This is a follow up to my previous post from earlier today. Let me run down the events and then I’ll let you know what Comcast did to turn a bad experience into a good one:

1. I signed up for Comcast Internet earlier this week. I had been procrastinating on this for a while now, but looked up Comcast earlier this week and they had some great deals going on so I signed up online. Part of the online process was selecting your install date – I chose today (from 8 a.m. to noon mainly because it is the only day that I am available (work is a little crazy as of late).
2. I woke up early this morning and waited for the technician to show up. And waited. And waited. And…
3. After not getting any call and no one showing up, I jumped online (via a crappy Cricket wireless modem) and started a chat session with a Comcast rep. S/he informed me that my appointment was incorrect and that there wasn’t anything that could be done other than reschedule for next week. She followed this up with a ‘if you have additional problems, you’ll have to call 1-800-comcast.’ Ouch. I know Comcast is a customer service oriented business so this answer shocked me a bit. If you’re going to tout your customer service, empower your people to solve your customers’ problems.
4. I couldn’t give up and called 1-800-comcast. Once again, I got the same run around. ‘Maybe your appointment was entered incorrectly; however, all I can do is reschedule your intallation time for next Saturday.’ Part of me understood the situation; however, this was not the first time that I’d had a problem with appointments (see my previous post for more info). I rescheduled, hung up and decided to give it one more try. I fired up the computer again and went online.
5. First, I wrote a brief blog post discussing my situation. Then I went to my Twitter account and posted a quick reference to my post along with a #comcast tag. Here’s what happened:
   

   Twitter conversation with Comcast

6. After spending a few minutes on Twitter with ComcastMelissa, I was assured that they were working on the problem and that I would hear from someone.
7. Then I got a phone call from my local Comcast office and spoke with Alisa. She assured me that they were working on the issue. They hoped to get a rep out to my place the same day. Sure enough, by 4:30 p.m. the team at Comcast had taken a bad situation and turned it completely around.

I am now writing this post from my new Comcast high-speed Internet connection. I want to thank ComcastMellisa, Alisa, and the service guy (didn’t catch his name) who all worked together to make this a great experience.

What’s the lesson in all of this? I work in marketing and deal with these same issues on a daily basis. When you tout yourself as a leader in customer service and when you use this as your differentiating point, you have to deliver. When you deliver, you have to deliver in a big way. You have to be the best. I was impressed with how well Comcast was listening via Twitter and even more impressed with their “urgent service recovery.” Thanks for the concern and sincere follow through. Comcast will definitely remain on my list of companies to do business with and I will be talking about this experience with everyone I know.

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Al Gore's "Our Choice"

Hi Al. You’ll probably won’t ever read this; however, I wanted to ask you something. I’ve read all of your other books and was excited to see you on the Daily Show where you were premiering your new book, “Our Choice.” I was so interested in the new book that I ran over to my Kindle to download and start reading your book. But it isn’t available on Kindle. Bad move Al.

You’re out there telling everyone to be green which is part of the reason I purchased my Kindle – save a tree, no more paper. And your book about being green and saving the planet can only be purchased as a paper book (or audio CD). For a guy that “invented the Internet” you sure seem behind the times. Let me know when “Our Choice” is really a choice (and available on the Kindle). I’ll pick it up then.

Today was the day that I was hoping to get Comcast High-Speed Internet installed at my new home – or at least that what I thought was supposed to happen. Earlier this week I broke down and ordered Internet from Comcast via the Internet. It was a pretty slick process and I even got to pick my install date. I choose today between 8 a.m. and noon. No one bothered to show so I entered their chat room and attempted to solve the problem. The technician I chatted with didn’t do much other than tell me that I have the wrong date and if I want to fix things I need to call 1-800-Comcast to make changes. So I called.

Unfortunately, when I finally got through, I got the same run around. Their technician must have entered the date incorrectly, but we can’t help you other than by moving the date another week away. Now this is prime time customer service.

So here’s the question – I want to be a customer; how valuable is my business to Comcast??? All I want is internet service. It would take their techs five minutes to install. I’ll even hook up the damn modem for them.

I’ve seen all of their claims about having great customer service. Sure, everyone you talk to at Comcast is nice, but they don’t seem to be empowered to actually help the customer. Their chat technician told me he couldn’t help and to call 1-800-comcast. The person on the phone told me that she can only reschedule my appointment. Who is person who can actually call me and say, “Sorry for the mix up. We’ll have a technician out today”?

I struggled with choosing Comcast. When I first moved into my new home, I called them up for cable service and had to take time to meet their technicians at my home twice only to be told that they couldn’t hook up the service that day. Their crews still had not come out to run the line from the cable box to my house. This is the third time I’ve taken time out of my day to be here and get their service.

So Comcast, are you listening??? Are you truly committed to taking a bad customer service experience and turning into a good one?

I was just taking a look at some of the efforts being made by grocery stores within the social media landscape. Here’s what WinCo is up to:

website: http://www.wincofoods.com/
twitter: http://www.twitter.com/wincofoods
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/winco.llc
youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/wincofoodsllc

So far, they are not doing anything of great interest. I would actually say that their efforts are a little on the pathetic side when compared with what Whole Foods has going on:

website: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/ (see top right hand of homepage)
twitter: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/twitter/
http://www.facebook.com/wholefoods
flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/whole_foods/

What’s the difference between the two? Whole Foods has been at this for a long time. They’ve developed content (something WinCo will probably have a tough time doing); they aren’t trying to sell you stuff; they have built a brand worth talking about; they have a wonderful story to tell; and they are trustworthy. Winco’s has one thing they can talk about – price. Aside from their price image, it is hard to talk about their big, sterile buildings, lack of personal contact, lack of service, lack of selection, lack of product knowledge, lack of story… You get the picture.

Whole Foods has over 1.5 million followers on their global twitter site. This does not include the twitter pages that are being built for every single one of their stores (where individual stores talk about their upcoming events, cooking classes, cooking tips, meal solutions, promotions, etc (http://twitter.com/WFMCottHeights). Each of their stores have their own blog pages as well (http://wholefoodsmarket.com/storeblogs/highlanddrive/). Whole Foods gets the online world better than anyone in the grocery business. What they have done is integrate all of their web efforts to tell one simple story that is focused on a specific audience.

Dear Comcast,

Thanks for replying to my tweet and even the phone call. That was pretty cool of you. But there must hve been a miscommunication.

You see, when I posted the tweet, I specifically said that I all I wanted was high-speed internet service at a fair price – no outlandish fees, no bundling, and none of the 6-month reduced rate gimmicks. However, the guy that called me knew none of this, quoted me a rediculous price, and then asked if I wanted to bundle or take advantage of the latest deals.

I was impressed that your effort and follow through, but in the end all I got was the same ol’ sales pitch. It doesn’t have to be this way. So here’s the deal, I’ll offer you $40 a month. That’s it. No deals, no bundles, no hidden service fees. I’d think my $40 a month and a happy customer is better than nothing. What do you think?

Jason

Seth Godin's "Tribes"

I am a huge fan of Seth Godin’s book Tribes. It is an amazing read and the team dynamics he describes are incredibly powerful. For those of you who have not read the book, Godin focuses on the power that comes in building great teams, teams that go beyond what most of us are used to. He talks about the importance of assembling people and developing an almost cult-like passion among them for whatever your cause may be (be it business, non profits, or something just for fun).

Tribes are far from the norm, though in the future, building these types of teams will definitely help the best businesses differentiate from the pack. Just look at the success that companies like Zappos, Google, Apple, Whole Foods, Wegmans, Disney and Starbucks have enjoyed. Each of them have done this by placing a big emphasis on their most important asset – their teams.

Tribes come in all shapes and sizes. A tribe can be a small group of like-minded individuals who want to make a difference in the world. Just look at all of the pockets of support Barrack Obama was able to build as he first began he run for the presidency. Tribes can focus on seemingly strange (yet relatively important) issues. Consider the many Trekie conventions and Star Wars fanatics around the world. I used to know a guy that was so fanatical about Star Wars that he had the Jedi code tattooed to his forearm. Now that’s a tribe!

Tribes are an amazing phenomena and leaders who can build tribes are a gifted few. But I do want to share a brief cautionary note about tribes from my own personal experience. I share this story not to dissuade you from building your own tribes. Please build them. They are powerful and can make all the difference in creating a better world. I only want to share this story with you as something to watch out for as you build your tribes.

I work for an amazing leader. A few years back, he was given an almost impossible task. Regardless of the difficulty, he took the challenge and began building an amazing team of people to help him get to where he knew we needed to go. He built a tribe.

A few months ago, he was promoted and asked to build a bigger tribe. As he moved away from our team, a new leader was appointed and this is where you must be cautious as you build your tribes. Tribes are fiercely loyal. They believe in their cause with all their heart and when the tribe encounters changes, whether it is in its leadership structure, philosophical base, tactics, etc., they may resist the changes being made. This is because the tribal leader has built a powerful world view among the tribe and as Godin points out in another book (“All Marketeers are Liars”), you cannot change someone’s worldview.

This poses an incredible challenge for tribal leaders. How do you go about making major changes to your tribe? It can be done, but remember there will be some major heartache created among the team as you do. And sometimes you just have to make the changes even though the tribe might experience some angst. That’s not always a bad thing. In fact, if done right change can actually bring the team closer than it has ever been.

I had to buy a new refrigerator last night and spent a decent amount of money doing so. I purchased it from Best Buy. I got a great deal and the in-store experience went well. The salesman was a little cheesy, but he worked hard to make me happy and I walked away feeling good. 24-hours later, the experience suddenly changed.

Tonight, I had to call and change my delivery date. I called the store that I made the purchase from – the response, “we can’t help you, call this number.” So I called that number – “we can’t do that, you’ll need to call…” The magic number was seven – seven transfers in order to take care of a simple task. That’s about six transfers too many (especially when you call the “delivery help” phone number that is printed on the receipt.

So here’s my challenge to Best Buy – how do you make this right? Are you willing to take this bad service experience and do something to make me happy? How important is my future business to you? How much value do you place on my potential positive or negative word of mouth?

I’ve been using NetFlix for about a year now and I can’t say enough good things about the service. I get to watch the movies I want to watch without the hassles of going to a physical store. To top it off, their streaming service rocks (now I just have to buy the box for my television so I don’t have to stream via my laptop). Netflix rocks!

But there is a hitch. The other day, I received a postcard from the post office announcing that they are adjusting routes due to ‘a massive decrease in mail volume.’ Now, I am still getting mail six days a week; however, this announcement should raise some fear with the folks at Netflix. Why? People aren’t using the mail system like they once were and this trend is likely to continue. There might even come a time when the US Postal Service ceases to exist. What will Netflix do then?

I’m sure they have considered this eventuality. However, are they being aggressive enough with their streaming service? Are they doing enough to get their set-top boxes into distribution?

The last couple days with the Disney Institute have been quite informative. Day three was spent learning about managing our team and day four looked specifically at how to deliver the “wow” experience to our guests. The Disney team has learned a ton from their many years in business and I look forward to taking the tools they have graciously shared with us in the institute and start molding them to our situation in the grocery retail business.

I’ve had several big takeaways from this experience. First, I work for a fantastic company. The fact that Associated Food Stores sent us to such a remarkable training program speaks volumes. Second, I work with an amazing group of people. I’ve dreamed of finding a team like this to work with and here I am. Third, everything we do moving forward has to revolve around and involve our corporate and retail teams.

My most important realization was that we now have to take everything we’ve learned and truly figure out what is the right thing to do for our business. We can’t take tools from Disney and just drop them onto our culture. We have different teams and work in a different industry. We have a lot of work ahead of us and I know we can climb this mountain.

Thanks again to the Disney Institute for opening your doors to us. You’ve gone overboard to make us feel welcome and I hope to return someday for additional training.

Rain, rain and more rain – that’s what we dealt with on the weather side; however, today we had the opportunity to take a good look at the many leadership principles that the Disney corporation hangs its “mouse ears” on. It’s a remarkable company powered by remarkable people and it is truly an honor to be a part of this training.

I don’t want to dive into too much of what we learned. What I will share is that I learned something very important about leadership today. Leading is about empowering others to solve problems, listening to those around you and setting the example. You’ll have to come here to experience the rest for yourself. What I will say is that this has been a life changing experience for me.

I loved my job before and now I love it even more.

I loved my fiance before and now I love here even more.

I loved life and now I love it even more.

You might say that learning what I have has build up my spirits and has renewed many passions for me. Previous to coming to Disney, my spirit was tapped and my energy levels were on reserve. After months of pushing the envelope, I was exhausted. I’m now ready for more, much more and the challenges that lie ahead, though still formatable, feel conquerable, fun and worthwhile.

I am growing. I know I have room to grow. We all do.

Thanks to the great people at the Disney Institute for all you are doing.