Comcast finally arrives
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Posted by: Todd Hollander in Customer Satisfaction
After standing me up twice (see “Comcast drops the ball again“), Comcast finally sent a technician Friday evening to repair my cable television service. The whole ordeal, while enormously frustrating, has also been educational. Here is what I learned…
1. Comcast is making an effort to become a customer-centric company
You may wonder how I can make such a statement given my experience, but here’s the thing: I found no lack of Comcast employees who were embarassed, apologetic, and willing to intervene. In fact, I received repeated calls from personnel in the Comcast corporate office and the local executive office, several of whom offered their direct phone numbers and even their mobile numbers. One even posted an apology on this blog.
So the problem was not a lack of concern but a lack of power. On two occasions a concerned Comcast employee was unable to circumvent the bottleneck of someone considerably lower in the pecking order: the dispatchers and service technicians.
This suggests that:
2. The shift to customer-centricity is occurring from the top down
In other words, Senior Management is driving the change down through the organization. This is a good thing, because without the buy-in of senior executives, meaningful change in the corporate culture is virtually impossible (see “How to develop a customer-centric business model“).
Unfortunately:
3. It is not a concerted effort
It appears that the cultural change has not yet flowed to the bottom of the corporate pyramid. The vibe I got from the technicians I met felt similar to the one given off by the folks who work at the post office: high job security with little or no incentive for doing more than the least that is expected. If I’m right, and the most customer-facing employees are the most averse to change, this may to be a tough nut to crack.
The bottom line: I sense that Comcast is making significant changes but there is much work yet to be done.
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