12.03.2008

A quick note on treating your consumers with respect

Though this ties into a larger topic I'd like to discuss another time about meaningful brand communication, I noticed a strange instance of a brand missing the mark with their consumers.

Today I called Comcast for the 5th time in 2 weeks because my On Demand wasn't working. Again. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. But I immediately explained my frustration at having gone through this so many times and that "On Demand" doesn't really count if it's "On Demand in an hour after you call us and we send signals and you unplug your box and lose all the channel information." Ok, end rant. I am just surprised and disappointed that there's validity to everyone hating Comcast. 

Anyhow, the calls always included a fair bit of hold time, and today after I got a rep, I ended up on hold for another 20 minutes. Not a big deal because all I had to do tonight was clean, but as soon as they put me on hold, I got a message saying something to the effect of "Want to pay less for your home phone line? (Insert here a hard sell for Comcast Digital Voice) Ask your customer representative today!" Ok, I understand using a phone call as an opportunity to sell, seeing as people use that same line to set up new accounts, change accounts, etc. But for those of us who were calling because the service is consistently failing, the hard sell is sure to bring a grimace. Because it came after my specific choices of equipment or service not working for my cable account, I expected them to be a bit more humble and not use the fact that I'm frustrated on hold as an opportunity to get me to invest more in Comcast.

On the flip side, I reached out to ComcastCares on Twitter and got an immediate response, and he realized I needed a technician, not to just unplug and replug my box. He then went on to set up an appointment for me. 

That's how you do it, folks. Not hard-selling me when I'm stuck wasting my minutes on hold with you. 

EDIT: I got a call this morning from Comcast saying that they had seen my blog and that they'd like me to give them a call. Why is it that Comcast is doing GREAT on the digital media front but not in their traditional infrastructure??

2 comments:

Nguyen Duong said...

perhaps out of fear? you are on the digital media front, blogging and tweeting your experience w/them, you have a vehicle to get your msg out. my 65yro mom would only have the traditional infrastructure to be heard and therefore be shuffled to the back of the line w/everyone else. i think companies need to treat all their "consumers" with the same type of experience, ie. respect, period! we should always get the same type of experience, respect and courtesy if we hand wrote a letter, called into a CSR, filled out an online form, or tweet'd it.

Claire Grinton said...

I sincerely hope that isn't the case. My experiences today and yesterday proved either GREAT acting or legitimate concern, and I'm leaning towards legitimate concern. It'd be disappointing if they only contacted me for damage control.

I agree that we should get the same response no matter how we contact them. That's why I hope they start changing their traditional communications to match their digital media communications.