elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA Reviews:
 ·SONIC.NET
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| Cable Company Makeover Primer 1) Provide ala-carte options.
2) Provide unbundled pricing that makes sense.
3) Eliminate all line-item taxes and fees. Bury them into the gross charge.
4) Model your install after telco (NID), so you can test and repair to the household without requiring inside access. Waiting for a truck roll gets old after the 3rd or 4th visit in a month.
5) Be competitive, not evil. The customer generally has a choice. If we don't have a choice (no satellite options, no Fios), don't treat us as prisoners and gouge us. We WILL remember.
6) Fight for your customer, the consumer. Don't allow governments to tax us, just because you can pass it through. Don't allow content providers to force channel bundling, gouge, and then sit back and give you an excuse for a rate increase. Ally with other cable and satellite providers to lobby FOR such consumer protections. You have the resources; we don't.
7) Do not use tricks, for instance, $5 minimum late payment charges, or teaser rates that double after 3 or 6 months, or data caps intentionally designed to provoke punitive overage charges. (If the first 250GB is $25 of the $40 basic charge, additional GB should be $.10, not $1.00).
Tricks and gimmicks make the balance sheet look good in charts in PowerPoint, but they're dishonest and they will cost you goodwill with your customers, and we WILL leave.
(We cut the cable TV two years ago January, when TWC wanted $62 a month to watch one station - our "Travel Channel Vacation" budget now has an extra $1600 in the kitty.)
8) Visit your local payment offices. Observe the hostility. The bullet-proof glass may be there to "protect" the employees from holdups and Grandmothers with hammers, but it sends the wrong message, and reinforces the theme that the cable company is so evil that it needs to fortify itself. Better to get a 7-11 style timed cash safe, and make the place more welcoming.
9) Call centers. Give the customer the ability and right to call back to the same group / representative if we so choose. Don't flatten the call center, and tell us that they're equal, and "any rep can handle your call."
Supervisors - if we have a beef with your rep, and believe me, some of them should be working at Gitmo, we shouldn't be put on hold for 10-15 minutes to herald a supervisor, only to have the rep speak for them. |
