Comcast, who hasn’t exactly had a great public image in the last few years, appears to be slowly changing that.
When Comcast showed up on Get Satisfaction, they had a lot of complainers. Hell hath no fury like an Internet junkie scorned. Boy, there were some angry folks.
But then, someone from Comcast stepped in and said, we hear you and we’d like to help make it better. And they keep on saying that.
If you haven’t read about him, Frank Eliason is the man at Comcast who seems to be spearheading this new approach. He swoops in on conversations on Get Satisfaction and offers to help fix problems. Plus, he’s set up a Twitter account (follow him!) as an additional way to monitor and respond to Comcast customers who are broadcasting their cable and Internet frustrations on Twitter.
That Twitter/Get Satisfaction combo seems to be working pretty well, as evidenced by this conclusion from a Get Satisfaction user today:
Wow, I stepped out for two hours and by the time I got back I had 3 voicemails from Comcast — from Corporate HQ in Philadelphia, from the California Executive office, from the local office here. An hour later I had the Comcast tech out here, he removed the trap outside, on the street just as I expected, then phoned in to close my order and enable the boxes again. I’m all settled now.
Learnings:
- Get Satisfaction works. Publicity is powerful.
- Comcast listens, kudos to them (including @comcastcares on Twitter)
- The execs and techs involved in such elevated customer care are doing a wonderful job, but it’s like putting out lots of little fires. I think at one point it will rise to the level that will convince Comcast to invest more ( a LOT more) in training their support troops so that there would not be fires to put out in the first place.
- Oh, have I mentioned that Get Satisfaction works? :-)
After reading that today, I feel like I need to give a tip of the Get Satisfaction community manager’s hat to Frank Eliason for pushing for the kind of consumer change that everyone wants and needs. Keep it up, and I bet you’ll be seeing more customer outbursts like that one.
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I had my cable service through Comcast. Few months ago I started electronic payment. Somehow one month my payment did not go through & I wasn’t aware of it. They started charging $4.75 late payments for 2 months when I realized it. I called to find out what has happened & offered to pay them by mail since the electronic way somehow hadn’t work… I asked them to waive the total $9.50 late charges since it was not deliberate (God knows whose fault it was!), they did not agree & they disconnected my service. So I turned to Direct TV & now I have an even better quality TV programming (sound & picture are awesome) & it is much less expensive value. Can you imagine such a big company who thinks that is one of the best for customer satisfaction, lost me, a 20 year loyal customer, for just $9.50!!