Big Data is Broken

[vrDrew]

I recently changed my home phone and internet from ATT DSL to ATT's U-Verse service.

In a nutshell, I changed my cable TV from Time-Warner (which was costing me roughly $100 per month) and my phone and internet (which was costing another ~ $100) to ATT's U-Verse, for a total monthly expense of about $140. I'm saving about $60 a month, I'm getting much better service/internet speed/etc. and ATT is getting about $40 per month more from me.

So what shows up in my mail today? A letter from ATT saying that they are sorry I've "decided to disconnect your home phone service."

Do the various divisions at ATT not talk to each other? Is it really beyond the capabilities of corporate MIS and marketing systems to understand when they've done their job?

I'm not mad at ATT. I'm very happy with my current service, and - more importantly - I wouldn't have chosen ATT's U-Verse if they'd done a crappy job with my previous DSL and phone services.

But something in me asks how much money they waste every year sending "we're sorry you're leaving" letters to people who do what I did.

Somebody at ATT isn't earning the $150,000 a year they are being paid.

 

[pdjudd]

It's all automated. Whenever you cancel a service (which you did), you got a letter. I bet it happens all the time. Heck, I am willing to bet that the guys that mailed out your letter had no idea that you signed up for a different service.

And no. Major companies that have different business divisions probably do not talk to each other like you think they do. I bet they even have different phone numbers.

 

[smithrh]

To be clear, what you're referring to is a business process failure, not big data.

AT&T (really SBC, AT&T is just a purchased brand name) is pretty bad in this area, as you've seen.

Big data is something else entirely.

 

[GermanyChris]

It's all automated. Whenever you cancel a service (which you did), you got a letter. I bet it happens all the time. Heck, I am willing to bet that the guys that mailed out your letter had no idea that you signed up for a different service.

And no. Major companies that have different business divisions probably do not talk to each other like you think they do. I bet they even have different phone numbers.

How about we automate less and form relationships more...

 

[pdjudd]

How about we automate less and form relationships more...

Believe it or not, that is remarkably difficult thing for a company the size of AT&T to accomplish. I work for a very large company (it isn't even as big as AT&T is - its somewhat nationwide as in we have presence across the country in a limited fashion) and simply put it's incredibly difficult to work in a matter that way.

Simply put, for a company like AT&T, they have to have some things that are automated in that fashion - based on their size alone.