Similarly, Comcast, our internet and TV provider, protects a…

Similarly, Comcast, our internet and TV provider, protects a privileged few from the complicated phone tree, long hold times, and useless text chats with virtual and human assistants that ordinary customers cannot escape. In early 2021, Bob Sutton called Comcast five times one week because the company shut off his service, failed to restore it, and made multiple billing er-rors. Bob learned about this privilege after a Comcast executive and a board member saw Bob's tweets that complained about his ordeal. Bob soon received an apologetic email from "Rich" from the "The Office of Tom Karinshak" (executive vice president and chief customer experience officer), and then "Dan" called and gave Bob a special phone number and email address for a VIP lounge of sorts. When Bob called the special number, "Kimberly" answered after two rings and provided fast, friendly, and excellent service. Kimberly explained she was on a small "personal service repre-sentatives" team in Arizona that (it seems) exists to spare VIPs (and, apparently, critics the company wants to cool out) from the inconveniences imposed on regular customers.

— from Takeoff Into Chaos · Friction Project : How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Har

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