Qwest receives high marks for service

(Telephony) Qwest today announced the company continued to improve on the service it provides in its 14-state region during first quarter 2001, in terms of installations, repairs and out-of-service response intervals. As a result, total customer complaints in the quarter were 30% less than those reported in the same quarter last year.

“After nine months of us taking charge of the local service in the 14-state region, the progress we’ve made in terms of local service has exceeded our expectations, but the best is yet to come,” said Qwest President and COO Afshin Mohebbi.

In this morning’s conference call, Mohebbi reported that in the first quarter of this year:

* About 96% of total repair commitments were made on time, the company’s best performance in five years;

* About 99% of the company’s 5.1 million installation commitments were met on time, again Qwest’s best performance in five years;

* In six of the 14 states, no customer waited more than 30 days for the installation of their first telephone line; and

* About 89% of service outages were repaired in 24 hours or less, up from 77% in the years previous.

Mohebbi added that, at the end of the quarter, the number of customers waiting more than 30 days for the installation of their first telephone line were down 80% from March 2000--the lowest level in seven years.

In addition, repeat repairs within 30 days decreased more than 7% compared to first quarter 2000.

“Customers hate this [repeat repairs], and to be honest with you, I hate it more than the customers, because it costs us money to do this,” Mohebbi said. “This is an area where you have to make significant investments and significant changes in process, and we’re delighted to see a 7% reduction. You’re going to see us continue to focus on reducing repeat repairs and be world-class in this area.”

Moreover, Mohebbi reported that Qwest fared well in the service-quality reporting data for 2000 recently released by the FCC. According to the company, the report indicates that:

* Qwest ranked third among 12 companies in meeting its installation commitments to residential customers;

* The company ranked second in completing 16.5 million residential installations within one day (on average) of the customer placing the order; and

* Qwest ranked second by taking just 19 hours (on average) to fix residential service outages.

“We’re not happy to be number two or number three,” Mohebbi said. “We’re going to shoot for number one, as we promised, [and] we’re going to be the best in the nation as measured by independent reports such as the one filed by the FCC. [But] we are happy about where we have taken this company so far.”

Qwest has made a sizeable commitment to improving service by pouring capital into new switches and adding more about 1100 “front-line” personnel to meet customers’ service demands, according to Augie Cruciotti, executive vice president, local networks. The company also put 2800 additional trucks on the street in 2000 and expects to add 1000 more this year.

In addition, Qwest is spending about $18 million on new tools and test sets this year, according to a spokesman, and initiated a pay-for-performance program that is a key component of the initiative.

“This program not only rewards people for meeting their targets but allows them to earn additional compensation at a much higher level if they exceed their targets,” said Cruciotti. “This has created an environment where all individuals throughout the entire organization are really focused on making the customers’ experience as good as it can be.”