Like doctors of yore carrying black bags filled with tools straight to an ailing person’s bedside, Sprint is rolling out its own version of the house call with a new service needlessly employing numerals instead of letters, “Direct 2 You.” Roving Sprint workers will be on the road to customers in need of help upgrading their phone, transferring information to a new device and recycling old phones.
Because everyone hates going to phone stores in person and having to wait for what feels like eternity to finally get someone to help you, Sprint says in a press release it listened to customer frustrations about the -in-store experience and is responding with Direct 2 You, which rolls out initially only in its hometown of Kansas City before an eventual nationwide rollout.
Sprint-trained experts will drive around in Sprint-branded cars for appointments with customers at the location of their choosing, and move all their stuff from one device to another, as well as show them how the new devices work.
The company claims the new service will amount to 5,000 more stores in major metropolitan areas by the end of 2015.
“With our new Sprint Direct 2 You fleet of cars, it’s as if we are adding 5,000 additional stores,” Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said. “However, these mobile stores will be continuously on the move based on customer demand.”
Customers eligible for an upgrade will get an offer via text or email, and can then call Spring to schedule an appointment for the service, which is free. Then a Direct 2 You worker shows up, sets up and activates the new phone and all that, and will also take old phones for recycling if wanted.
“We take for granted that it is easy to switch between different types of phones, but it actually is very complex,” Claure said. “By bringing the in-store experience directly to customers, we can make that change painless, worry-free and do it in the comfort of a location where the customer wants it.”
Of course, as with other services designed for house calls, there’s plenty of opportunity for an annoying experience — what if your driver gets a flat? Or heck, what if you’re stuck waiting for hours on end in some kind of service window purgatory? If the cable service industry has taught us anything about house calls, it’s that they’re not always easier than just showing up somewhere in person.
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist