[Asterisk-biz] ITSP Rant

[Robert Goodyear]

Warning: the following is a discussion starter about internet telephony 
service providers. Feel free to completely ignore this post if you are 
not interested in a discussion around some constructive feedback about 
the commercialization of IP telephony and the service industry 
surrounding it.

I just received a bland email from VoicePulse connect about changes in 
their service. I've been grouchy about the level of customer service 
provided by the VoIP carriers, and this latest note just put me over 
the edge. This particular note informed me that new terms of service 
would be in force for my account on April 1st, but nowhere was it 
mentioned what changes were made to the terms, nor a link to them, nor 
a knowledgebase article about them.

I need to vent a little bit here, and my hope is that if any VoIP 
providers participate in this list they might get on the clue train and 
realize that their existence is bound to be short-lived if they don't 
learn that VoIP -- just like ANY new technology -- is soon to be just 
another commodity and the only differentiating advantage will be 
reliability and customer service.

How is it that companies can push a wholesale/reseller product and not 
offer ANY sort of SLA or financial recourse? I'm not talking five nines 
here, but how about something like "if your DID is down for more than 
five days, we'll credit you for the month."

Why do none of the providers generate the equivalent of a monthly 
invoice? Why do *few* of the providers have a reliable trouble 
ticketing system that actually generates some sort of paper trail?

Here's the thing: Customer Relationship Management is not difficult. It 
requires very little overhead to build a relationship with a customer 
in such a way that those customers become that company's evangelists 
and stick around for the long run. When things level out, it's going to 
come down to where the customers have gravitated that determines the 
lifespan of an ITSP. And customers will gravitate AWAY from a provider 
that thinks customer service should only be directly proportional to 
cost per minute. I firmly do NOT buy the argument that because minutes 
are being offered at such a steep discount, you're on your own for 
support.

I'll sign off with a quote from one provider's sales page; the place 
where one customarily *begins* the process of wooing clients.

"Don't waste our time trying to get the costs down if you are not going 
to do a higher quantity. You will be wasting your time as well."

Nice.