Q: How has call-center technology changed for Comcast in recent years?
A: The interactive voice-response unit — that’s what customers hear when they call in and push a button to select that technology. There are a couple of drivers behind that investment, the first one being the ability to communicate with a customer without them having to speak to a customer-service representative, getting them relevant information, such as in outage situations. We like to be able to message to customers when things don’t go as planned.
Internally for us, it gives us the ability to route and load-balance volume across two call centers — we have one in Denver and one in Colorado Springs. It gives us and the resource- management team a way to get volume where it needs to be to be handled rapidly.
Q: What do you do as a regional VP of customer care?
A: I’m responsible for setting the customer-care strategy and plan for the state of Colorado. That entails what customer care in Colorado looks like; two sites, roughly 1,000 employees total.
Q: Why do call-center agents get a bad rap?
A: Customer care starts when the customer sits in front of a TV, presses the power button, and it works, or sits in front of computer and gets online. But we all know things don’t go as planned, so when you have to contact us, the ultimate goal is to resolve that issue as quickly and as efficiently as possible, with the last resort being having to roll a truck to your house. That’s how I view care.
People are calling us because they have an issue, because things haven’t gone as planned. That just innately isn’t a great reason. That shows we have some challenges or at least some issues at that moment. But the care comes in at the end of that — how are we going to take care of that customer? Although we know there are some issues, we have to do what we can to resolve that issue right now.
Q: What has Comcast Colorado done to change that reputation?
A: One of the starting points for me when I got to this market was that customer care starts with the employees. The goal initially was to take care of our employees who take care of our customers, and those happy employees will create happy customers. We truly believe that. They are the most important people in the building. We flipped the pyramid upside down. We did a lot of things around morale and changing the environment and being open and listening to their feedback.
Nobody knows how to best solve customer issues but the employees. They’re here every day and understand what processes and challenges may be in the way of resolving a customer issue.
That was a big hit for us, just listening to the employees and what holds them back.
Q: What changes have you made based on listening to employee feedback?
A: Hiring and training the right employee along with continuing training (is key).
We have put in a program that takes you through the progression of call centers, and we give you the training to support that. We also schedule time off the phone every month for employee training. Things change so quickly in our business from a technology perspective, we have to have the time to train workers.
We’ve put a lab down on the floor, and every piece of technology that the customer would see runs right there … so they understand how the equipment works.
One of the big drivers behind the morale change is empowerment. That may not have been a word you heard about on the floor 16 months ago. Do what it takes right now to resolve the issue on the phone; do not let the customer call back. You’re the last person that’s going to talk to the customer, so fix the issue. In the past, there might have been processes and procedures that maybe got in the way of that. It may be how you apply a credit to a certain situation. The motto here is if you explain your thought process … then we will back you 100 percent of the time if it supports the customer.
Q: Do call centers really monitor calls?
A: Absolutely. Our quality team is a key part of our operation. They listen to thousands upon thousands of calls every month. We have a team in which all they do is listen to recorded calls. We measure them on moments of excellence and moments of misery. And it’s not easy to get a moment of excellence. A lot of coaching and development comes from the quality team.
We bring the reps in and play their own calls for them and walk them through the call and point out what they could have handled differently.
Edited for length and clarity by Kimberly S. Johnson
