Today at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts spoke on stage with Federated Media’s John Battelle. For the first part of the discussion, they talked about the usual stuff: the state of the industry, competition, and the like. The answers were pretty PR-friendly, as you’d expect. But a bit of a surprise came with Battelle asked about the role Twitter is playing with the company.
“It has changed the culture of our company,” Roberts said. Comcast has for a while now been using Twitter to scan for complaints and engage with customers. The idea was not his, but rather rose organically when someone in the company realized that a lot of public complaints were being sent over Twitter.
Roberts went on to note that “Famous Frank,” also known as Frank Eliason (Comcastcares on Twitter), now has 11 people working under him simply to respond to information about Comcast being broadcast on Twitter. Roberts says that it’s an entirely different kind of dialogue coming in then the usual phone complaints, and he seems very pleased about the work the team has done with the customers on Twitter.
He also noted that it’s not just Twitter the company is using now to engage with customers. They also use Facebook and some of the other networks.
As a very unhappy Comcast customer, I’ve had a number of interactions with Comcast’s Twitter team. There’s no doubt, they are very responsive, and are trying to be helpful. The real problem Comcast has is that their product and all other forms of service are simply not up to par, to put it nicely (I often put it much less nicely on Twitter).
Still, Comcast is a great example of a large company using Twitter in a meaningful way. And don’t think for a second that Twitter doesn’t know that. Expect them to unleash their monetization idea about charging these companies sometime soon.
I’m excited to join @PeopleMag as an embedded reporter/gynecologist.
We agree that Comcast’s services are, well…not very good. On Demand NEVER works. NEVER! @Comcastcares is very responsive, to anyone.
FRANK! Saw him in Vegas a few days ago at blogworld. Such a great guy. Everytime we meet, he certainly has the character and focus to lead such a great effort.
ComcastCares has set the bar really high for other companies.
Like Hell, they have.
It doesn’t matter what you use to respond to your customers if in the end they are still not satisfied.
I could respond all day to my clients on any service you name, but if the answers wrong… it’s wrong.
I would always be happy to assist. If you want, share more about what was done to cause you to feel that way.
Thank you!
Frank Eliason
We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com
Maybe they can work on improving their service and customer support reps while they are at it. Doing a search for Comcast on twitter shows lots and LOTS of very angry customers. (Well, except right now everyone is retweeting this article)
I really can not stand Comcast. They are overpriced, worst customer service, horrible pricing packages, like to pull shit like DNS hijacking, have AWFULLY slow DNS servers, have repeated outages, refuse to give proper credits for outages, etc. The ONLY thing they are quick on is sending you the bill.
Just searching around twitter and helping a few angry customers here and there isn’t fixing the problem, they need to hire some competent reps and give proper training to the existing ones.
We are working to do just that. Our goal is to create the right experience the first time. This is why we came out with our Customer Guarantee and we have introduced many new tools to make it easier to get this done right for you.
Comcast has always provided great service and support to me. With so many customers, a small percentage of unhappy customers is a lot of people and Twitter is the place for people to bitch.
When my Comcast internet connection went out last Sunday I started on the telephone. When the operator couldn’t “ping” my modem he said I should go get a new one at the Comcast office. So I did that on Monday. Still didn’t work. And thus started my nightmare that can be witnessed in my twitter stream from last week. Yes, the Comcast twitter team responded to my complaints. They even got techs to come out and help me a day early. BUT there were 8 techs who came out over five days and each one started from scratch because there was no record of what the others had done.
Before a company tries communicating this way to its customers I suggest that they learn how to efficiently communicate INternally.
(and yes, I said FIVE DAYS.)
Gotta be better than Cox. Stuff like this drives me crazy…http://twitpic.com/m1rpv
http://twitpic.com/m1rpv
When you talk about “getting it” and “not getting it”, Frank is the definition of “gets it”. He is a great guy who knows how to talk to people, and cares about what he’s doing. You can’t teach that, just teach people LIKE that how to use the tools that we have at our disposal, such as Twitter.
well, i can’t say they have the best customer support but…what’s important here is having a medium whereby one person can handle multiple reqs at once. Brian has his work cut out for him and the fact that he has allowed this type of transparency is very positive.
i have to say i miss them more than time/warner.
if you haven’t read this article, its interesting.
http://bit.ly/nvAzm
also, connect with me on twitter: markheni and check out what we are doing in the social media space. we publish into 100 different social media environments from one dashboard.
I have had issues with Comcast who doesn’t when you life is online like mine, and if it goes down I am toast. I lived at Starbucks for a few days a while ago..
At least they are using the tools of the future and not putting their heads in the sand like a lot of companies that are too afraid to even engage a customer in the social media world.
Service Provider scrapes web detritus for corporate image and finds something. Internet shocked, film at 11.
If ComcastCares is listening, please allow me to pay my bill using Firefox. The website just hangs on that browser (works fine with IE). I switched back to paper billing due to this issue.
I think Comcast finds it a cheaper expense to the company to step up customer service rather than address the true, underlying problems. I appreciate having another outlet to the company with Twitter (they were my savior when multiple visits to the store itself failed to fix incompetence), but my opinion of the company remains unchanged until problems such as these are the exception rather than the rule.
Also, perhaps Comcast would like to explain the real reason why they are fighting the Net Neutrality the FCC is proposing. *poke* Okay, okay. We all know the reason.
I only use firefox to pay my comcast bill. Never had an issue. The only problem I have with their online payment is that you can’t schedule a payment. It’s either today or not today.
I have had cable service in Houston since 1980, and their internet since 2000. Their Twitter team is more responsive than their phone techs who read a script and try to upsell. Frank’s team does not do that, they get to the meat and potatoes of your issue and fix it.
If you have a good product, it sells itself. But if its not working 100%, your techs should be more focused on fixing the issue than trying to read a script, or selling.
Frank, if you come to Houston, I owe ya a beer and if your team comes to town I can point out some cool hang out joints, one being CoffeeGrounds in downtown Houston. wifi, coffee and beer!
I don’t think Twitter has changed the culture beyond the team that responds to Twitter complaints. I have had to call Comcast twice in the last month regarding SLOW Internet speeds and did not get my concerns addressed over the phone. When I twittered a complaint, my issue was diagnosed immediately and someone followed up with my complaint all the way until they replaced the cable coming in to my house – plus I got credit for month of service! Their Twitter reputation management team is obviously hand picked and a lot more responsive that their regular customer service.
I hope you all, and Comcast, hear this:
The Comcast Twitter experiment, or channel, is whitewash. I have had some real, intractable billing and service issues with Comcast, and it was maddening. Going to Twitter as a last resort convinced me that the Twitter response team is sincere, but has 0% juice or influence to deal with the evil and corrupt Comcast organization. When Comcast digs its heels in over a billing issue where they are wrong, when they bait and switch with special savings offer that end up costing MORE than a previous plan, when they refuse to revert a plan to the lower cost original plan….
I think you get the gist here – they are bad, worse, worser, very bad, shit.
I am not done with Comcast – the first chance I get to change broadband providers, I am out.
And then I go hunting for revenge…Im not sure how I will sandbag this rotten scum of a company, but I will find my way, over time, I am patient, I will plan and strike.
I will start with the PUC, and go from there.
Look in the Mirror, you Comcast execs who culture this crap. Your service stinks, the performance of your network is barely adequate, and your policies are going to get you what you deserve, mass defection.
I will have my day against comcast.
Here’s the mystery. Certain business segments like car insurance are literally *crowded* with customer service stars. I’m w/Geico and I love them, but others I know are with USAA and those people are fiercely loyal to that company.
Then there’s the ‘internet to the home’ segment. The only players there seem to be clueless, unresponsive or dishonest (many times all three of those at the same time..) Yes YOU Comcast, the ‘new’ AT&T/Bellsouth, ad nauseum.
Do they provide such poor customer service because they know they’re nearly the only game in town and, in any case, the other guy’s service is just as bad? Does it have to do with the ‘technical’ aspect of the service they provide? I don’t know.
I do dream of a day when someone who’s known for his excellence in business approach like Warren Buffett comes to Cable/DSL town. I think then things would change. Rapidly.
PS: Comcast can’t even tell a prospective customer
what a particular service will cost with all the non-mandatory taxes and fees are loaded on. Why would someone buy something without knowing to real cost? AT&T’s service is dismal, but Comcast’s is truly dreadful – that keeps me with AT&T. There’s something wrong here.
There. I feel better now.
somewhere they are monopoly. What kind of competition he talked about? (For the first part of the discussion, they talked about the usual stuff: the state of the industry, competition, and the like)
I think OnDemand is still a good idea, only if it’ll work now. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t. I just stop trying.