Big Brother, Virtual Ombudsman or Change Agent?

If you're a Comcast customer, chances are you can relate to the postings on the  comcastmustdie website.

If so, you've got to read the article posted earlier this evening on the New York Times website entitled, Complaining Bloggers Have a Cable Company's Ear. You betcha, it's about Comcast.

Comcast has adopted a new strategy for reaching out and touching someone. Frank Eliason, a digital care manager at the company, monitors public comments on blogs, message boards and social networks about the Comcast.  Complaints result in the writer receiving a message back, pronto, from Frank.

Wait, there's more. According to the article, within a half hour of posting a negative comment on his blog, not only did an aggravated customer receive a  "Can I help?" message -- within a half hour there was a technician at his door. 

Social media experts believe that one of its great strengths is to bring companies and customers together in deep and meaningful ways. This is a great example of what we mean.  Can you imagine how transformational this could be to a company?

No doubt this was a risky experiment for Comcast to undertake.

Most of us do not expect to interact with a company to resolve a complaint unless we initiate the discussion with them directly. For some, this form of  reaching out may seem intrusive, even creepy.

What's really brilliant is that this employee can connect with people and actually solve their problem, not just placate them. Frank has the ability and authority to act. This eludes customer service reps and their supervisors, who are often reduced to order takers and sounding boards. When was the last time you called customer service and a tech came out within the hour?

The big question is whether this experiment will fundamentally change the way Comcast and its customers interact. Will it lead to more empowered customer service reps, be they digital, virtual, telephonic or inperson?

I ask you:

• Has Comcast gone too far? Is Big Brother watching?
• Is a digital care manager nothing more than a virtual ombudsman?
• Or, will this use of social media make a systemic change in Comcast's relationship not only with its customers but also with its employees, entrusted and empowered to make decisions and act?

Comments

[Anne Pauker Kreitzberg]

Thanks for adding your thoughts, John!
Anne

[John Doughtry]

I view Comcast's reaction as nothing more than a PR reaction to their own bad customer service. One can be tempted to say the following:
"Before the days of the web, before the days of outsourced technical support to India, before the days of "intelligent" voicemail, customers were able to connect with a real human voice, and get some response to their problems!"

But I hesitate to be so fond of "the good ole days", since it was due to poor customer service that led many companies into automation! There's a deeper lesson in this, which I learned long ago: Do not automate a poorly designed business process. It will end in failure because the root cause of the problem was never addressed.

There are many reasons for poor customer service, including the deliberate neglect of the gate-keepers, desperate to keep their micro-kingdom to justify their own existence (aka job security). But why? History of bad business practices have shown that when someone eliminates all the problems in their responsible area, the individual is not rewarded with higher responsibilities, but is given termination.

So, the core root of bad customer service? I believe it is the ongoing bad business practices of NOT rewarding those who resolve problems.