Another example of the power of social media.
After I went on Twitter with my dispute with Comcast (see previous blog post) I quickly heard from @ComcastWill and someone from Comcast corporate called me this morning. He admitted their website was wrong about what was included in my package and there was conflicting information among their sales staff. So, he found a "creative solution" and the On Demand channels are now on my TV. Thank you.
The bigger problem, of course, is "just say no" culture of Comcast's front line customer service.
The assumption seems to be, the customer can't possibly be right and even if they are, there's nothing we can or will do about it. I spent hours on the phone talking with people who were unfailingly polite, but incapable of accomplishing anything. (I'm talking about billing and account issues here, not tech support, which I've found reasonably responsive over the years.)
Just put the customer on hold.
During the process I become convinced "let me check on that" means putting the customer on long periods of hold in the hope they will simply hang up, go away and start all over again with someone else tomorrow.
Customer service Supervisors are a myth.
Comcast must put the fear of God into any customer service rep about escalating the issue to a higher level.
There was never a "supervisor" available and in one case I was told "his answer is going to be the same as mine anyway."
Empowerment solves problems, but frustration rules.
The reality is, people hate cable companies more for the lack of customer care than the cost of the service.
Yes, I know managing large scale customer service is an enormous and expensive challenge and many customers call with bogus issues and complaints. However, empowering the first person a customer speaks with to actually solve a problem, or at least get you quickly to someone who can, will make it a whole lot less likely that your customers will spend time on the internet looking at your competition while they're on hold.
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