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Nowhere to Go But Up
I don't know about you, but I have major customer service issues with my cable company. They call me at least once a week to try to up-sell me on their new cable phone service. Even though I tell them that I don't have a home phone (I'm all mobile) and that I'm not interested, they continue to call. It's just one example of how the companies have some of their priorities mixed up when it comes to serving their customers.
I know I'm not alone. Cable companies have always had a horrible reputation. I'm sure everyone's got a story about how they had to wait for 10 hours and no one showed up, or calling into the call center resulted in more frustration and no resolution. Today's 1to1 Weekly lead story offers some suggestions to improve operations, and also illustrates that cable companies are starting to get the picture. It's too bad it took a senior citizen with a hammer and a temper to get through to them.
Now I have seen slight improvements in the past few years on the part of cable companies, but they have a long way to go. My thoughts regarding the state of cable customer service:
Just because customer churn numbers decrease doesn't mean that customer satisfaction increases.
In today's article, one CEO points to lower customer churn numbers to show how the company is improving with customers. I don't buy it. That may be one factor, but I think convenience is the larger indicator. People want the convenience of one bill for cable, Internet, and now phone service. There are limited options of satellite or phone company TV, and their customer service reputation isn't much better. The bar is just set too low. If just about every one of your customers can give you a horror story about dealing with your company, then it's not satisfaction that's keeping them customers. It's a lack of alternatives.
Make subcontractors accountable.
One huge problem cable firms have is that service technicians show up late or don't show up at all. Many times, these are subcontractors, not company employees. They can't be tracked by customer service reps, and their accountability is hard to track. They don't have the incentive to provide great customer service, because they can move on to the next cable company if things go wrong. Customers see these guys as brand ambassadors and representatives of the company, so the company should make sure that they act that way.
Empower employees.
Many of the call center agents I've dealt with have very limited power to solve a problem. I asked for a rep's name once, and he replied that he couldn't give it to me, but he would give me a reference number. Self-service options may help for some issues, but better trained service reps can help a lot more.
Have you had a bad cable experience? More important, have you had a GOOD cable company experience?
Cable companies are certainly experiencing sort of a dilemma: they took on board more customers than they can really serve well. It created a gap in customer service that some folks try to fix with a hammer in hands. Fortunately, many Telecoms like Comcast understand the gap and address it with more of customer reps and experience-based service model. We always remember that such a gap may happen any time if you don't match the growth and the amount of good service.
I was thrilled to see this article as my personal experience with Comcast is such that they seem to be paying us more for their lack of customer service, then we pay them. I have never experienced such a poor customer service model. My perspective is that whatever cable/telco company can pour their resources and energy behind this and become first mover, they will in fact be well ahead of the pack in terms of winning over new customers. I know I would be at the head of that line.
With reference to cable companies and the customer experience, Charter specifically in this instance, there is a long way to go in negating the arrogant, holier-than-thou attitude towards customers.
Recent personal experiences: extensive 40-minute phone calls for simple matters, call routing to eastern Europe for support and billing, being forced to pay for Spanish language channels even though I have zero understanding of that language. But – all that's normal and expected when dealing with cable and phone companies (a sad statement in itself). What really got my goat recently was being lied to – outright, twice – and not even an apology once they realized on subsequent conversations that what I said was true.
The latest con? I do believe that the general consumer base will eventually catch on to the fact that virtually all cable companies are charging 29.95 for internet-based phone service. Where is the competition, the price and service differentiators?? Time Warner even had the gall initially in upstate New York to charge that amount just for calling in NY state… $30 a month for what - plugging in a cable to transition VOIP calls to landlines? No thanks – I’ll keep on using services such Vonage or Skype or even Yahoo – I’m already paying for broadband access – why should I pay any more?
It astounds me that in this day and age a business can allow
"hammer" type situations to develop at all. I wonder what the
ramifications were for the 'managers' who allowed a situation
like that to escalate.
Peppers and Rogers have written about the customer being the
scarcest resource a company has -- but things still happen.
You can't blame it on systems. People run the systems. People
(should) know better empathy, professionalism, pride in one's
work, respect -- these are not fanciful notions. These are the
bedrock of any business wishing to thrive with its customers.
I wonder why more companies don't adopt a McDonalds "one day
out on the front lines" program -- their mid-senior management
would learn so much from first-hand experience and save untold
fortunes.
Cox's 2.5 percent monthly churn equates to 30 percent per year.
Lets presume half of that is due to people moving about. That
still leaves 15 percent of 6 million customers @ $100/acquisition
that's $9+ million/year! And this is the industry's best performer.
Maybe the solution is to outsource acquisition and retention
to separate companies. At some point the stock market will
begin to ask some hard questions on avoidable costs, organic
growth, retention rates, etc.
It simply baffles me that you can put a man on the moon but
somehow can't get a repair man to drive across town within
a schedule window and do the work.
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