WE ARE BEING FORCED TO SELL HUM despite the countless Problems, Escalations, Customer Experience, OCC credits, Unfair Coaching, Returns,etc...
"Integrity is at the core of who we are." is the key piece of Verizon's credo, however this is undermined by the fact we are being forced to sell a product that causes so much amimosity toward our customer experience. HUM is not a product that Verizon just offers, it is a product that we are constantly being beaten over the head with on a daily basis. I am a Solutions Manager for Verizon, and I can say there is no dialogue for upper levels of management to tell them this product is doing more harm than good. Everyone reading this post can tell countless stories of escalations because someone bought HUM. How many customers have switched providers because they are not being able to return this thing. If the average customers bill is around $220 a month for 12 months thats $2,640 of residual income that is lost because of a silly $10 per month. Verizon expects each rep to sell about 5 of these per month; there is no dialogue about whether or not the customer actually wants this or not, it's just about it being on the account. This is very reminiscent to what Wells Fargo got busted for: replace account with lines and you have the same issue. It is blasphemy for leadership to even say anything negative about HUM. The product itself is completely preposterous. In 2018 most vehicles come with built in diagnostic services; I have no faith in its other features because of countless problems with it. Everyone reading this has countless stories of their own of problems with HUM. The issue is the fact that we are being FORCED to sell this! Retail is being forced to sell out their integrity to meet a number. I will explain the most effective way to sell HUM:
You must get the right customer, typically an elderly customer or a customer who is not particularly the sharpest tool in the shed. No intelligent customer will even let you speak about this product for more that 30 seconds without saying "I don't need that."
You must have the correct account; if you have someone that is on a unlimited plan or a plan where they receive $15 per month line access discount you are done, because you have no leverage. It's best to get someone who is on a MORE EVERYTHING plan. The best case scenario is someone who had family on the account who did an AOL at some point and never changed their plan to adjust. For example if someone is on 16GB plan, only using about 4GBs and their line access is $40 and out of contract, that is your best case scenario. Also never mention the tracking device that is placed in the OBD reader; this will immediately turn the customer off, because it looks like some kind of tracking device ( isn't it though?) Wait until the transaction is already complete before showing the customer the OBD connector.
You must rerate or "re-rape" a customer's plan, using deceptive sales tactics and mind control methods to manipulate a customer into thinking they are getting a bundling deal with HUM. The less you speak about HUM, the better; the more Hum is talked about the less interested the customer becomes and it becomes a negative back and forth. The customer will state "Why are you pushing this onto me?" Instead you must speak about how they are saving money and HUM is included. The customer will often ask "Do I have to get this HUM to get this plan?". Because of the pressure being forced on retail to move this product, the answer is "Yes, you must get this if you want this price." I know, I know; the higher ups would say "THAT'S WRONG and THAT GOES AGAINST WHO WE ARE. It is easy for them to say this from the comfort of their office and away from the sales floor. It's a clever trick they use to distant themselves from HUM, demanding the HUM sales and also wanting to sell it with integrity.
This is most important: NEVER SET UP HUM! This is a bad product objectively. Setting up HUM is a nightmare within itself. The same customer who will actually agree to buy HUM is the same customer who has no clue what an apple ID/Gmail is, let alone their password for it. It becomes a process of resetting their password, downloading the hum, setting it up. Mind you, the customer has been the in store for probably close to 2 hours already and is ready to leave. HUM app is notorious for stating "ERROR CONNECTING TO HUM SERVERS, PLEASE TRY AGAIN IN 15 MINUTES" so it ends up being a situation where this product that you swore by (basically stating I could save the customer's life) results to defaulting to an error message. You will be lucky if it actually takes 15 mins. The OBD reader sticks out like a sore thumb in the car and looks hideous in some vehicles. The app itself will endlessly spam and nag the customer about their safety score sometimes hours after the trip has ended leading to a angry customer coming back because HUM notified them at 2am about how they took some random turn too fast (or something like that). With all that being said, put the OBD reader in the Verizon bag and throw away the box; explain that Tech Coach can show them how to install the device (knowing full well they will never make that call) making the customer forget they even own it, so that they will not return it.
Hum returns: Despite all these efforts, for every 5 hums that are sold, 4 will come back, 3 of them will be escalations, 2 of them will require a large amount of OCCS, and 1 of them will lead to a bad NPS with a call to district manager. An extremely effective method of saving a HUM return is using mind control methods and reverse psychology, stating "NO problem Mr. Customer, I can return that for you. It will be a $35 restocking fee (very soon to be $50) and I'll put you back on your old plan, but your bill will increase." The customer will agree not to return it.
Again, everyone who is on the front lines KNOWS this is how HUM is moved. Higher ups will think that I am a bad person and breaking the "credo" (or I like to call it VZ's insurance policy if Elizabeth Warren ever drags the CEO before congress.) I have worked in 5 stores in my 5 years, and this is how it's done in all locations, and this a very mild explanation; there are a lot worse methods of selling HUM that I will NOT participate in such as literally telling the customer they must get this when upgrading a phone ( I have never done anything so severe, however I have seen it many times between reps, SMs, and GMs- in other words there are many people who are worse than me. Please look at the COUNTLESS reviews on HUM, and you will see exact parallels to what I have stated in this post from our customers. Verizon higher-ups please understand we HATE selling this thing. We hate the way we HAVE to sell it. I have been battling with morality issues for sometime now all because of this HUM. This is the only products that is like this (maybe jetpacks.) IPads, watches, Gizmos, entry level phones- none of these products need to be sold with mind control methods and are sold with integrity; it is only because we are being literally FORCED to sell this that this is what the result of Hum has done to VZW. Must be nice to order us to sell HUM while you don't have "blood on your hands" so to speak. I cannot believe this is still being pushed on us, FORCED on us to sell. You know how many customers have looked at me with pure hatred because they realized they were tricked into buying this thing? You know how horrible I feel about that? I hate using these deceptive anti-customer, borderline illegal sales tactics to push a product so that you can be home at 6pm every night with your family, when I barely get to see mine.