For the CEO of Sprint NexteL (, a $32 billion telecom giant, Dan Hesse is a decidedly low-key boss, dressed in a sport shirt and jeans on most days. His office at the company s headquarters, in Overland Park, Kan.,
is equally modest. That is, except for an enormous china cabinet parked in front of his office, complete with a porcelain white elephant.

The cabinet is a holdover from a previous Sprint regime, but critics might say it s an apt symbol for a company with a number of white elephants to deal with these days. Sprint may be the nation s third-largest wireless service, but it still is losing customers to its bigger rivals, AT&T and Verizon. It s stuck with two high-cost mobile-phone networks that have trouble working together. And the company is fighting a reputation for bad customer service. We have a very well-known brand, but it s been a bit tarnished, Hesse says.

It s a big challenge, even for a telecom-industry lifer: Hesse joined AT&T in 1978, fresh out of business school, and spent two decades there. In 2005, he was recruited to run Embarq, the local phone business Sprint spun off after it merged with Nextel. But even though Embarq s headquarters were down the street from Sprint s offices, Hesse says he didn t realize the magnitude of Sprint s problems. In late 2007, after Sprint s old boss Gary Forsee resigned, the board offered Hesse the job. He s getting paid well for the challenge $19.2 million in compensation in 2008.

To some industry observers, Hesse, 56, has started to make a difference. A year ago things looked dire; now they don t look so bad, says Frank Dickson, VP of research at In-Stat, a technology-research firm. Hesse quickly set out to solve the biggest customer complaints. While research firm J.D. Power still ranks Sprint s overall customer service last among wireless carriers, it says the service has improved considerably. Sprint is also rolling out the next generation of wireless network, which should allow Sprint devices to download data faster.

But its biggest challenge might be to improve its reputation among millions of ex-customers and millions more potential customers. That s very hard to turn around, Dickson says. That problem, combined with Sprint s low stock price it has fallen from $14 to below $4 during Hesse s tenure have made the firm the target of takeover talk (Deutsche Telekom, the owner of T-Mobile, was rumored to be a suitor recently). But Hesse thinks Sprint can go it alone. In a recent interview, Hesse explained how Sprint is trying to restore its brand image and compete with its fierce rivals.

In 2008, Sprint lost 4 million more customers than it added. You re losing fewer now, but still, how do you intend to keep customers from defecting?

It s all about improving the customer experience. That s something the organization really focuses on. Eventually, perception will catch up to reality.

Bad customer service has hurt Sprint s brand and turned off customers. What are you doing to change that?

The No. 1 thing has been the ability to resolve a complaint on the first call. Our customers were calling more times than our competitors customers were. It was costing us money to answer all those calls, and it was leading to customer dissatisfaction.

Has it worked?

We ve closed 27 call centers in the past two years while simultaneously improving service and answering calls faster. Part of it is due to having fewer customers, but the number of calls per customer has gone down drastically. That s been the bigger improvement.

But have those moves changed people s opinion of Sprint?

In 2009, we made the most improvement in how the brand is viewed among existing customers, but the bigger challenge is reaching noncustomers. We still have a long way to go in terms of the way the Sprint brand is perceived.

How do you reach noncustomers?

Word of mouth helps a lot. What s also been important is our retail partners, like Best Buy and RadioShack. Customers who wouldn t go into a Sprint store go to them and get a chance to see what we have. They might want to try 4G.

So what exactly is 4G?

It s five to 10 times faster than 3G (the current network), and because it s more efficient, customers can get four times as much data at the same cost to us. As far as we can tell, we ve got about a one- to three-year lead on our rivals. By the end of 2010, we should have it rolled out in about 80 markets, covering 120 million people.

So instead of having the hot new phone, like the iPhone, Sprint s going to have the hot new network?

That s right. But it s still important for us to have a strong handheld portfolio. I won t argue with the iPhone that phone by itself is enough to move customers.

The company is losing a lot of money. How are you going to turn that around?

Our cash flow has been improving. We got a lot of the big system upgrades behind us. Clearly, we have gotten more efficient and reduced expenses a lot.

Sprint pops up in takeover rumors. Are you looking to sell the company?

Well, just because you read something doesn t make it true. That aside, any company is always looking at all strategic alternatives. But given how big the four large players are, the likelihood of significant consolidation isn t that high in the next few years.

What was your first mobile phone?

It was a car phone. It had a 25-pound brick in the trunk. It was great.