July 25, 2008
Griping Online? Comcast Hears You and Talks Back
By BRIAN STELTER
PHILADELPHIA — Brandon Dilbeck, 20, a student at the University of Washington, was complaining recently on his blog, Brandon Notices, about Comcast’s practice of posting ads in its on-screen programming guide.
He assumed he was writing for his own benefit. “It feels like nobody ever really reads my blog,” he said. “Nobody has left a comment in months.”
Shortly afterward, he received an e-mail message from Comcast, thanking him for the feedback and adding that it was working on a new interactive guide that might “illuminate the issues that you are currently experiencing.”
Mr. Dilbeck found it all a bit creepy. “The rest of his e-mail may as well have read, ‘Big Brother is watching you,’” he said.
But Frank Eliason, digital care manager at Comcast, says he was just trying to help.
From a sparse desk dominated by two computer screens in the new ComcastCenter here, Mr. Eliason uses readily available online tools to monitor public comments on blogs, message boards and social networks for any mention of Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company. When he sees a complaint like Mr. Dilbeck’s, he contacts the source to try to defuse the problem.
“When you’re having a two-way conversation, you really get to clear the air,” Mr. Eliason said.
Comcast is not the only company trying to reach out to customers online. Using the social messaging service Twitter, Southwest Airlines answers customer questions about ticket prices and flight delays, Whole Foods Market posts details about discounts, and the chief executive of the online shoe store Zappos shares details of his life with 7,200 “followers.” Many other companies also monitor online discussion groups.
But Comcast is going an extra step by talking back, contacting customers who are discussing the company online.
Odds are they are complaining about Comcast. The company was ranked at the very bottom of the most recent American Customer Satisfaction Index, which tracks consumer opinions of more than 200 companies. Hundreds of customers have filed grievances on a site called ComcastMustDie.com.
Comcast says the online outreach is part of a larger effort to revamp its customer service. In just about five months, Mr. Eliason, whose job redefines customer service, has reached out to well over 1,000 customers online.
Lyza Gardner, a vice president at a Web development company in Portland, Ore., used Twitter to vent about a $183 cable bill last month. (The bill was prorated for almost two months of service.) Her comment — “very angry at Comcast” — set off Mr. Eliason’s search tool, prompting him to type out his typical reply: “Can I help?” The response caught Ms. Gardner off guard.
“It’s one thing to spit vitriol about a company when they can’t hear you,” she said in an interview. It’s another, she said, when the company replies. “I immediately backed down and softened my tone when I knew I was talking to a real person.”
As blogs, forums and social networking sites have become pervasive parts of people’s lives, companies have grappled with whether — and how — to deal with them. The sites expose hundreds and potentially thousands of other people to the experiences of individual customers.
Brian D. Solis, who runs a public relations firm, FutureWorks, that specializes in social media, said companies like Comcast are “taking what used to be an inbound call center and turning it into an outbound form of customer relations” that can also help spot problems before they get out of hand.
Still, others agree with Mr. Dilbeck, the University of Washington student, that the online outreach is annoying. “Comcast Is Watching Us,” declared a blog called Contempt for the World in February, when Mr. Eliason started wading into the comment sections of blogs.
On the whole, though, all the talking back appears to be good for the company’s public image. Mr. Eliason said he remembered only seven cases in which customers had called him creepy, and he believed the benefits far outweighed the occasional awkwardness.
When a commenter makes claims of being mistreated by Comcast, Mr. Eliason contacts the person directly and steers the case toward a resolution. “Wish me luck @comcastcares,” William Pomerantz, an employee at the X Prize Foundation in Washington, wrote last month as he headed to his new apartment to await his third appointment for a Comcast installation.
Three hours later, Mr. Pomerantz badly needed some luck. The technician had not arrived, a telephone representative had disconnected his call, and Mr. Eliason’s online account was “strangely silent,” as he complained online.
Mr. Eliason, checking his messages as he rode home on a commuter train, noticed Mr. Pomerantz’s comments and responded: “I will get someone there!”
Half an hour later, a technician arrived. “Before he was done, I had two more technicians call and say they were ready to come immediately if I still needed assistance,” Mr. Pomerantz recalled. “The reaction was a thousand times better than what I was getting by phone.”
Of course, most customers still call when they have problems. If they all started blogging and commenting instead, Mr. Eliason would be quickly overwhelmed. “This is a channel, but it is not the first step” for customer concerns, he said.
Already the number of online comments are more than Mr. Eliason can handle himself, so his staff has gradually grown to seven people; soon it will have 10.
By acting quickly when customers complain — even at the oddest hours — the team has proved that its service is not aimed solely at users with the loudest virtual voices. Noting the thunder and wind late on the night of June 11, richrecruiter, a Twitter user, wrote that he was “counting down to Comcast outage interrupting tonight’s Phillies game.” Mr. Eliason quickly replied with a brief “LOL,” short for “laugh out loud.”
“See, I knew you were listening to me!” the customer answered. By then, it was past 11 p.m.
“Absolutely,” Mr. Eliason replied from his BlackBerry, his wife sound asleep in the bedroom. “A little tired tonight, but I am still on it.”