My point, and I will make one, is that it doesn’t matter if you’ve got great social media presence if you don’t fix the basics.
I’m so frustrated right now, for something very simple. I received my first Comcast bill for my business Internet service. Oh, I noticed that it’s sending the bill to the service address, not my business address. I’ll just run in and change that on the account via their website. So far, this should be simple, right?
No.
I go to make an account. The account doesn’t take. I try again. That also doesn’t take. I click their “contact us” thingy and put in all kinds of information so that I can chat with someone on the site. After about 11 minutes (might have been less, as I really didn’t use a clock, in full disclosure), they tell me that because I’m a business account (which was the 3rd thing I said to the chat person), I have to call some toll free number.
Well, okay. So much for an online world.
Now, I call the first number. It says something like, “you’re a business customer and you have a very special number. Call this.”
Wow! I’m thinking, I’m going to get this resolved in no time. No. A new phone tree. A bunch of button pushes. A request that they can SURVEY ME after the call before they’ve even come close to resolving my issue, and I’m writing this post while I’m on hold.
Let’s review: This is to set up a stupid online account so I can change a stupid mailing address.
Frank Eliason is Gone
Frank Eliason, if you don’t know that handsome man in the picture up top, was the voice of @comcastcares for a few years. He got the company more ink for his innovative customer service while they were otherwise drowning in a sea of negative press.
Let the record state that all of Frank’s online employees are tweeting my face off while I’m writing this. They’re being SUPER helpful.
But they shouldn’t have to be.
Comcast Needs to Shore Up Service
Social media is not a crutch. Just because you’ve now received high marks for being responsive via Twitter (and thank the sweet blessed customer service fairies for that, because the mainstream methodology still blows, but if your standard web flows and call flow still stink, you can’t rely on the social media side to fix it up.
Quality customer service trumps PR and it trumps social media outreach. It’s the basics. Please, Comcast, this was a really really simple transaction that ate almost an hour of my day, got my riled up, and earned you a negative blog post (because bloggers are whiny, I’m willing to admit).
Wouldn’t this merit a reconsideration of your delivery methods.
I used to run call centers for the phone company back in the way old day. Call me, if you want. I won’t make you press buttons.