Comcasts Customer Services - Essay Example

348921-Customer service satisfaction Customer service satisfaction is very important for all companies. Customer service satisfaction has now become a complicated part of customer service strategy for almost for all the large and small companies. Customer service satisfaction usually refers to interaction or transaction. Another important point is that, customer service satisfaction surveys are different from the general satisfaction surveys regarding design and structure. Customer service satisfaction factors vary from company to company. Most of the companies develop their customer service strategies, and it is the responsibility of management to be well aware of the key service issues from the customer’s point of view. Literature review Introduction Comcast was established in 1963 by Ralph J. Roberts, Daniel Aaron, and Julian A. Currently, Comcast is the largest provider of phone service, cable service and internet service, and it is one of the most important communication companies. The company delivers digital services, faster internet, and broadband services. Comcast also offers a variety of network recognized as CN8, or Comcast cable network, accessible only to Comcast Cablevision subscribers. The network provides a variety of channels like the news, sports and entertainment and places emphasizes in Philadelphia. The Company is moving forward to provide people with the faster communication products and services to connect them to their love ones. Comcast is providing its product and services at low rates. Comcast resolves the dial-up issues, because it can work 100 times speedier as compared to dial up connection and gives an additional feature that is, now your phone line is free for use. The use of high speed internet is increasing with the passage of time and it provides high speed as compared to dial up speed because it gives better speed of downloading tremendously. Comcast’s broad band offer additional features like, it not only gives you a cable high speed internet but also provides a wireless router so everyone can surf the net at the same time. Currently, “Comcast have total of 24.2 million cable customers, 14.7 million digital cable customers, 12.9 high speed internet customers, and 4.1 million voice customers”. Headquarter of Comcast is in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and it also have some corporate offices in Houston, Detroit and Denver. Reputation for customer satisfaction The customers are not satisfied with Comcast’s customer services. Most of the time happened that technicians falling asleep on the job, customers have to spend lot of their time on the phone to solve simple problems; company uses very wrong words for the customer who complained against the bad service. For instance, on October 15, 2007, a 75 year old customer named Mona Shaw entered into the local office of Comcast with a hammer and shattered some of office equipments, because Mrs. Shaw is annoyed and frustrated due to the earlier encounter take place with them, when she and her husband wanted to speak with the manager and the staff forced them to wait for two hours outside the office and at last they said the manager had already gone to home. Due to the poor customer satisfaction several individuals have created blogs and websites, including Comcastsucks.org, ComcastMustDie.com etc. The basic concept behind developing these kinds of blogs and websites is to inform the public of Comcast’s service. According to a survey conducted in 2004 and 2007, American Customer Satisfaction Index shows that Comcast had the most horrible customer satisfaction score of any of other companies or government agency in the country. Comcast customer service score by the ACSI survey pointed out that the company’s customer service has not been enhanced since the survey done in 2004. “Analysis of the survey states that Comcast is one of the lowest scoring companies in ACSI, because its customer satisfaction eroded by 7% over the past year, revenue increased by the 12%”. Survey Relationship based customer satisfaction research, is usually referred to as general customer satisfaction research, which includes the information about price and availability to the customer service. The second method used is transaction based customer satisfaction measurement. Basic factors that judge the customer satisfaction are: Price, Quality, Availability, Performance, and Value given to the customer, Customer service and support, and to meet the customer expectation. Comparison with Time Warner Most companies offer similar packages, like high speed broadband internet that are producing the same products but differs in services. Comcast and Time Warner are two biggest companies providing the same products and services. The first difference between these two companies is pricing; Comcast is providing digital silver, which also includes one premium channel of your own choice, and company also offer more than 200 channels on demand programming. If a customer is willing to enjoy all these services, customer has to pay $80.95 for one TV. The same package is also offered by Time Warner, which also includes digital programming, and it only cost $69.95 which is less than Comcast. Another attractive package is offered by the Time Warner called Digital Premium Value, which gives a relaxation to customer to pick any three Premium channels of his/her own choice just for $81.95. Peoples of Philadelphia and other markets are not satisfied with the prices offered by Comcast, according to them their packages are quiet expensive and service is not good. Comcast on order offers from surplus of sources, like from Animal Planet to comedy plays to the NFL Network and NBA TV. Comcast also offers advance trailers for movies and plays. Comcast on demand services are superior as compared o Time Warner services. Comcast is always open and their representative better know how to handle customer complaints and problems, and how to resolve the issues. On the other side Time Warner, their office is only open during the business hours and representative slow and lazy, and their technicians are inconsistent as well. Comparing with Comcast, mostly they sent the village idiots to give service and resolve the problem. In this context both companies are similar. Questionnaire How likely are you to advise Comcast to your friends? Excellent Very Good Good Fair Poor How possibly are you to willing to repurchase the products and services from the company Comcast? Excellent Very Good Good Fair Poor How would you rate the in general excellence of your relationship with Comcast, regarding the previous experiences? Excellent Very Good Good Fair Poor On a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 represents "Very dissatisfied" and 5 represents "Very satisfied," how you rate the level of satisfaction? 1 2 3 4 5 On a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 represents "Very dissatisfied" and 5 represents "Very satisfied," how would you rate the level of satisfaction regarding price? 1 2 3 4 5 On a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 represents "Very dissatisfied" and 5 represents "Very Satisfied," how would you rate the level of satisfaction regarding they gave to the customer? 1 2 3 4 5 Do you remember your relationship with Comcast on the basis of past experiences? Yes No On a scale of 1 to 7 where 1 represents "Very Satisfied" and 7 represents "Very Dissatisfied," how would you score the level of satisfaction concerning company representatives? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7  During your most recent experience, which departments/divisions/web pages did you visit? department/division/web page "A" department/division/web page "B" department/division/web page "C" department/division/web page "D"  (If visited department/division/web page "A" in question above, utilizing skip patterns) Thinking about your most recent experience with department/division/web page A, on a scale of 1 to 7 where 1 represents "Very Satisfied" and 7 represents "Very Dissatisfied," how would you rate your level of satisfaction? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7   (If visited department/division/web page "A" in question above, utilizing skip patterns) On a scale of 1 to 7 where 1 represents "Very Satisfied" and 7 represents "Very Dissatisfied” with regard to availability? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7  (If visited department/division/web page "A" in question above, utilizing skip patterns) On a scale of 1 to 7 where 1 represents "Very Satisfied" and 7 represents "Very Dissatisfied," with regard to overall quality of the company? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Thinking about your most recent experience with department/division/web page B, on a scale of 1 to 7 where 1 represents "Very Satisfied" and 7 represents "Very Dissatisfied," how would you rate your level of satisfaction? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Thinking about your most recent contact, how would you rate the representative's ability to help you or to make a interaction with the related person? Excellent Very Good Good Fair Poor How would you rate the representative's overall knowledge of your problem or question? Excellent Very Good Good Fair Poor And how would you rate the representative on being polite and have a positive response? Excellent Very Good Good Fair Poor How would you rate the representative on helpfulness, in other words they are eager to solve your problems? Excellent Very Good Good Fair Poor How would you rate the representative as they are able to solve the problem? Excellent Very Good Good Fair Poor Are the representative are able to solve your problem quickly? Excellent Very Good Good Fair Poor How would you rate your last contract experience with Comcast? Excellent Very Good Good Fair Poor Comcast is better than Time Warner or not five reasons to support your answer? Yes No DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH The researcher have got to work strongly in order to describe the problem cautiously, and be required to be in agreement on the research objectives and goals. Stating the problem and the research objectives is frequently the one of the most difficult step in the research progression. Exploratory Research is the research to collect pilot information that will facilitate label problems and propose hypothesis. The declaration of the problem and research objectives guides the complete research process. Therefore the statement should be put in writing to be sure that it is for rationale and likely results are there. Online survey and questionnaire are done to make sure about the status of Comcast customer satisfaction. It also helps to compare Comcast with other companies providing the almost same product and services. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Philosophy: Descriptive Research Strategy: Online survey and Questionnaire Data Collection Method: Questionnaire and Secondary Data Collection JUSTIFICATION FOR RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The justification for the data collection techniques is as under: . Interviewer can obtain the attention of the respondents for a long time and can explain difficult questions. Survey can guide interviews, explore issues, and probe as the situation requires. Survey can show subjects as objects and thus can observe reactions and behaviors. In most cases, the survey are conducted fairly quickly and therefore time expense of both the parties. The questionnaire can encourage free and easy discussion. Hoping that group interactions will bring out actual feelings and thoughts. At the same time, the questionnaire focuses on narrows discussion. Strength and Weaknesses of survey and Questionnaire Flexibility Excellent Quantity of Data Can Be Collected Excellent Control of Interviewer Effects Poor Control of Samples Fair Speed of Data Collection Good Response Rate Good Cost Poor DATA MANAGEMENT AND ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES As stated earlier, the data will be collected through the survey and questionnaire, so the data will be analyzed as per different parameters. The questionnaire really works to find out the response of customers concerning their satisfaction level. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS There are certain numbers of ethical considerations involved in this research. There is certain information that needs just to be shared between the researcher and course instructor. So, one has to be careful regarding ethical considerations. The underground of victory is integrity and reasonable dealing. If you can false these, you’ve got it completed. Code of ethics flourishes admirable behavior by demanding professionalism, integrity, objectivity, independence and suitable care in performance of one’s duties. They also call for the researcher to be well-informed in his/her area for best service to his/her clients. Researcher also has need of similar attributes in terms of professionalism, integrity, dedication and due care in performance of their duties. Research cannot close the eyes to ethics. Without a doubt, for some ethics has been supplemented to research values. But help is needed by researchers in integrating ethical practices and competencies. To begin with this demands an improved and mutual understanding of ethics in research. RESOURCES and SUPPORT There are number of resources and support material that I will be using for the purpose of elaborating certain aspects of the project. Finding and Conclusion Summing it up with the passage of time the reputation of Comcast is declining, and they providing poor services to the customer. If they want to improve their status, must have to provide good services to the customer. And their representative should solve the problem immediately to satisfy the customer complaint and make them a loyal customer. WORKCITED http://www.polarismr.com/education/articles_index.html National Cable & Telecommunications Association, Top 25 MSOs - As of March 2007 ISP Planet - Market Research - Top 23 U.S. ISPs by Subscriber: Q3 2007 Bills Bars Traffic Discrimination. The New York Times (2008-02-13). Retrieved on 2008-02-13. “She cited the agency investigation of Philadelphia-based Comcast, the country’s second largest Internet provider. Read More