The organization I chose was Comcast Corporation. Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) is a global media and technology company with two primary businesses, Comcast Cable and NBCUniversal. Comcast Cable is one of the nation’s largest video, high-speed Internet and phone providers to residential customers under the XFINITY brand and also provides these services to businesses. NBCUniversal operates news, entertainment and sports cable networks, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, television production operations, television station groups, Universal Pictures and Universal Parks and Resorts.
Social media is critical in this industry because there is more than one communications provider out there for most areas of the country. Comcast is in the communications industry which provides customers with cable television, high speed internet access, digital voice, home security, and in the coming months, cellular service. The norms/standards for social media use is mostly customers who have an unresolved issue with Comcast or is upset with their services. It is rare that you will see a customer accommodation for outstanding customer service or customers who are satisfied with their service on social media outlets.
Taking care of customers over social media started out as a small favor to answer questions or concerns, but as time progressed customers have turned to social media instead of traditional modes of communication that included talking to a live representative on the phone or in person at a Comcast service center. Customers felt like questions and concerns were not being addressed by customer service representatives on the phone and in person and felt more confident in coming to a resolution knowing that someone higher up in the organization is hearing their frustrations.
The social media platforms that are mostly used to communicate with its customers are Facebook and Twitter. People are mostly active on these platforms when addressing their issues with Comcast about their service. As this has become a more popular method of communicating with Comcast, Comcast has created a social media team of representatives that answers questions and helps customers resolve their issues. The goal is to have as many social media representatives to answer customers questions and concerns as there is live agents answering phone calls. This is part of a new initiative to improve the customer experience at Comcast.
The social commerce strategies that Comcast is focused on is improving the customer experience. Comcast has been consistently rated as having the worst customer service in the industry, as well as having the worst customer service overall across all sectors. Comcast has taken the initiative to promise their customers with a better experience when you call Comcast with a question or concern and has also committed to making a better experience when a technician comes to your home. The social commerce marketing campaign is that Comcast “should fit into your life, not the other way around.” They also have developed an app that you can download on your smartphone, the MyAccount app, that makes it easy to pay your bill, schedule appointments and troubleshoot your issue without having to call Comcast making it a more convenient option that offers a hassle free experience when dealing with Comcast.
There are critical relationships to making this happen. The communication must be fluid across all departments for this to happen. The MyAccount app must be functional and easy to use for the customer, there must be constant communication from service technicians to other departments that will allow them to “fit into the customers life, not the other way around,” live agents must talk about the MyAccount app and assist the customer in downloading and using it, and Comcast must change the way they do business to do things right for the customer. This could include removing sales metrics for agents that are not in direct sales positions or hiring more service technicians in the field, for instance.
Comcast has a very strict policy how its employees communicates with its customers. The social media team is only allowed to communicate with customers through social media sites that is approved by the company. The approved sites for social media agents to communicate with customers is through a direct landing page to Comcast’s Twitter or Facebook page or through the Comcast Cares page that was established only for the purposes of answering customer questions or concerns. The Twitter handle for Comcast Cares is https://twitter.com/comcastcares. On Facebook, Comcast communicates directly with customers on its Comcast Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/comcast/. This page is mainly for information purposes only, but social media representatives actively scan the page for customer complaints and questions. Comcast also uses LinkedIn as a way to communicate with its business customers at https://www.linkedin.com/company/comcast. Here, business customers can join in on discussions and Comcast social media agents can promptly answer questions or concerns that business customers may be experiencing. These are the most widely used platforms to resolve customer issues. There are platforms that are not approved by the company to answer questions. This would be social media landings such as https://www.reddit.com/r/Comcast/ or https://www.facebook.com/ComcastComplaints/ that are not approved sites for social media agents to interact in. These are monitored by the public relations and legal teams who are authorized on behalf of the company to respond to these less traditional methods of communication that are designed to damage the credibility of the company.
Overall, the social media marketing strategy is pretty solid. The company is actively engaged with the social media community and is listening and responding to its customers through multiple social media outlets. This is resulting in a better customer experience. The efforts put forth to improve the customer experience on the front line with call center agents, technicians and service center employees has resulted in less angry tweets and posts on social media outlets.
There is still a lot of work to be done to improve the customer experience. Comcast wants to be a better company and they want to provide a better customer experience but will not take the steps to fully improve the customer experience on the frontline. Comcast pressures their non direct sales departments to push sales onto the customer, when customers are trying to resolve an issue with their services, to the point of being terminated for not getting the customer to buy additional products and services. The agents have to focus on selling products and services to the customer instead of helping them with their problem. If Comcast wants to see less angry tweets and posts on social media, they need to change the way they operate as a company. If they could change as a company and truly offer the customer a great experience, Comcast could shift their social media efforts to other things besides responding to angry tweets and posts.
https://www.facebook.com/ComcastComplaints/ http://corporate.comcast.com/news-information/company-overview http://www.convinceandconvert.com/podcasts/episodes/how-comcast-built-a-winning-social-media-customer-service-team/
Amazing job on your final research project! While Comcast’s customer service is not the greatest, and I have personally noticed that they try to sell me things I do not want when trying to get technical support, I stay with Comcast because I like their programming (channel line up), and their two-hour appointment window. Unfortunately, their wifi can be improved. Not sure if it is just me having an issue with connectivity but my wifi does not always work, and for what I am paying, it makes me super frustrated. Comcast could make my future awesome by upping their A game just a tad. But to be honest with you, Comcast has amazing customer service if we compare them to AT&T!
