October 18, 2004
Personal Connection: These Operators Go Way Beyond the Call
A really nice story in the WSJ today:
"In the U.S., the days of the chatty phone operator are long gone -- unless you speak a language like Polish, Russian or Korean. Most long-distance phone companies, with an eye on profit and efficiency, have become so automated it's very difficult to reach a real person at the other end of the line.
Not so at WDT, a small telecom carrier geared to Polish and other Eastern European immigrants, with a loyal following of about 80,000 customers across the nation. The company sells cheap phone connections to Eastern Europe. It has two dozen operators, most of them crammed into a converted garage in a Chicago suburb, who spend hours on the phone each day chatting with immigrants, frequently in their native languages.
WDT says all the friendliness has helped it become a profitable company with revenue of $30 million per year, selling long-distance and international phone plans for calling Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia and other Eastern European nations.
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