Sprint Nextel's CEO, Dan Hesse, recently posted his email address in a series of TV commercials. It's part of his effort to improve their well-deserved reputation for poor customer service. (They also have a well-deserved reputation for lousy coverage but that's another story.) This effort was reported in this morning's New York Times.
It all strikes me as a well-intentioned, but flawed, attempt at reconciliation with its customers. Right now it's a one-way conversation. Granted, it's from the customers to the top executive. That's a start. But for this to really work, and to gain trust with clients, the conversation needs to be a lot more transparent. Starbucks (http://www.mystarbucksidea.com/) and Salesforce.com have set up site where customers can not only suggest ideas, but other customers can see it and, even more impressive, vote on the ideas. I don't know if Sprint Nextel needs to include voting but if a customer sees other comments from other customers and, most important, sees them acted upon then you have something to talk about.
Now there's nothing to talk about since there is no clear indication anything is being done about these problems.
