Kudos to Comcast

I had a great luncheon discussion today with Frank Eliason, the head of social media for Comcast. I am a customer of Comcast in Philadelphia. I also am a customer of Mediacom at my beach house in southern Delaware. Comcast looks like the best customer service company in the world and the most advanced technology company in the world compared to Mediacom. The latter gives new meaning to thinking and acting like a public utility--you know the attitude: "if you don't like the electric company, live in the dark". That's a public utility mentality and it typically hits those companies that are monopolies or close to it.

Comcast has historically been a company customers have loved to hate. They had terrible customer service numbers. They were a company featured in a famous YouTube video of a service man falling asleep on a customer's couch.

The business model of Comcast has made for problems. They run cable to a home and bring the home TV. A few years ago they started bringing in computer network and now telephone. They realized that they had to change. Many companies in similar positions do not sense the market forces requiring change and stay the course--think GM, Westinghouse (remember them?), and many others.

Comcast, either due to more competition or just waking up and wanting to be better, has focused on customer service. A few years ago, they hired Frank Eliason to begin blogging, Twittering, etc. to connect with customers. He has helped Comcast listen and respond. With the technology, Comcast has responded so quickly that customers have started to notice. And, what they have started to notice is that Comcast cares more than they thought they did. This is changing opinions and helping Comcast keep its installed customer base and attract back lost customers.

It is interesting that Comcast chose to put is social media group in customer service. Typically, the group is attached to either marketing or corporate communications. All too often, marketing wants to use social media to sell and corporate communications wants to use social media to either listen or "spin" its take on an issue. By putting the social media group in customer service, Comcast put it where it could do the most good.

Social media is becoming an important part of Comcast and a key part of its ability to fulfill its brand promise. I give Comcast lots of credit for recognizing its own problems, dealing with them, and trying to become better. Its use of social media is exemplary.