Comcast on Social Media: Caring For Customers With Hammers
Frank Eliason, Comcast’s Director of Digital Care, gave a great talk at our Social Media Boot Camp in Chicago last week. This Philly based customer care guru has done a lot to improve Comcast’s customer support. Frank jokes that it wasn’t that hard, considering how poor consumer sentiment was to begin with.
A few days before Frank joined Comcast, ABC ran a story about Mona Shaw, a 76 year old Comcast customer who became so frustrated with her long waits and inoperable new telephone she drove down to the local Comcast office to whack the heck out of their telephones, asking “Now have I got your attention?” After a run-in with the police, she canceled her service and received an apology from Comcast.
While not quite as direct as Mona, the online world can be home to a host of similarly disgruntled customers aiming to take a whack at your digital reputation. For example, media critic Bob Garfield was so frustrated he created ComcastMustDie.com. Ironically, as Garfield says, Comcast strung the very cable customers are using to hang them.
So how did Frank change the face of Comcast?
The core ingredient was talking back. Comcast tried initially ignoring online feedback, which led to users building independent communities and spreading misinformation. Using a variety of tools, Frank and his team created new communications channels where customers could go to learn about problems. And if that failed, they connected with frustrated customers on their own turf, notably Twitter.
Over the past couple of years Comcast has built up a new digital strategy around constructing meaningful properties to host a transparent chat with customers. Frank outlined the digital strategy in the slide below.
Over time Comcast’s reputation has been improving. In fact, six months ago, Bob Garfield shut down ComcastMustDie.com. As Frank says, they still have a long way they want to go, but the trajectory has always been positive.
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