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Phone Arena
24-06-2025
- Business
- Phone Arena
Verizon reasserts dominance over T-Mobile and unveils Project 624 to keep customers happy
After a two-month wait, Verizonhas finally revealed Project 624 in full, which, at its, core, is an AI-fueled customer-centric transformation. Yesterday, T-Mobile claimed that it had surpassed AT&T and Verizon in speed and reliability, but Verizon doesn't seem to agree. The company says it has the fastest and most reliable 5G network in the US. Verizon is betting big on AI to improve how customer queries and issues are handled. The company insists that this isn't a response to its dismal Q1 performance. Instead, this is a part of a multi-year consumer strategy. —Sowmyanarayan Sampath , Verizon Consumer Chief Executive Officer, June 2025 The company is going to use a mix of AI and human agents to provide personalized customer service. It will rely on Google Cloud's AI, including its Gemini models to improve how customer queries are handled. A team called Customer Champion will keep customers updated via the My Verizon app, text messages, or phone calls. The goal is to ensure that customer issues are resolved without requiring them to reach out more than once. The new system has been in place for a few months as part of a pilot program and the results have been impressive, with problems getting solved the first time around 90 percent of the time, up from 80 percent. In the future, the number is expected to go up to 95 or 96 percent. The company told CNET that it built an AI-powered Verizon Assistant with the help of Google engineers. It's customized with Verizon -specific context. The new tech will allow Verizon to tackle problems proactively. —Sowmyanarayan Sampath , Verizon Consumer Chief Executive Officer, June 2025 Verizon kind of creates a small language model for each case. Sampath says that they have a 90 percent accuracy. To ensure help is available when customers need it, the company is expanding support call hours and introducing 24/7 live chat support. The My Verizon app has been revamped and now leverages AI to help customers better manage their accounts and maximize savings. Perhaps to prove that this is not just a marketing stunt, Verizon Consumer's Chief Executive Officer Sowmyanarayan Sampath has even made his email address ( verizon .com) publicly available if the company ever falls short. —Sowmyanarayan Sampath , Verizon Consumer Chief Executive Officer, June 2025 The focus on AI and the overhauled app doesn't mean that the company is prioritizing digital experiences over offline assistance, unlike T-Mobile. The company claims it has the "largest retail postpaid fleet" and has added around 400 stores in the last two years. The company says that 93 percent of the population now resides within 30 minutes of a Verizon store. And, as expected, Verizon is taking a page out of T-Mobile 's playbook and intensifying its focus on rewards. The company will be distributing 35,000 free prizes via its Verizon Access rewards platform. Starting today, customers can win tickets to events, giveaways, gift cards, and merch. Those who visit a Verizon location will find more freebies waiting for them through June 30. The company also subtly threw shade at T-Mobile by saying that instead of food discounts, the company is going to focus on bucket-list things. —Sowmyanarayan Sampath , Verizon Consumer Chief Executive Officer, June 2025 While T-Mobile , and now Verizon , may not have made the changes that customers were expecting the most, they are making an effort to make things easier for subscribers, which is a good start. Secure your connection now at a bargain price! We may earn a commission if you make a purchase Check Out The Offer
CNET
24-06-2025
- Business
- CNET
Verizon's Project 624 Is an AI-Powered Customer Service Initiative
In April, Verizon's CEO of its consumer group, Sowmyanarayan Sampath, dropped a cryptic teaser on his LinkedIn Page: "Project 624. All about the customer. Coming soon." And then… nothing more about it, until today. Now we know that 624 represents the date, June 24, and the project is an ambitious customer service program intended to make it so subscribers can resolve issues by contacting Verizon just once. And yes, AI is involved, but don't roll your eyes just yet. In a call with Sampath just before revealing Project 624's details, he laid out changes to the customer experience that went live today. They include a team dedicated to satisfying customers in their first call (called the Customer Champion team) and improvements to the myVerizon app that leverage Google Gemini AI technology; expanded live customer agent hours and 24/7 live chat; a larger footprint of physical Verizon stores; and more perks and giveaways. In an open letter laying out the carrier's new customer service initiative published today, the consumer group CEO also included a direct email address, for customers to contact him. But before we get into the specifics of what's new, I wondered if today's announcements were a direct reaction to the most recent quarter in which the company lost nearly 300,000 customers in the first quarter of 2025. Is the carrier boosting customer service to win back more subscribers? "That's a very fair question," Sampath said. "The answer is quite straight: Every first quarter we lose customers, that's the seasonality of the business. So this has nothing to do with our first quarter of business. This has to do with the two, three year transformation that we are in the middle of." He explained that improving customer experience is the next step after his prior efforts to revamp Verizon's sales infrastructure and price plans. Verizon may be the first carrier to get AI in its customer service platforms, but it's not the only one thinking of including it. Last September, T-Mobile announced that it was partnering with OpenAI to include a new artificial intelligence offering to help customers, which would launch sometime in 2025. Whether Verizon's system will get a leg up depends on what it's got in store for helping subscribers get their essential questions answered. Harnessing AI to create Customer Champions Customer service for any industry is difficult, but that's compounded for large mobile players like Verizon that provide connectivity for millions of customers across large swathes of area and technological hardware. And because phones have gained outsized importance in our lives, having something go wrong with one's link to the outside world can ratchet up frustration. "I get a lot of emails from customers every day, and they're not pretty," said Sampath. He estimates that 80% of the time, customers get their issue resolved on the first call. About 15% have to call again, maybe twice. "The last 5% go into a doom loop, and they are the most dissatisfied. It's a very rough journey for them. We see it, and it's not fair on them." To try to avoid that loop, Verizon is launching its so-called Customer Champion team that uses a Verizon-customized implementation of Google Gemini 2.0 models to process calls, identify solutions and keep the customer updated throughout the resolution process. It's an approach inherited from systems Verizon has been using for its enterprise customers. "We've been doing that for a few months now in pilot [programs], and 90% of the time we solve issues the first time around," he said. As the program proceeds, he hopes to get that number up to 95 or 96%. A new version of the myVerizon app includes AI-based support improvements. Verizon Google Gemini is also an important part of an update to the myVerizon app. The AI-powered Verizon Assistant has been built with input from Google engineers and embedded with Verizon-specific context. As a practical example, the technology can enable Verizon to deal with problems proactively. "If your phone is lost in transit, I know it because FedEx told me it didn't get delivered," he said. "Why do I need you to call me and let me know your phone got lost?" In such a case, Verizon uses AI to identify the problem, automatically open a case and get back to the customer with a plan to resolve it. Sampath explained that Verizon essentially creates a small language model for each case, and compared that to the large language models (LLMs) that have more visibility in the industry right now. The small, bespoke models don't have general knowledge around life. "I don't need to know what the Romans did," he said. "I need to know why my bill went up. And we go ahead and do exactly that." LLMs, however, are not always known for their accuracy. Sampath said that a year and a half ago they were seeing a 30%-40% error rate, but that has now improved to "well north of 90% accuracy. And when it's inaccurate, it's only mildly inaccurate because of the way we do it. We don't get crazy answers on [it]." Expanding live customer support and store footprint With this surge in using AI to handle customer issues, I naturally wanted to know if that would negatively affect Verizon staffing. If Verizon's Gemini model can deal with most requests, does that take humans out of the loop and off the payroll? "We've used AI to basically take cognitive workload off our employees so that they can focus their bandwidth and headspace on listening to customers better," Sampath said. "That's the right way for us to go. Look, if I need to take out costs, there are simpler ways for me to do it. I don't need to deploy AI and all the complexity that goes with it. And for us, AI is all about problem solving." As part of this new customer support initiative, Verizon is expanding its live support options in several ways. Representatives will be available from 9 a.m. until midnight (local times) via phone calls, expanded from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m., and during the rest of the clock via live chat. "[Stuff] happens when you least expect it, and I don't want you to have to wait until the morning, because things can change," he said. Verizon store in New York Richard Levine The network of physical Verizon stores also plays a part, because "we want to be in your community," Sampath said. He noted that Verizon is recommitting to the retail experience, having added around 400 new stores in the last couple years and plans to keep expanding the company's brick-and-mortar footprint. Verizon Access rewards platform In today's mobile provider environment, perks have become powerful incentives, with carriers offering extras from conventional add-ons like streaming services and in-flight Wi-Fi to the assortment of giveaways in T-Mobile Tuesdays. On this front, Sampath made a point of differentiating Verizon's offerings from the competition. "Look, we don't give you $3 off your Little Caesars Pizza… you don't get a large popcorn versus a medium popcorn. I'm sure there's good value in that," he said. "We give you bucket-list things you can do," citing examples such as tickets to NFL games, Katy Perry and Beyonce concerts. Starting today through June 30, Verizon is giving away 35,000 free prizes in drops from its Verizon Access program, "anything from tickets to devices and a bunch of other things to keep our loyalty going."
