Comcast and the convenience of doing business with you

Two Comcast-related things have happened in the last week that have me thinking about my clients’ businesses. First, Frank Eliason, Director Digital Care and voice of @comcastcares on Twitter, announced that he is leaving Comcast. Frank was a guiding voice that led Comcast from unparalleled depths of customer service quality to… slightly better customer service. Frank’s contribution was his team’s use of social media to establish conversations with frustrated customers. His leadership will be missed, and I hope the company continues to advance what he has put in place.

The second thing is that Comcast treated me like crap.

We recently moved into a new house. Having considered the options, I was loaded for bear to become a Comcast customer. The broadband is fast, the TV good… they are doing some technical things very well.

Upon calling to establish service, the customer service agent informed me that a technician would need to make a site visit to determine whether I am eligible to be a Comcast customer. He said this process would take up to 10 business days. That was over three weeks ago.

I live in downtown Denver.

This morning I received the following e-mail:

This is a courtesy reminder that your Comcast Billing Information needs to be verified.

In order to continue using comcast services,  click the link below, sign in and and follow the provided steps:

http://customer.comcast-s.com/Secure/?Home.aspx

Regards,

Comcast Billing Department

That’s the first contact I have had from the company in the more than three weeks since I requested service. The Direct TV and Qwest technicians who set up the service in the first week both laughed that there were Comcast lines throughout the house.

Will I be clicking that link? Hell no.

What Frank knew but Comcast’s culture doesn’t get is this:

You have to make it easy to do business with you.

You should always be thinking of ways to make it easier to do business with you than not. This isn’t that hard, but some of the smallest companies I work with struggle with this, and for the following reasons:

This might sound harsh, but there is no acceptable reason for a business to put up barriers for motivated customers. Think you’re not doing that?

Are you sure?

It’s probably time to take a hard look at your business and yourself. What are you doing that makes doing business with you harder than it needs to be? What are you doing that makes it easier for a potential customer to do business with a competitor? What processes in your company take longer or require more effort than necessary? How can you focus more on cultivating customer relationships?

Comcast is a good reminder of how important this is. You have to get this one right.

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