Comcast - What Went Wrong?

Comcast Customer Service - What Went Wrong?

In case you've missed it, former Engadget editor and now former Comcast customer Ryan Block has released an epic recording of a customer interaction so unpleasant it demanded a public apology from the company. In just 8 short minutes (that undoubtedly felt a lot longer to Block), a customer's call to cancel cable service became ‘a how not to’ guide - not just for handling a customer call, but for handling performance, training and metric measurement in a contact center environment.

An unhappy Comcast customer, or poor customer interaction, is not news to the public or to Comcast. Comcast recently edged out Monsanto in a Consumerist “Worst Company in America” poll, so they are most certainly aware of the problem. In April, in preparation for the Time-Warner Cable merger, Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen TESTIFIED IN FRONT OF THE SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE that '"It bothers us we have so much trouble delivering high quality of service to customers on a regular basis...Sometimes, we need a kick in the butt." At least one I would have thought.

So, how did they get there, what can they do to fix the problem, and what can others do to avoid a similar nightmare.

The folly of metrics

Two possibilities immediately sprang to my mind from that call. It is likely that Comcast representatives are measured on number or percentage of disconnects, and bonused on saves. When there is a disconnect, a reason must be recorded, and perhaps the representative is penalized when no reason is given. Block did not give a reason. The rep demanded a reason. Both end up irate. From a VOC perspective it is important to understand customer churn, but from a customer experience perspective, the tactics used to secure feedback are important and badgering the customer is probably one of the least effective methods.. Another metric measured for cancellation calls is AHT, and it is often considered that if the rep spends extra time with the client they can turn them around. While this is possible, time does not heal all wounds if that time is spent poorly and it’s probably best to cut the losses and consider a winback call in the future. However, perhaps this rep has been penalized for his AHT being too short, and he wanted to make that 8 minute target. The trick is to measure what matters and if a metric is not directly improving business performance, focussing on it as a way to measure employee performance can be catastrophic.

Training and Coaching - Are they delivered? Are they effective?

In the official apology issued by Comcast, they declared: "The way in which our representative communicated with them is unacceptable and not consistent with how we train our customer service representatives." I'm pretty confident this is true; it would be unwise to train your representatives to be belligerent!

However, it is clear that Comcast should dig deep to understand why the failure is occurring. Was the original training effective? Did others who received the training get additional training, refresher training, and regular coaching? Is Comcast's training consistent? I Is this an issue at certain sites, or with certain individuals? Is this a recurring issue, taken to the extreme by one lone representative and globally distributed by one lone customer - or is this endemic? Comcast now needs to address this (urgently) with hindsight, but others should now take the opportunity to look deeply at their own learning and development programs to gauge whether the training is effective and preventing high profile – and embarrassing - failure. On the flip side, it is critical to understand and replicate success. Find the outstanding representatives, and pinpoint the skills, attributes, training and actions that make them star performers and replicate the success by creating a clear roadmap with development and support programs proven to improve performance.

Maybe this guy should find another line of work

In many ways, it all starts with hiring. While you cannot predict if an individual is going to completely ruin an interaction, you can filter for skills, traits, behaviors and attributes at the outset in order to mitigate the risk of hiring the wrong people. As with developing your existing workforce, recruit those with the skills, knowledge and traits that have proven to be of value to the specific role, and understand what skills and behaviors can be trained or coached once the employee is onboard. Some attributes that are required for success simply cannot be trained or coached.

No one can guarantee that an individual won’t ‘go rogue’, but there are a myriad of ways to mitigate the risk and improve consistency and quality of service. In this digital age of the empowered customer and viral social media, companies and organizations can no longer afford to overlook the importance of quality, targeted, and meaningful training and coaching because slip ups go public extremely quickly and have the potential to seriously damage their brand.

Measure, develop, and reward what matters, understand the value of training and coaching on employee performance, and ensure that skills and behaviors that are trained, encouraged, and rewarded are customer-centric. Investing in the tools and processes that encourage customer-centric service is far less expensive and more rewarding than a public relations apology campaign.