how not to win back customers

The other Sunday I was getting ready for church. I had just gotten out of the shower and the phone rang. “This can’t be good,” I thought, it being 9:15 on a Sunday morning. I dashed over to the phone as Terry was still asleep. I assumed it had to be either my dad or Terry’s sister. I looked at the caller ID display and it read “DIRECTV.”

You’ve got to be kidding me! You’ll recall that we dropped DirecTV in favor of cable some months back, not because we were unhappy with the television service we were receiving, but because our DSL Internet was excruciatingly slow and we decided to switch to cable for the faster speed, knowing that the only way to get a reasonable rate was to get the TV service as well. DirecTV has been trying to get us back ever since.

I picked up the cordless handset, pressed the On button, and without waiting for the agent on the other end to say anything, very nearly shouted, “It’s nine o’clock on a Sunday morning for God’s sake!” I then immediately pressed the Off button.

If DirecTV had any hope of getting us back as customers that about took care of it.

chameleon cable networks

Cable networks diverging from their original purpose is nothing new. It's been years since MTV broadcast music videos. Still, when you tune to a channel, you'd like to see the expected programming.

I watch very little TV, but I was surfing the other day. I tuned to BBC America and saw listed bunch of episodes of Star Trek: Next Generation. Yes, Patrick Stewart is British and I love Star Trek, but on BBC America?

So I switched to Planet Green and the schedule showed an afternoon of BBQ Master shows. Say what?

I know it's all about money and getting the most viewers, but it's just one more reason why I watch so little television.

more on trade-offs

I don't watch much television at all, except for the morning news at breakfast. When I do turn on the TV for some reason (perhaps while eating a meal when Terry isn't around), I like to watch cooking shows. But I like real cooking shows, not the competition programs that dominate the Food Network these days. I really liked Food Network's sister network, The Cooking Channel, which pretty much shows straight cooking shows. The problem is that we lost that when we switched from DirecTV to cable.

What I'm realizing is that I just need to do a little planning ahead. Food Network still has Marcela Valladolid of Mexican Made Easy, Rachael Ray, and the gorgeous Giada De Laurentiis. I simply need to record a few shows and have them on hand when I want to watch something.

I don't have access to Nigella Lawson, and I do enjoy her somewhat sexy, sultry style. But I don't really like her dishes all that much. What can you say about someone who says that corn and flour tortillas are interchangeable and that it's OK to use instant mashed potatoes? Please! I can get by without Nigella.

All-in-all it's a more than fair trade-off for the much faster internet access we now have.

trade-offs

When we decided that Verizon DSL just wasn't cutting it and that we needed to switch to Charter cable for the Internet, we knew that we would also have to switch to Charter for television, even though we were happy with DirectTV satellite. We knew that calling Charter and saying we wanted Internet only would never get past their sales reps. So we now have Charter television as well as Internet.

A few things we've lost. I no longer have the Cooking Channel as a supplement to the Food Network. I no longer have Comcast Sports California which carries the A's games, only Comcast Sports Bay Area which carries the Giants games. But how many A's games did I actually watch last year?

A few things we've gained. The Monterey/Salinas NBC and CBS stations. The STARZ and Cinemax movie channels which we dropped when my company's former CEO cut salaries and DirecTV raised prices. The complete local forecast on the Weather Channel.

And of course, much faster Internet speeds.

The losses are primarily on my side. Terry is happy with the new television package. And if Terry is happy I am happy.

making changes

Over the last few months our DSL Internet speed had gotten extremely slow. We've always been in a marginal location for DSL, but things had recently gone seriously downhill. I work from home most of the time, and Terry works strictly from home when she's not travelling. The slow speeds had an effect on our productivity. In the evenings when we listened to KCSM online we were constantly having to restart the player. Some evenings we had to shut it off entirely and listen to something else. Podcast and Great Courses downloads were painfully slow.

We decided we had to do something. We were constantly getting mailings from Charter cable advertising television, Internet, and phone bundles. So I called and spent a while on the phone with a very friendly and helpful Charter representative. It took me a while to convince her that we did not want phone, but when I explained that we had four lines (our home line, my business line, plus Terry's business and fax lines) she finally got the message.

I had called on Saturday. We were pleased that they were able to install on Tuesday. The installer showed up over an hour after the end of the installation window. But once here he got off to a good start, running a new line for the Internet router in my loft. He obviously ran out of steam, though, because after installing the upstairs television properly, downstairs he just ran a cable loosely around the living room instead of installing a new outlet. But by this time it was after 4:00 pm and he had been there for more than three hours. I pretended I didn't see it and signed the paperwork. The other issue was that he didn't have a DVR, and we had ordered DVR service downstairs. Didn't he even look at his work orders at the start of the day? In any case, I thought I'd call the next day and get this all worked out. That's where Charter customer service became impressive.

He had not been gone ten minutes when the phone rang and I got an automated phone survey from Charter. The last question was, "Were you happy with the installation?" I punched the response for No. I was asked "Do you want to speak to a representative?" I punched the response for Yes. I was transferred to a Charter customer service person. I have to say that I love talking to Charter's call center. It is somewhere in the South, and the people there are most pleasant to speak with. The woman was quite helpful and said someone could be out the next day between three and five to wire the downstairs outlet properly. Then she put me on hold to ensure that a DVR would be available. She got back on the line and said that there would definitely be a DVR on the truck the next day. I was happy. I got on the treadmill.

While I was on the treadmill the local Charter contractor called and told Terry that they could be there in five minutes with the DVR. Terry asked if they could take care of the wiring as well. They said they certainly could. It was fifteen minutes, but so what.

The service man started by running a new cable for the outlet on the correct side of the room. (Why the original guy didn't do that at the same time he ran the cable for the Internet, I have no clue. They follow the same path.) I finished on the treadmill, and after I got out of the shower Terry and I swapped placed so she could go upstairs and take a bath. The doorbell rang and another guy from the Charter contractor was there. He was obviously a supervisor. He apologized and took pictures of the loosely strung cable with his iPhone. He then went outside to help the other serviceman.

It was after 7:00 pm by the time they were done, but they had done the job right and had done the job well. By the time they left the house Charter had two very happy new customers.

So now we have fast Internet which delights us no end. (Speeds can vary greatly, but we knew that going in.) We have cable TV instead of DirecTV satellite, and there are some trade-offs there, but trade-offs we can live with. More on those trade-offs tomorrow.

For the last few months our DSL Internet speed has gotten extremely slow. We've always been in a marginal location for DSL, but things had  gone seriously downhill. I work from home most of the time, and Terry works strictly from home when she's not travelling. The slow speeds had an effect on our productivity. In the evenings when we listened to KCSM online we were constantly having to restart the player. Some evenings we had to shut it off entirely and listen to something else. Podcast and Great Courses downloads were painfully slow.
We decided we had to do something. We were constantly getting mailings from Charter cable advertising television, internet, and phone bundles. So I called and spent a while on the phone with the Charter representative. It took me a while to convince her that we did not want phone, but when I explained that we had four lines (our home line, my business line, plus Terry's business and fax lines) she finally got the message.
I had called on Saturday. We were pleased that they were able to install on Tuesday. The installer showed up over an hour after the end of the installation window. But once here he got off to a good start, running a new line for the Internet router in my loft. He obviously ran out of steam, though, because after installing the upstairs television properly, downstairs he just ran a cable loosely around the front room instead of installing a new outlet. But by this time it was after 4:00 pm and he had been there for more than three hours. I pretended I didn't see it and signed the paperwork. The other issue was that he didn't have a DVR, and we had ordered DVR service downstairs. Didn't he even look at his work orders at the start of the day? In any case, I thought I'd call the next day and get this all worked out. That's where Charter customer service became impressive.
He had not been gone ten minutes when the phone rang and I got an automated phone survey from Charter. The last question was, "Were you happy with the installation?" I punched the response for No. I was asked "Do you want to speak to a representative?" I punched the answer for Yes. I was transferred to a Charter service person. I have to say that I love talking to Charter's call center. It is somewhere in the South, and the people are most pleasant to speak with. The woman was most helpful and said someone could be out the next day between three and five to wire the downstairs outlet properly. Then she put me on hold to ensure that a DVR would be available. She got back on the line and said that there would definitely be a DVR on the truck the next day. I was happy. I got on the treadmill.
While I was on the treadmill the local Charter contractor called and told Terry that they could be there in five minutes with the DVR. Terry asked if they could take care of the wiring as well. They said they certainly could. It was fifteen minutes, but so what.
The service man started by running a new cable for the outlet on the correct side of the room. (Why the original guy didn't do that at the same time he ran the cable for the Internet, I have no clue. They followed the same path.) I finished on the treadmill, and after I got out of the shower Terry and I swapped placed so she could go upstairs and take a bath. The doorbell rang and another guy from the Charter contractor was there. He was obviously a supervisor. He apologized and took pictures of the loosely strung cable with his iPhone. He then went outside to help the other serviceman.
It was after 7:00 pm by the time they were done, but they had done the job right and had done the job well. By the time they left the house Charter had two very happy new customers.
So now we have fast Internet which delights us no end. (Speeds can vary greatly, but we knew that going in.) We have cable TV instead of DirecTV satellite, and there are some trade-offs there, but trade-offs we can live with. More on those trade-offs tomorrow.

perceptions on health and wholeness

The loss of Jack Lalanne last month had a lot of us recalling our memories of him. I remember watching him growing up. It had to have been only during the summer and on school holidays and vacations, because he was on weekday mornings. But this video immediately reminded me about how, when he wanted to talk to the audience, he would turn his chair around backwards and lean on the back as he spoke.

The video must have been from a show in the late fifties or early sixties. It was interesting to hear him talk about healthy nutrition and fresh food, and about how material goods don't buy happiness, just because those are not attitudes we associate with that era.

It's well worth your three minutes: both a time capsule and an uplifting message at the same time. Enjoy! (And thanks to Mark Sandstrom for this.)

 

 

a Charlie Brown Christmas

I rarely agree with Mallard Fillmore. He's about as far to the right as I am to the left. But when he's nailed it he's nailed it. And he's nailed it here.