Hold tight Canada. You are about to be dazzled by the same people who have abused you before. You never learn do you? There is always another generation without the memory. We are talking about Rogers here. Rogers is the communications giant that blocked all communication with the hoi polloi many years ago. They do not need to talk to you and they are hardly going to bother now. Propaganda you will get lots; communication no.
Any senior business person has heard the old saw many times that “Customer service is journey, not a destination.” Some Rogers shareholders were actually wondering why God did not strike him dead when Rogers CEO Guy Laurence said that to them back in April.
As our old preacher used to say, “These people need to be saved, to be washed in the blood of the lamb, to witness for their saviour and to bloody well smarten up.”
There is a festering hatred in Canada for Rogers. It did not start that way. Founder Ted Rogers was originally admired and liked. He made a gamble on a new type of radio signal called frequency modulation (FM). He was right. People liked it. His original station CHFI FM became a dominant force in the Toronto radio market.
He next addressed the quality of our analogue television signals. He built his first cable television service into an international giant. Then he made a right turn and got into cell phones. And we supported this because he was open and his managers were accessible.
But not anymore. Now that Rogers is a television giant, the company uses faceless, mindless, automated, bureaucratic, unimaginative and basically rude call centres, hired at the cheapest price that seem to be there to annoy and dissuade Rogers’ customers from calling again. The day that CEO Guy Laurence decides to publish his own business number is when we might believe he is starting to understand something about how to communicate with customers.
In the meantime, he is going to discover that Canadians are very loyal to their sport of hockey and its traditions. Hockey Night in Canada is hallowed ground and he has dared to defile it. He has commercialized hockey across telecom platforms without understanding how people want to view hockey. He has tried to personalize a sport we share with friends and family. Who wants to watch hockey alone?
While people might seem more isolated today in their Facebook, blogs and tweets, they are still a social animal. Some of the pleasures of life involve more than one person.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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