Two faces of Starhub - Sales vs Call Centre

I had two very different experiences in my recent phone interaction with Starhub: good service recovery by the Call Centre and poor response from Sales.

I signed up for Starhub Fiber Broadband at SITEX late November and was looking forward to having a zippy 150 mbps internet connection on the scheduled installation on 8 December. A week before the appointment, Starhub Customer Service Officer Kumar called me to negotiate a delay to 23 December as its supplier  OpenNet had resource constraint. I acceded to the request as I still have an existing cable broadband plan.

It was a no-show on 23 December and I had to phone Starhub hotline twice before Kumar called to explain the error in the appointment and reschedule again to 17 January. My anticipation is turning into a dread. Kumar did not apologize for the no-show and seemed to put the blame on OpenNet again. He also informed that the broadband plan has new bundle which is more attractive in his opinion but I still prefer the SITEX offer. I am already disappointed and did not bother to challenge him. My mind is set on switching to a different telco should the next appointment be messed up again.

Contact Centre Duty Manager Saifu contacted me after my 2nd call to the hotline. He apologized profusely for the delay in response from the Sales lead on the case. I am somewhat pacified but felt that the "guilty" Sales party should perform its role in service recovery.

Although Starhub may have scored highly in the 2012 CSISG survey, alignment of customer service standards across the various teams can better ensure consistent service delivery.