an artificial intelligence platform designed to pick out insights from customer call data. "People seem happy here, which is unusual."
Team of Experts creates "pods," or "communities," of 40 people dedicated to a specific region of a big market, handling about 120,000 people. You call customer service and you'll get the same 40 people who know your history and even preferences based on where you live.
For instance, Antonio Rivers, who manages a team covering part of Philadelphia, said that the phrase, "I understand," tends to trigger a lot of anger with his customers. The more casual, "I get you," is preferred.
The shift to a more local focus runs counter to the wider trend of companies moving their customer call centers into fewer facilities either in the US or overseas, with a computer system called an Interactive Voice Response typically shuttling callers to a random employee.
"This really allows you to own your customers," said Kashana Kitzpatrick, who runs another community.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere mixes it up with his team.
Roger Cheng/CNET
The upshot for consumers is avoiding the dreaded automated phone tree, where you're stuck pushing buttons or saying numbers until you're finally diverted to a human operator.
"You get a level of personalized and white glove service that regular customers aren't privy to," Dixon said. "Here they're delivering that at scale."
Likewise, you won't be transferred to another department. Each team member is able to coordinate with other facets of T-Mobile, including retail and network operations, and is ultimately assessed based on their ability to solve the problem, and not how long they spent on the call -- another usual metric for call centers.
"Everybody gets rock star status," said President Mike Sievert.
Customers who don't have the time to deal with a care specialist in person can also send a message via the T-Mobile app. Each community has a person dedicated to handling messages.
The Team of Experts only works from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., based on your local time. During off hours or times when there's high call volume, one of T-Mobile's global call centers takes over, but the company plans to finish rolling out the Team of Experts program overseas by the beginning of next year.
Meaningful impact
This isn't just about helping the customer. The Team of Experts model has yielded a 13 percent reduction in costs over a year earlier, thanks to fewer calls, according to Callie Field, who runs customer care for T-Mobile. The company's postpaid phone churn, or customer turnover rate, was at a record low of 0.95 percent in the second quarter. Two years ago, its turnover rate was 1.27 percent.
After the move to this model, T-Mobile saw a 56 percent increase in the likelihood that a customer would recommend the service, also called a Net Promoter Score.
"Everybody gets rock star status."
T-Mobile President Mike Sievert.
Still, there's a risk that consumers will be underwhelmed by the news. Customer care falls below other factors like network coverage and price, and isn't something you think about until things go wrong. There's also the issue that this isn't new -- customers in select regions have already experienced this. With companies like Verizon and AT&T trumpeting news about 5G, there's a chance this gets lost in the noise.
Still, it may ultimately foster customer loyalty.
This is T-Mobile's biggest and newest call center, with more than 1,000 care specialists who moved in here in February.
Roger Cheng/CNET
"Showing you care for customers and giving personal attention to address pain points is a brand image T-Mobile needs to keep up," said Susan Welsh de Grimaldo, an analyst at Strategy Analytics.
Legere, meanwhile, challenged his competitors to follow this model.
"We're willing to give tours," he said. "We're willing to give blueprints."
I'm not holding my breath for Verizon or AT&T to take him up on that offer.
The other benefit is to the employees themselves. These smaller teams all require leaders, which has meant more internal promotions. With bonuses tied to team performance, there's more of a sense of teamwork than in the usual care center, which ranks employees individually.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere takes the stage.
Roger Cheng/CNET
Field said the employee turnover rate was at 42 percent three years ago. This year, it's trending at 20 percent -- an unusually low number for a job that requires you to field angry calls all day.
For some of these employees, perks like the improved bonuses are literally life-changing.
"I have an expert who was homeless when she first started working at T-Mobile," said Joy Stanfield, a customer care manager based in Chattanooga, Tenn. "That was over a year ago. She's getting ready to buy her first house."
A nicer John Legere?
There's a certain irony to Legere talking about customer care -- a field where being unfailingly polite is a prerequisite -- given his colorful language. And indeed, this, in a sense, is a muzzled, safer John Legere.
During our 30-minute interview, there wasn't a single F-bomb.
He has reason to keep his head down. Bombastic CEOs have courted controversy lately (hello, Elon Musk!), and he doesn't want to piss off the government regulators who are deciding the fate of T-Mobile's proposed merger with Sprint.
Of course, that didn't stop him from launching into a tirade at AT&T and Verizon during the Un-carrier event. He noted how his competitors "shit themselves" after T-Mobile launched its unlimited plan. He also called Comcast the "king of suck." But he remained relatively tame throughout the rest of the presentation.
Comcast and Verizon declined to comment. AT&T didn't comment specifically on Legere's remark, but in regard to T-Mobile's Pandora offering, a spokesperson said, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." AT&T lets customers choose between Pandora Premium and Amazon Music as a free add-on in the upper tier of its unlimited plan.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere (center)
Roger Cheng/CNET
The effect Legere has on his employees is easy to see. "Meeting John is like meeting a rock star," said Irene Page, a senior operations manager in Charleston.
But there isn't a mob that overwhelms in the call center. Employees say hello, and he shakes their hands. There are the inevitable compliments for his magenta Giuseppe Zanotti kicks. As Legere walks through one of the pods, the team erupts in cheer -- but not for him. One of the employees managed to convince a customer to add a line, sparking a song and dance routine.
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It's a far cry from that crazy greeting I and other Un-carrier guests received, a practice called the "clap-in" and performed across all of its care centers whenever guests arrive.
I'm told the clap-ins for Legere typically takes 30 minutes to an hour because of the sheer volume of selfies and handshakes. Compared to him, I was practically sprinting through the procession.
I guess there's still a long way to go before becoming a true rock star.
The story originally published Aug. 15 at 8:31 a.m. PT.
Updates, 11:28 a.m.: Adds background information and a response from Comcast; 11:51 a.m.: Includes response from Verizon; 4:32 p.m.: Adds comment from AT&T.
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Discuss: How T-Mobile rebuilt its customer service to be less sucky and more about you
These early Black Friday 2019 deals shouldn't be missed
We've cherry-picked the best discounts from Amazon, Costco, Kohl's and more.
Let's be honest: Black Friday has already started. The calendar may not read Nov. 29, but loads of stores have either announced or launched their Black Friday sales. Yes, launched: Amazon is already offering holiday deals, Costco shared its massive holiday-sale catalog, and Walmart trotted out its Early Deals Drop a couple weeks ago. So, yeah -- Black Friday Madness is upon us.
No worries! We're already tracking all the Black Friday (and Cyber Monday) deals between now and early December. And to make life easier, we're cherry-picking the absolute best stuff -- the items we think are genuinely good buys. See our preliminary picks below, followed by some general Black Friday info.
BLACK FRIDAY 2019- Early Black Friday deals that are actually worth a damn
- Cyber Monday: Worth waiting for?
- Holiday gift guide 2019: CNET editors' top picks
A 65-inch TV for $380? Seems like only yesterday that would have been considered a steal on a 55-inch model. It's an entry-level model, to be sure, with no smarts built in; you'll have to BYO Fire TV or Roku streamer. Thankfully, it has four HDMI inputs, so there's plenty of room for all the gear you might want to plug in.
This is the lowest price to date on Amazon's kid-friendly tablet, which includes a heavy-duty case (with stand) and two-year worry-free warranty. You also get a year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, a $36 value. The tablet is available with your choice of three case colors: blue, pink and purple.
You can also get the Fire HD 8 Kids Edition Tablet for $90, which is $40 off the regular price. It's slightly faster and slightly larger, but otherwise pretty much the same experience for your kids.
This head-to-head machine brings 12 classic arcade games to your den, including half a dozen Street Fighter titles, Final Fight and Commando. And for a limited time you'll also score $70 in Kohl's Cash, which is basically free money to use on additional store purchases. (Note that it must be used by Nov. 14.)
Although the product description seems to refer to the upright version of this unit, the model number is definitely for the cocktail table.
Most of Arcade1Up's machines cost around $300. This one -- which is a three-quarter-size version of the original -- costs $170 once it's in your shopping cart. And it looks, sounds and plays exactly like the old arcade machines. Walmart is also offering the Centipede edition for $180.
Curious about your origin story? Living DNA's test is quite comprehensive; it covers your overall ancestry, motherline and fatherline. Plus, family DNA-matching is now included as well. (Take note, however, that this same kit will be $10 less from Nov. 18 to Dec. 3.)
Yep, it's nowhere near Black Friday, and the Echo Show 5 is already selling for less than it was on Prime Day. The little smart-speaker with the 5.5-inch display makes a great bedside companion, but it could also pull kitchen duty for things like recipe videos and video calls.
Interestingly, Kohl's currently has the Echo Show 5 on sale for the same price, but buying it there also nets you $10 in Kohl's Cash -- essentially free money to use for a future store purchase. Read our Echo Show 5 review.
The Fossil Sport hit the scene just about a year ago, bringing oodles of features to the Wear OS watch-scape for a reasonable $275. The specs include NFC for Google Pay, GPS, 5 ATM water resistance, a heart-rate monitor and an altimeter. This pre-Black Friday sale drops the Sport (light blue only) to just $149, the best price we've seen yet.
The $399 Apple Watch Series 5 is now here, in all of its always-on, 18-hours-of-battery-life glory. Meanwhile, third-party sellers have dropped prices on the Series 3; Amazon is currently selling the 38mm GPS model for $189.
But Walmart's Series 3 deal is worth a look. You get the cellular version of the watch, which Apple proper sells for $299, for the same price as the GPS-only model. Read our Apple Watch Series 3 review.
That's it for now, but check back often as we update this post based on new deals and availability. In the meantime, here's everything else you need to know about this major shopping event.
What date is Black Friday 2019?
Black Friday always falls on the day after Thanksgiving. This year, it takes place on Friday, Nov. 29.
When is Cyber Monday 2019?
It falls the Monday after Black Friday -- in this case, Monday, Dec. 2.
When will Black Friday sales actually start?
It varies from store to store, but expect to see plenty of sales that kick off well before Thanksgiving. Indeed, some stores unveil "Black November" sales that span the entire month, while others will kick-start their Black Friday events early. We'll post all the details as we get them.
Why is it called 'Black Friday'?
This is borderline urban-legend stuff. Some say Black Friday dates back to the early 1950s, when stores would kick off the Christmas shopping season with big sales. So big, in fact, that annual store profits would often tip into "the black" (meaning no longer "in the red," which is accounting parlance for losing money) once all the receipts were tallied. Or: So big that traffic would get so snarled, policemen dubbed the day "Black Friday."
Find out more, and get the scoop on Cyber Monday as well, in Black Friday vs. Cyber Monday: What's the difference?
How to find 'leaked' Black Friday ads
In years past, a variety of Black Friday sites have dedicated themselves to revealing leaked newspaper circulars in the days and weeks ahead of the big Thanksgiving sales. Those are all still around, but many of the big stores have chosen to "leak" the ads on their own sites, revealing the contents of what will be on sale for bargain hunters who like to plan ahead.
Last year, some stores shared these ads as early as late October, and there's no reason to think this year will be any different. As always, we'll be keeping a close eye on Black Friday ads, sharing them as we find them, so bookmark this post and check CNET proper for all the relevant ad info.
Where can I find great deals in the meantime?
So glad you asked! Here are some CNET deal resources you should bookmark:
- The Cheapskate, a daily, curated, sometimes exclusive collection of the web's best deals from Rick "The Cheapskate" Broida (that's me) and CNET's growing team of bargain-hunters.
- CNET Deals, a categorical listing of every single deal we can lay our hands on.
Tamara Palmer contributed to this story.
Originally published last year. Regularly updated with new information.
CNET HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE 2019- Holiday gift guide 2019: CNET editors' top picks
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Discuss: These early Black Friday 2019 deals shouldn't be missed
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