An open letter to Cisco CEO John Chambers got results
A 29-year veteran of the teleconferencing services sector got results once he submitted to Cisco's Support Community an "Open letter to John Chambers."
Tomorrow at 4:30PM Eastern Time, Cisco has scheduled a conference call to announce its Q1'FY13 earnings and it will be during that call when Wall Street Analysts will be expressing a keen interest in Cisco's declining quarterly Collaboration revenue.
Last month the below "Open letter to John Chambers" got outstanding results from Cisco for its author, Tom Cox, a University of North Carolina (UNC) Lead Video Conference Consultant:
Oct 26, 2012 10:07 AM
Open letter to John Chambers
Dear Mr. Chambers,
I have been in the teleconferencing service sector for 29 years and will be retiring soon. I'm taking this opportunity to tell you something about Cisco that I would want to know if I were in your shoes.
Cisco took a company with good customer support, Tandberg, and destroyed that support utterly, completely, and remorselessly.
Cisco's customer service is not only the worst, but by far the worst, of any video conferencing company in the world. And I have dealt with them all.
One day, many years hence, Cisco will be a case study in MBA courses of a classic way to alienate your customers and destroy customer support.
Sincerely,
Tom Cox
Thomas H. Cox, M.Ed
Senior Learning Space Consultant
Lead Video Conference Consultant ITS Teaching and Learning, Classroom Hotline, CB 3503
UNC Chapel Hill, NC, 27599
I've confirmed from reliable industry sources that Cisco has indeed resolved and even exceeded the expectations of UNC's Tom Cox, formerly a very disappointed Cisco/Tandberg video customer.
Oct 29, 2012 7:36 AM
In Response to Tom Cox
Dear Tom,
My name is Wayne McAllister and I am General Manager of Cisco's global TelePresence Support Organization. I was also SVP of TANDBERG's Global Services organization for the 3 years immediately prior to the acquisition.
I've very keen to talk with you live about your experiences with our technical support and have included my contact details below. We made major changes to our support organization as we integrated it into Cisco, but on balance, we have believed that those changes represented major improvements for our customers. For example, we have more than doubled our TelePresence TAC organization, with 80% of the original TANDBERG TAC team still in place. We've increased our global parts depots from 7 under TANDBERG to now over 100 globally, significantly improving our next day delivery rates and allowing 4-hour response in most major locations. Our response time, case backlog and time-to-resolve figures are much improved from TANDBERG days. We've also significantly expanded our online and community support forums.
I expect when we talk, you will give me some painful examples of where my support organization has been failing you. As a long time Service leader however, I have both a thick skin and a genuine resolve to fix our problems and restore your confidence in our company. I look forward to speaking with you.
