Sprint has launched “Ready Now,” a retail service similar to Apple’s (News - Alert) "Genius Bar" that  supplies one-on-one support for customers to personalize phones, set up features and demonstrate how phones work, before they leave the Sprint (News - Alert) store. Aside from enhancing basic customer service, the move reflects the increasing complexity of devices users now are buying in greater quantities.

 

The investment also ought to reduce operating costs at some point, as customers who cannot get their new devices to work are highly prone to return them, or to contact technical support. The other angle is that if users know how to use valuable features, they are going to have a better experience, value their service more, and churn less. Also, if they know how to use, and value new services, they are more likely to pay for them, enhancing revenue.

 

“New smartphones and PDAs are as complex as they are popular, and most wireless customers use only a fraction of their features,” said John Garcia (News - Alert), Sprint president.

 

Opinion Research found in a recent survey that 21 percent of smartphone buyers returned their purchase to the retailer, Sprint notes. Not understanding how to set up the product was cited as the primary reason for the return.

 

“With more data usage and more people who are data-curious, you have to take the time to explain to people how to get more out of their wireless phones," Garcia said.

 

Borrowing a page from the Apple playbook, customers can meet with a Sprint retail associate while in the store, make an appointment for a later time or schedule appointments either in the store, or online. Sprint says it has trained "everyone" at each retail outlet.

 

Ready Now is available in all company-owned Sprint stores. Ready Now also will be offered in the near future to a limited number of exclusively branded dealer stores. The third-party dealer stores will be held accountable to the same stringent training and certification process before they are permitted to offer Ready Now to customers.

 

Sprint is the first wireless provider to introduce such a program.