the importance of customer service

A couple of months ago, we decided to install Comcast internet in the house. We've always had connection issues and the wireless was spotty at best. Comcast boasts the best the fastest connection speeds and few outages.  Unfortunately, because of how the house was initially wired we would also have to get Comcast cable. (At least that's what the Comcast install technician told me.)

Starting with the install and going through this week, Comcast has literally been a nightmare. I will spare you the details of my horrifying install experience. (I've started that post about 100 times, but never finished it) My install experience was so awful I received multiple calls from supervisors within the Comcast organization. Once the install was complete, the problems began. They didn't even activate the HD channels, the internet didn't function properly and on and on. I honestly called Comcast about 10 times within the first week of service.

Over the past couple of months the number of calls has decreased, but there have still been problems.  In fact, about a month ago I had an appointment with a technician that got cancelled by Comcast because they had "resolved the issue." Well, that wasn't the case. Earlier this week I called again to discuss the problems we were having. Our HD channels have never seemed to work properly - the picture quality is poor, the sound cuts out, just some strange stuff.  They decided the best thing to do was to have a technician come to the house to look into the problem.

Yesterday morning as I'm waiting for the technician to arrive, my internet suddenly goes dead and the cable is completely out.  Nothing is working.  I immediately call Comcast to see what is happening.  As usual, they tell me everything is great on their end so it must a problem in the house.  Fortunately, I have a technician schedule to come to the house within the next couple of hours. Until that time, there's nothing that can be done.

Enter Comcast Technician Shane. He is honestly my favorite Comcast employee even though our encounter was brief.  Comcast Technician Shane showed up on time and ready to help. While walking to the house he noticed a cable draped into the street. You see, when Comcast does an install in the winter, they can't bury the cable - makes perfect sense.  Well, the original installer had left about 1000 feet of cable to be used when it got buried in the spring. Apparently my cable and a snowplow had a showdown in the street earlier in the morning. You can guess who won. Comcast Technician Shane's first order of business was to install new cable; and an appropriate amount of cable. Hopefully the new cable's fate will allow it to survive until spring.

Comcast Technician Shane then came inside to check on things, but not before putting on some handy shoe covers. (I love that he had these since it was snowy and wet outside) First, he wanted to ensure the internet was up and running properly and receiving the necessary power and signal - check. Next, he ventured into the theater room to determine what was happening with the cable. He looked at a few things and then proceeded to the room with all the wiring. He quickly and easily determined that the signal strength needed a boost as the cable was being split to a second TV in the house. He ran to his truck, grab a cable power booster thingy (I do believe that is the technical name) and within 5 minutes it was installed and the cable was working perfectly.

I'm not so crazy as to believe everything with Comcast will run perfectly from this point forward. However, the importance of customer service cannot be overlooked. Every other encounter I've had with Comcast has been negative--its always a problem on my end, Comcast is never to blame and when the HD went out during the BCS national championship they offered my pay-per-view coupons as compensation. I get that this is how they are trained in the call center and feel that pay-per-view coupons are great compensation; these things just weren't the right course for me. Comcast Technician Shane arrived at my house with the attitude of service; he was there to fix my problems and get things working for me. He didn't tell me that Comcast wasn't at fault or that everything on Comcast's side was working great. He showed up, had already recognized a problem (remember that cable that met its fate with a snowplow) and was looking for solutions that met my needs. We need more people in the service industry like Comcast Technician Shane! They truly make all the difference.

And, yes, immediately after Comcast Technician Shane left, I called to leave a glowing report for his supervisor. I believe that good service deserves just as much recognition (and probably more) as poor service.