Comcast isn't getting good feedback from customers these days. In fact, the telecom's customer service call experience can be so frustrating that it hit news headlines. However, sometimes it's just people doing their jobs. At least that's Comcast's take on a controversial customer rep call that went viral last week.
In a nutshell, a customer was trying to disconnect service with America's largest Internet service provider and it proved so frustrating it was shared publicly by the customer and soon became the subject of media scrutiny.
Despite the company's acknowledgement of the "painful" call (their word for it), the ISP said in a memo that the customer service agent was simply doing what the company had trained him to do.
According to one recent report, a company memo from the cable and Internet provider indicated the call as it was done was procedurally correct. Dave Watson, the company's COO, even said he regretted the incident occurred. The memo also went on to state the customer service rep on the call in question did everything that he was trained to do.
Watson said the call does not represent the "good work" that Comcast employees do every day for their customers. That might not jibe with other reports compiled with data from Comcast's very own customers. In a recent consumer poll, the two largest ISPs in the country, Comcast and Time Warner, received the worst marks for customer service. This has been consistent for the two companies in terms of ranking ISPs. However, they were also among the worst ranked across all industries combined.
One report even referred to the two ISPs as the "most-hated" companies in America. In the American Customer Satisfaction Index, they were the only companies to score below 60 on a 100-point scale.
Watson said retention calls are tough and admitted the company failed to provide quality customer service in this particular call.
"Respecting our customers is fundamental, and we fell short in this instance," said Watson.
Watson also said he wasn't surprised Comcast was criticized for the call. Despite all the bad press for both Comcast and Time Warner, the two companies continue to perform well financially. Time Warner is the second-largest provider of Internet and cable in the country.
