Skype approaches a crossroads

Is Skype reaching a sort of crossroads with its internet phone service in terms of customer satisfaction?

Quite a few people think so, it seems. So perhaps I should really say - customer dissatisfaction.

I've commented recently on the poor service with SkypeOut, which looks as though it's at the heart of the many and growing complaints about it as evidenced by the amazing volume of posts in the SkypeOut user forum.

But it's not only SkypeOut, the part of Skype's service that lets you call normal phones from your PC.

Some people are reporting issues with using the Skype-to-Skype free service. I'm hearing comments about it and seeing more posts - such as this one yesterday from my colleague Elizabeth Albrycht:

Skype fails the "mom test", meaning that it is too difficult for my mom to figure out. Hell, it is too difficult for a relatively technically adept person like me to figure out. I have spent at least an hour on the forums trying to find a solution to the voice issue (after about a minute, my voice stops transmitting. I can hear others, they can't hear me). Let me tell you, there are some IRATE people on those forums.

I can confirm Elizabeth's experience - in Skype calls we've had over the past few days, she's either suddenly dropped off the connection or I can't hear her after about a minute or less. Almost every time.

Skype, are you listening to comments like this?

New entrants like Teleo (in beta, and now not accepting any more beta testers) could make big inroads if they can promise - and deliver - the levels of customer service that Skype doesn't seem able to.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no Skype-basher. I've used Skype since July last year and regularly write positive commentary about it. In my experience, the service is generally outstanding. Shel and I do our bi-weekly podcasts wholly over Skype. I'm beta-testing their voice messaging service - it's excellent. And third-party developers like Connectotel are offering interesting and useful added-value services such as the ability to send text messages to mobile phones.

But all this will be for naught if customer perceptions that Skype just isn't paying attention to their needs and concerns continue unaddressed.

Great service is one thing. Great customer service is what gives you the true differentiator and sustainable loyalty.

Comments

[Will Pate]

Skype is almost the perfect example of a company that needs to monitor what bloggers are saying about them and respond.

They may or may not realise it, but it's quite easy to see that they owe a lot of their early adoption to bloggers that tried the service out and trumpeted the cool factor.

If they miss this chance to respond to their users, and popular blog opinion becomes split or turns against them, they will create the opening for their competitors.

[Neville Hobson]

Wholly agree, Will. I think Skype is a great concept, and it works well nearly all the time in my experience. I want to keep saying good things, but you just cannot ignore these customer relationship issues. Getting more alarming by the day, it seems.

It seems to me that Skype has grown so quickly that, while they may have all the tech and R&D resources they need, they've not kept up with building up the customer-focused side of the business. That's what it looks like.

Alarm bells must surely be ringing in Luxemburg and Estonia when you start seeing negative commentary in CNET, ZDNet and by Om Malik, as well as in blogs.

They really need to address these issues, and soon.

[ArthurDaley]

Myself and others are highly POed with Skype. It was great to begin with, but then with SkypeOut it required double calling. You had to ring the B party then hang up and then call again. Skype advised to download their latest version and that requires three calls to complete the call.

Skype have been unable to resolve this for 6 weeks.

If Skyeout was not bad enough, Skype to Skype is now a fairly dire experience. If I call someone then nobody hears me. If someone calls me, it often drops after the first minute.

For me it has went from the "wow" factor to the "crap" factor.

I would prefer a VoIP provide who I paid a subscription to and got something that works.

[Neville Hobson]

Arthur, your SkypeOut experience definitely isn't a good one. Mine's rather different, other than calls to some specific numbers in Costa Rica. Everywhere else, I rarely have difficlties and certainly nothing as you've described.

On Skype to Skype, generally I find the service pretty good. I have no serious complaints myself. But, I don't have much need to try and get help from Skype support - which is where some real issues still lie by all accounts.