There has been some buzz on twitter about the telcos working on bettering the customer experience. Despite JD Powers awards, the average customer is not happy.

Those that are still on Telco 1.0 with POTS and DSL do not have a special relationship. And the fees are piling up.

Those with 3G or 4G wish they were actually getting high-speed broadband.

Those with VoIP - not quite Telco 2.0 - wish the quality was better.

Those customers with Hosted PBX - Telco 2.0 - wish the onboarding was better; the features easier to figure out; and that the quality was better.

The promise of Telco 2.0 and 3G/4G has largely been limited at the customer experience end.

The telcos want to get into Managed Services, but customers wonder what that engagement will look like.

So far the Managed Router has been a dud. Quite a few times, the password is lost; reporting is either extra charges or non-existent; and it ends up just being a dumb box that succumbs to being a new demark.

Telcos tried e-commerce. Fail whale.

On an XO partner webinar today, Steve Carter went over the onboarding process for SIP trunks and other VoIP services (like Hosted PBX). SIP isn't a standard, so it isn't like PRI. There are inter-operability issues to think about. There are LAN concerns along with mapping extensions and devices.

As an Agent, you have to own the onboarding process. Why? Otherwise the customer will have a bad experience and your name (brand) will be mud. At the least, the agent has to properly set expectations for what the customer can expect and what the customer site prep work is.

Since the Telco Customer Experience is not optimum, the Agent is in a prime position to be the glue there. The telcos can not improve the customer experience while performing cost cutting (laying off) and integration of acquisitions. Domain knowledge is disappearing. Any customer relationships are terminating. It is in this void that the Agent can make the most impact.