What's the best way to lose customers? Follow Sprint's example, and ask them to leave.
Yes, Sprint (NYSE: S) has fallen to the bottom of the publicity barrel with its latest tactic. In fact, I am going to assume it's a strategy no other company in the world would include in its marketing plan, yet Sprint has taken the bold step of telling 1,000 of its customers to go away. How did they do it? With a form letter of course. A bold move can only be effectively carried out with a Dear John letter (see the letter here). 
You see, these customers were simply too needy. Sprint claims after months and months of intense investigations into the excessive customer service calls made by these customers (supposedly, calling an average of 25 times per month for the last 12 months according to Wireless Week), they had no other choice but to assume they could not meet the wireless needs of these customers and had to let them find different wireless carriers. Already, many people who received a Dear John letter from Sprint are speaking out and questioning the validity of Sprint's claims. Who knows who is telling the truth, but either way you slice it, Sprint is in for a run of bad publicity.
Am I being too harsh on Sprint? Perhaps, but this move is a curious one. Coincidentally, Sprint recently dropped 200 customers (via letter) for excessive roaming. It turns out, those customers were members of the military stationed at West Point where a Sprint tower is nowhere to be found.
I also should point out that all of this is going on while Sprint is embarking on a new strategic focus. An article at Newsvine states, "Sprint, which has about 54 million subscribers, has been trying to upgrade its customer base, tightening credit requirements and attempting to attract customers who will spend more each month on data services, such as Internet browsing, music downloads and streaming video."
So I ask MarketingBlurb readers to leave a comment with your opinion on Sprint's behavior of late. Do you think they're making a bad choice by kicking difficult customers out, or do you agree with CIBC World Markets analyst Tim Horan who, according to Newsvine, says he doesn't see anything alarming with Sprint's decision. In a research note to investors, Horan wrote, "Sprint has taken a number of steps to improve the 'quality' of its customer base and we view this measure in the same light."
What do you think? Sprint is a distant third in the wireless phone service market behind AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless gaining just 600,000 new customers during the last quarter versus 1.2 million and 1.7 million for AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless, respectively. Is Sprint making the right strategic decisions for the short-term and long-term? What does this say about the Sprint brand?
Read more about Sprint's cancellation spree from Know More Media's network of business blogs:
I see this going a couple ways. Even if it improves their bottom line as Dan Tudor suggests, Sprint could become known as the company who will cut you off if you challenge them on their customer service. Maybe the customers they "fired" were needy and abusive, the resulting publicity storm resulting from this decision can not be good for the company's reputation, which for most of the people I know (a small representation or wireless users) none of them would ever choose Sprint unless they were the only cell phone provider.
Posted by: Kimberlee Morrison | July 11, 2007 3:15 PM | Permalink to Comment