The change that is being witnessed in our country, right now, in terms of Customer Service is incomparable to any other time in our history. Companies now fall into one of two categories…great…and terrible.
Just like the middle class of our economy, middle of the road customer service is disappearing. We all hear of great service from Zappos, Amazon, Nordstrom, etc. and yet many of us are reluctant to complain. What companies need to understand is that if the Customer that is complaining they want to do business with that organization. If they stop complaining they have found another provider or simply given up. FAILURE to communicate is a two-way street.
As an author, consultant, and keynote speaker on Customer Service I pay extraordinary attention to the way organizations, big and small, treat their Customers. Shift Happens! ® And we all understand that change in rampant, dominant, and chaotic. What we don’t understand is when a provider of products or services totally disregards the very lifeline of their business…the Customer. FORGE a relationship if you want to keep the Customer
In early May I was contact by a representative of Comcast to upgrade to Triple Play. This is an Internet based cloud system that allows up to broadcasts to be recorded while watching a fifth one. In addition the package included many of the additional premium channels…all for less that what I am paying now. After 45 minutes of back and forth information, checking my account, my location, etc. and the rep put me on hold to verify and update the information. She never returned to the phone. Since that time I have initiated contact and sent and received over 100 emails, (most of their replies are from auto responders) dozens of phone calls, and promise after promise that they would honor the price and the upgrade package. FOOLISH on my part to think it would happen.
I could elaborate on the details of my 23 hours of time spent on this project, the number of ‘representatives’ that offered assistance, and the escalation of this problem to ‘higher tiers’ of Customer Service. The most glaring issue is that since this involved the migration of some of my business services with Comcast to residential both organizations had to be involved. Here’s a few other comments from YELP, etc.
- “Comcast is by far the WORST company I have ever had to deal with and if I had another option for cable I would drop them in a heartbeat.”
- “They are either incredibly incompetent, or lying thieves. Good to know that they are at least consistent in their level of compete suckiness, from repair guys to customer service at their branch offices.”
- “The customer service phone people and internet chat people continue to be infuriating. The service is very overpriced. I was paying as much for Comcast as for health insurance!”
- “I wish I could give Comcast the rating of a picture of an enraged man vomiting on a pile of sun-ripened t__ds, because that is precisely the rating this company deserves.”
One of my biggest revelations is that Comcast Business is closed for business on the weekends. Can you believe it? No way to solve a business problem from 5PM Friday till 8AM Monday! If you look through my history with Comcast you will see this is not a new situation. For me, Comcast is now the poster image of TERRIBLE Customer Service. Don’t take my word for it, Google, Bing, or search Comcast Customer Service and you will find hundreds of similar case studies. FALSE hopes are created when Comcast sends out surveys or follow-up robotic calls, but they don’t seem to be listening. Maybe they are in a FOG.
During this same time period sitting on hold, getting promises that were never kept, and receiving price quotes that differed by hundreds of dollars for the exact same service, I had to leave my home so I went shopping for a mop head replacement. Why? Because it was the furthest thing I could think of to get my mind of Comcast. I went to Home Depot, Lowes, Wal-Mart, and even Walgreens. I found a replacement at Wal-Mart only to discover that it did not fit my mop handle.
FRUSTRATED I called the company, that made my current mop handle :Libman.
The call was promptly answered. The representative listened to my dilemma. She asked me to describe the mop head that needed replacement and immediately informed me that the model I had was discontinued. Before I could ask what to do, she offered to send me, at no charge, a new mop handle that would accept the replacements that I had already purchased. WOW! Great Service. It was actually exciting to find a company that was truly Customer Concentric. FANTASTIC. May I suggest that when your mop needs to be replaced find http://libman.com/products.aspx. For me they have a Customer for life.
As far as Comcast is concerned they simply need to learn that the negative reports, the complaints, and the frustration, disappointment, and uncertainty will be compounded by their unwillingness to hear their customers. For a company in the communications business they simply don’t listen. FORGET ABOUT IT.
