The best example of customer service and support, utilizing social networking in their efforts, is Comcast. More precisely it is the Digital Care team run by Frank Eliason that shines the brightest light on how American corporations could and should be engaging their consumers on a daily basis. The following are excerpts of the interview Frank gave to Mashable.com for the article “How to Use Twitter to Support Customers.”
Mashable: Exactly how do you use Twitter?
Frank E: We use Twitter to help customers. We simply search for “Comcast” and a few variations and respond by offering help.
Mashable: What Twitter tools do you use?
Frank E: If you are thinking of listening, you can easily start with Google Blogsearch, Twitter Search, and Facebook Search. For analysis we use Radian 6 and Nielsen Online, but for day-to-day work we do use many free tools
Mashable: How many cases do you deal with every day?
Frank E: We review about 6,000 blog posts each day with most not having anything to do with Comcast. Twitter has about 1,500 – 2,000 tweets a day or more. . . We reach out to 600 – 1,000 people, and we have conversations with about 200 – 300 a day.
Mashable: Do you use ghosts or staff or is it pure Frank?
Frank E: Every tweet from @ComcastCares is me, but I am not out there as much as I used to be. When we started on Twitter I was out there all hours of the day and night, usually seven days a week. Today we have ten different Twitter ID’s. Different than many companies, I believe that each ID should represent a person. I relate this to calls. You would never answer a phone, “XYZ company. What do you want?” so we have team members with ID’s like @Comcastbill and @Comcastbonnie responding to our customers
Comcast’s Differentiating Factor: Come Out From Behind The Logo
In our opinion, the very simple strategy of naming each Twitter account, coming out from behind the logo to create a human experience, is the very essence of what has made Frank’s program so successful. It is Comcast’s differentiating factor and a strategy very few American corporations are willing to try.
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13 Comments on Social Media Case Study: How Comcast Is Winning The Battle For Perception
I so agree, @comcastcares has responded to me and fixed things that support staff could not. When they do I always post here and tweet how helpful they are.
Wow, I had no idea and Missy's comment is very encouraging -- the practical is HUGE.
My experience with Comcast is that they are much closer to @comcastdoesn'tcare. I had a very simple thing that I wanted resolved and got the run around from at least 4 differrent tech people----each speaking like: "Oh, I can most certainly and definately help you with that problem and completely understand how annoying that can be." (the actual language was at least this bad----never once did I actually feel like I was talking to a human being) Only to find out they could not help fix the problem or would not fix the problem. Occassionally I will have someone's email get culled right at Comcast as spam and I don't know it is sitting there until I happen to go check. This is the computer age. I should be able to simply click a little box that says the sender is ok and the problem is done. But no----I spent more than 4 hours "chatting" with something or someone with absolutely "0" satisfaction. Perhaps they will contact me and explain this to me in a way the droids could not.
Are you kidding me? I can't believe you wasted the bandwith to write a blog promoting Comcast. They have the absolute worse customer service of any consumer product. Trying searching "comcast" on Twitter in any area that they serve. You will not find anything positive except for you tools who are trying to find some web cred by riding their coat-tails.
I met Frank a couple of years ago at BlogWorld Expo. Even while chatting with other attendees in the hallway, he was still answering Tweets ... a great example of a big corporation really connecting with their consumers.
I was employed at comcast for several years. Like them or not they are here to stay. I do believe competitiion has forced them to revamp customer service. I believe they have improved dramatically. Their local cable ads are now being featured on the comcast. net website. a good step in the right direction for the little guys.
Glad to hear that some big companies still know how to help individuals.
Wow. I am having trouble believing that anything associated with Comcast could be positive, but I am very impressed with its approach here.
We had Time Warner (Brighthouse) in Orlando, moved back to Jax and had Comcast. They were MISERABLE and their options terrible. We ditched them as soon as AT&T Uverse came on board. We have never looked back. AT&T is miles ahead of Comcast in its equipment and customer service. Good for Frank for reaching out, but you have to start at the top to change a company culture.
I knew about their service perception from Twitter books. When my elderly friend needed comcast help immediately, I used twitter rather than the phone after the chat session failed miserably. It still was a long drawn out process to get her help. She switched to Verizon afterwards.
To All:
Thank you for commenting. Unfortunately I had to delete some of the comments as they seemed to come from outside the network or were using unacceptable language- my discretion so please don't challenge me on this one.
Note of Interest: This post was simply a outline of how Comcast is performing through their social media customer relationship outreach. I am only speaking to their Twitter presence and how they are helping to solve problems there everyday.
If you do NOT have a Twitter account or you are not active in social media then you will be left to the mercy of the call center and other less than optimal avenues for a resolution.
Thanks!
dean
It sounds like Comcast is making good use of social media, but based on the comments above, they still have some work to do in the PR department.
Christine, I agree that Comcast is cutting edge within social networks but in the real world telephone channel they are still falling down. It's tough to reverse the kind of bad PR they get without an ongoing campaign offline to change.
dean