Bye-bye, BellSouth

Even before he became a telecom analyst, Jeff Kagan had a distinct impression of BellSouth's approach to customer service.

“I moved to Atlanta 25 years ago, and it was a much different and much better relationship than I was used to,” Kagan said. “When I moved here and when I placed orders, the company would call me and make sure everything was going correctly. BellSouth has developed a strong relationship with its customer base, businesses and consumers.”

That relationship may be one reason why the disappearance of this final original Bell company brand and style will be significant, at least in the Southeast. Current Analysis considers BellSouth's brand to be one of its major strengths because of its consistent, strong position among its customers. In addition, unlike AT&T, BellSouth has kept its customer service operation in-house and has prided itself on winning multiple J.D. Power Awards for customer satisfaction. (Although the 2005 award in its region went to AT&T.)

“With BellSouth, they've got a unique competitive position; they are in the hearts of the user more so than any other company,” Kagan said. “I don't know if it's a Southern thing — the relationship the company has with its marketplace and its customers is very unique.”

BellSouth was also one of only three of the original seven Bell regional holding companies to keep ‘Bell’ in its name for its entire history. The other two — Southwestern Bell and Bell Atlantic — long ago surrendered that distinction.

Even so, consumers are not likely to jump ship just because of a name change, said John Celantano, president of Skyline Marketing. “We are very comfortable, as consumers, with changing brands, so it's hard to say how BellSouth's customers will react,” he said. “Plus, they are going back to a very familiar brand.”

Of greater importance will be AT&T's ability to maintain BellSouth's relationship to its customers through quality of service and remain a good corporate citizen.

“If customers had a bias toward BellSouth because of the way BellSouth treated them over the years, that could be at risk of being lost, if the treatment is not the same,” Kagan said. “AT&T is going to be judged quickly, and if they continue to operate the same way and continue to offer the same things, then they'll protect themselves.”