It’s not the employee, it’s the culture
What Comcast can learn from its mistake
Unless you’re living on the far side of the moon, you've probably heard the shameful examples of tone-deafness that erupted when tech journalist Ryan Block tried, in vain, to cancel his Comcast service. After his wife initially was reduced to tears over the phone, Block took over and recorded the remaining 8 minutes of the call. Despite numerous direct instructions, the Comcast employee consistently refused to cancel the service. Unsurprisingly, after Block uploaded the recording to SoundCloud, the incident escalated into a social media rumpus. Comcast, for its part, says it is ‘embarrassed’ by the incident and has promised to investigate the employee.
“Is it conceivable that, with significant self-reflection, Comcast can actually use this incident to empower itself and emerge as a more customer-friendly corporation?”
Of course Comcast is embarrassed by the incident. Had it not gone viral and Block had simply filed a complaint, Comcast could safely file the incident under “Meh, we don’t really care” and continued on its merry path of providing the worst customer satisfaction service in the industry. It’s unfortunate that it took Block’s foresight to get their attention. One would think that Comcast executives would be embarrassed enough by the March 2014 customer survey results to conduct an “investigation.” One would be wrong. Just take a look at Yelp, which is rife with irate Comcast reviews.
Tom Karinshak, Comcast’s chief of Customer Experience, was forced to issue a statement reminding us all that the employee’s actions are not consistent with Comcast’s training of its reps. But how many customers with similar experiences actually believe that? Too many would argue that this was not a matter of an employee run amok or poorly trained. Those who have had the misfortune of dealing with Comcast know that this is very much par for the course when dealing with what is, quantitatively, one of America’s worst customer experiences. Disrespect of customers occurs much too frequently to be excused as an isolated incident.
Rather than issuing unconvincing talking points, Karinshak and his executive team may want to consider addressing the company’s core culture. This could potentially be a defining moment for Comcast. It can leverage the opportunity to consider its general attitude towards customers. Perhaps it can look to Zappos, Apple, USAA or Rackspace to learn how the best performers enhance their customer’s experiences. Is it conceivable that, with significant insight and reflection, Comcast can actually use this incident to empower itself and emerge as a more customer-friendly corporation? To do so won’t be easy or quick. But as the saying goes, “The best time to plant a tree was ten years ago. The next best time is now.”
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I’m Abdul. My heart belongs to my family, but my opinions are mine alone.
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