Intrigue, Mystery, and AT&T

Yesterday, while I was on Pandora, this ad caught my attention:



However unexciting this simple ad may be, it caused me to pay attention to AT&T for a few moments. Here's why:

I have no conscious recollection of what, exactly, attracted my eyes to the ad. What I do remember is the phrase that I noticed:

"Only on the nation's fastest 3G network"
It isn't that the words "the nation's fastest 3G network" are all that spectacular. It seems that every wireless provider claims to be the best at some aspect of wireless coverage: "the largest 3G network," "the most reliable 3G network," "the only 4G network." I can't remember which is which, and frankly, I don't care.

However, for the very reason that I do NOT care which wireless provider claims to be the best at what, I did not remember who was supposed to be the "fastest" 3G network, and the ad did not immediately tell me which wireless provider it was.

So, despite my apathy, I had to look for the answer.

And there it was, the logo at the bottom right corner - AT&T.

Now it will be fixed in my memory - at least for a while - that AT&T is supposedly "the nation's fastest 3G network."

Why?

Because the ad raised my curiosity. It didn't say, "AT&T is the nation's fastest 3G network." Instead, it referred to someone as the "nation's fastest 3G network," and forced me to discover who that someone was.

The ad raised my curiosity, forced me to ask a question, and caused me to care about the answer. And because I cared, I intentionally sought out - and paid attention to - the answer.

Well done, AT&T. You made me care - just for a moment. Very clever.

AT&T Takes a Step in the Right Direction

In case you hadn't noticed, AT&T has been receiving some flak recently for its less-than-market-leader 3G coverage. Verizon Wireless has been particularly scathing of its iPhone-carrying competitor with its "There's a Map for That" and "Island of Misfit Toys" commercials. AT&T, of course, has put up a defense with its "Postcard" and "Side-by-Side" commercials.

And now, AT&T has put forth a "make-good" effort, in the form of a free iPhone app.

Yesterday, AT&T introduced its new Mark the Spot app into the iPhone App Store. The app enables users to submit a notification to AT&T whenever and wherever they experience dropped calls, failed calls, no coverage, data failure, or poor voice quality. The app can pull the iPhone's GPS information to tell AT&T where the failure happened; alternately, users can manually select a location on the map to indicate where the coverage failure occurred. With the notification, users can also submit additional comments, as well as tell AT&T whether the problem occurs only once, seldom, often, or always.

FAQs within the app reveal what AT&T plans to do with the feedback it receives:

"AT&T will utilize this feedback to optimize and enhance the network. Problems will be clustered to highlight areas for investigation. However, multiple submissions at the same time for the same issue by the same user do not receive higher weighting."

Other commentators seem skeptical about whether AT&T will actually use the feedback submitted via the app to begin patching its coverage gaps. Assuming, though, that AT&T has the resources and infrastructure in place, the company would be unwise to not improve its 3G coverage based upon this information. Not only would such improvements benefit its customers, its reputation, and its sales, but AT&T's Mark the Spot app sets expectations that the carrier will take customers' feedback seriously and work to fix the problems.

Congratulations, AT&T, for taking a step to improve your customer service and effectively repair your reputation. Don't let us down now by doing nothing with the valuable feedback you receive through your new app.