Posts Tagged ‘Phone’

New Toll Free Numbers

In: Technology

By: Steve Stanfill on Oct 20, 2010 at 8:20 am

As of Saturday, October 9th at midnight, another new toll-free exchange was added to the pool of toll free numbers.

Those of you that are older than dirt (ahem! rather “the more mature”) among us may remember when toll free numbers came into being.  There was one area code utilized for toll free for many years–800.  “800 Toll Free” came into reality in 1978 when ATT offered this product to businesses.  Prior to 1978, ATT had offered a product called “INWATS” which allowed toll free calls, but it was limited to certain geographic areas, the most notable of which was Omaha, Nebraska which became known as a “reservations center” for many large companies in the travel and lodging service businesses.  Over time, the technology improved to the point that 800 calling became possible to implement anywhere in ATT’s network.

For several years, this product was the exclusive province of AT&T, as were most communication services of the time. Microwave Communications Inc. (aka MCI) petitioned in the early 1980’s to have access to these services, and with the breakup of AT&T in 1984, MCI, as well as a number of other facility based carriers began to offer toll free services to their customers.

There was one problem.  When you received an 800 number for your business, you were “locked in” to the carrier that issued the number.  If you changed carriers, you had to change your 800 number.  Needless to say, this situation was anti-competitive, and created some abuses in the industry.  The FCC saw this, and, being more proactive then than they have been in the last 15 years, mandated that technology be implemented that would allow portability of toll free numbers between carriers.   The “One-800 system” was fully portable by mid 1993.

This led to the proliferation of business using these services, and the use of vanity numbers (1-800-FLOWERS, for example) which effectively became the property of the business which were first able to get the number.  As long as the number was in service, regardless of carrier, the holder of the number was entitled to its exclusive use.

Over time, the demand for these services became such that additional toll free “area codes” were added to the pool of available toll free numbers–888 (in 1996), 877 (in 1998), 866 (in 2000) and–drum roll please–855 as of October 9, 2010 at midnight. Area codes slated for future “toll free” expansion include 844, 833,822, 880 through 887, and 889.

So, you will begin to see 855 toll free numbers out there very soon.  WOW! offers toll free services to commercial customers in all of its service areas, including the ability to get an available vanity number.  If you own a business, and would like to subscribe to WOW! commercial services, call 1-888-969-4249 (888-WOW4BIZ).

Until next time….

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Online Phone Features Available Now

In: Education

By: Barbara Kubereit on Aug 20, 2010 at 10:48 am

With the new customer homepage that launched late last month, WOW Internet and Phone customers were given access to some really cool online phone features. Click here to go to the homepage.  When you login to your account from the homepage, you’ll see a new voicemail and phone manager tab.  From the voicemail tab, you can manage voicemail settings,  listen to voicemail messages, download or delete them.   From the phone manager tab, you can enable call features like selective call rejection, anonymous call rejection, and others.  One of the most exciting features is that you can set the number of rings before calls are sent to voicemail.  This is one you have been asking for, so now you have it!  If you need help navigating around  the site, please feel free to give us a call at 1-866-496-9669 and we’ll walk you through it.  And, in closing, I have an “inside scoop” for our blog readers.  I was at the employee summer event  yesterday afternoon (a talent show and barbecue) and I spoke with our Product Manager, Ray Rouleau.  Ray says there’s more cool features coming soon, so stay tuned.

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We want to know what’s right for you

In: Customer Experience & Support

By: Bill Wright on Aug 19, 2010 at 8:00 am

   Have you ever been sold something you really didn’t need? Or find out after you bought the item that you really couldn’t afford it but was told that you “had” to have it? Well, you won’t have those problems here at WOW!.

  The WOW! Sales staff understands that not ever customer’s needs are the same. They also understand that the economy has not been the best lately, as well. The WOW! sale staffs are not only trained on the product knowledge but also how to “Right-Size” the customer to what they need. If you are only using the High Speed Data for checking your email, you probably do not need the fastest speed of service. Or if your idea of watching TV consists of the local channels, then a premium package may not be for you.

  When you call in to order new service, or change your existing service, let the sale staff know what your needs are and they will make sure that services you buy are the “Right-Size” for you. A salesperson is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, by calling: 866-496-9669

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Third Party Verification

In: Education

By: Barbara Kubereit on Jul 16, 2010 at 12:58 pm

For those of you who have our phone service and brought your telephone number over from another company, you were sent through a third party verification process via an automated ivr.  The automated system asks a series of questions  to verify that you want WOW! to be your local, local toll, and long distance provider.  You may have wondered why we do this.  Well, the answer has to do with one of the complexities of the phone business. 

Third party verification protects the consumer from slamming.  Slamming  is  the illegal practice of changing a consumers’s telephone service providers without his or her knowledge or consent.  Putting a customer through the verification process confirms the customer’s intention to switch carriers. It might seem like a lot of extra trouble to go through, but not really.  Switching phone carriers without the consumer knowing it is a pretty easy thing to do.  If  there’s a switch in your cable or internet provider, you’ll know it.  A  tech comes to the home and replaces the modem or changes the wiring .  But with changes to a consumer’s long distance or international phone carriers, the switch can be done by phone service providers simply by accessing the local number portability data bases and making the change. The consumer finds out when the bill from the new provider shows up.

Anti-slamming laws were put in place to protect you.  Unauthorized changes can be an honest human clerical error and not necessarily something sinister.  Remember though, your  signature may be consent to switch so be careful about what you sign, whether it’s a promotional flyer or contest document.    Always read the fine print.  Sound advice, not only for slamming, but for many things that can easily trip you up.

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A Day in the Life of WOW! Customer Care Associate – Tier III

In: Customer Experience & Support

By: Bill Wright on Jul 15, 2010 at 12:23 pm

Stephanie - Customer Care Associate - Tier III
Stephanie – Customer Care Associate – Tier III

The life of a Customer Care Associate Tier III, here at WOW! is one of the most complex of all inbound call support. This position not only handles inbound service calls and typical technical support, as the Tier II’s control, such as:

• Supports the internet product by troubleshooting internet connectivity issues; setting up e-mail accounts in outlook/outlook express; and supporting Windows and MAC operating systems.
• Supports HSD by analyzing and troubleshooting slow speeds, installing and configuring security applications, and supporting webmail applications and the customer’s access to the portal website.
• Supports the phone product by educating the customer on the use of the service; setting up features, troubleshooting dial tone situations and poor sound quality.
• Responsible for recognizing and escalating 911 issues.
• Troubleshoots cable issues, including analog and digital video equipment (VOD, interactive guide, remote controls, parental controls); poor video quality; and unavailable channels the customer expects to receive.
• Supports billing calls by processing payments; accurately educating customers on their billing cycle, payment due dates and impact of non-pay status; accurately educating the customer on general charges to their account based on package and proration when changes are made.

The Tier III’s have additional duties which include:

• Involvement in project support for the call centers and Field operations
• Advanced F-Secure (security)Troubleshooting
• Advanced Home Networking Support
• Utilization of Network Operation Center tools to aid in the support of advanced service issues for all agents
• Provide support to customers with repeat issues
• Provide support to customers with escalated support issues
• Provide support for Dispatch escalations during high Dispatch contact volume periods

I had a chance to speak to one of our Tier III representative, Stephanie, and asked her the following questions:

• Tell me what a typical day in the life of WOW! Tier III is like?

Stephanie – Tier III’s have several tasks and applications we monitor throughout the day. We monitor two applications for Telephone Operations Team (TeleOps) which we work with our customers and TeleOps to fix or schedule a truck rolls to fix problems customer have with phone. We also monitor the Telephony Specialist (TeleSpec) inbox which has a variety of emails that come in throughout the day to include phone inquiry forms, seasonal requests, incorrect addresses, tech support along with escalation call backs and day call backs from the night crew.

• What are the tools you have available to do your job?

 Stephanie – WOW has provided the Tier III with several tools to do our jobs with. Along with all the TeleSpec tools, we also have phone database tasks and port ownership tool we monitor and are there to help assist with phone issues. The Tier III’s has access to several Network Operations tools to help with email and security problems. Tier III portal articles have all been updated and are very easy to follow, with step by step trouble shooting instructions for home networking problems the customer may have along with advanced networking tools to help our customers with any service related problems.

• What’s the most rewarding part of your job?

 Stephanie – The most rewarding part of being a Tier III is when you have helped either the customer or the rep solve a problem and everything is now working right. To hear relief in a customer or reps voice is a great feeling.

• What training do you have to go through to do your job?

 Stephanie – Along with the training for Tier II , technical support position we all received, The Tier III’s also attended several different gap training sessions to introduce us to and train us on all the tools wow has provided us with to help with any issue that arises with our equipment or services.

• What’s the most asked question you get from customers?

Stephanie – That is a hard question to answer. We never have just typical days and typical issues as Tier III. The most frequent issues we deal with everyday are porting in/out of phone numbers and home networking issues. Most common home networking question would be what the customer’s password is.

• Can WOW! Tier III’s answer other questions about my service?

Stephanie - Tier III can answer all service related questions asked by our customers. If we are not sure of the answer, we have several different resources to go to get the correct answer for our customer or reps.

  There is not a lot that this group cannot handle, when considering technical support. The group is made up of the best of the best technical support personnel. If this group cannot fix it, it probably cannot be fixed over the phone by anyone.

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