Today I shopped for new cell service. AT&T vs. Verizon. I really didn’t care who won.
Fellow friends and musicians have used both carriers and coverage seems to be comparable enough to not try and make my decision based on which random highway in Oklahoma has faster 4G. I just needed a reason to choose one or the other.
In Nashville, in an area right by the Blue Bird Cafe, the AT&T and Verizon stores are literally a block away form each other. So I parked in between, walked into both stores and simply asked a salesperson to sell me on their company.
AT&T salesperson: did not introduce himself or ask my name, eye contact was rare, could not do simple math, made my options sound confusing and walked away without saying anything after giving me the fine-print info sheet to figure out for myself.
Now, I’m a smart dude and had already figured out in my head which plan would best suit me, but that wasn’t the point. I didn’t want to buy from this guy because he wasn’t interested in selling to me and treating me like a human.
It was humorous how he didn’t care about the customer, and also his associates near by who weren’t helping other customers but refused to come save my situation. I don’t think AT&T is a bad company, just surprised by the lack of professionalism, especially for a potential new customer. My guy should probably be fired or get a lot more sales training so he doesn’t do this to more people.
Verizon salesperson: good eye contact, remembered my name throughout the entire process, could do the quick math to tell me what was the best deal for my situation, walked me to the door, opened it for me and shook my hand. Easy.
Obviously I went with Verizon, not based on cell coverage, price, data plans or contract terms, but because the salesperson treated me with respect and value.
Isn’t it ironic that while going to buy a device/service that constantly takes me away from practicing real human interaction, the only real selling point today was the human interaction, not the device/service.
