Omni-Channel Customer Engagement Article

Even famous people get the shaft when it comes to cable customer service.

Saturday Night Live’s "Weekend Update" co-host Colin Jost is just like everyone else when it comes to dealing with one’s triple-play provider: frustrated. But unlike the average consumer, he has a rabid Twitter (News - Alert) following that can be motivated to fight back.

Jost went public via Twitter recently, saying that he’s been the victim of absolutely horrific Time Warner (News - Alert) Cable customer service. During what he says has been four months of problems with his service, he ran up against a monolithic wall of unhelpfulness. After numerous visits from technicians, totaling seven hours of time in his apartment, dozens upon dozens of calls, and a pull-no-punches social back-and-forth via Twitter and other “touchpoints” with TWC, it all resulted in, well, no results.

Then Jost dropped the nuclear option and exhorted his nearly 100,000 Twitter followers to switch to Verizon (News - Alert). At one point he even offered $50 to anyone who did.

Verizon’s response was classic: “@TheColinJost Just throwing this out there: we're in full support of this plan,” Tweeted the telco.

TWC eventually credited Jost $18.75 for his troubles, but didn’t manage to fix the problem. Nor did it appear to be concerned.

“He did prove one thing -- Time Warner Cable treats all its customers equally,” said the Motley Fool, in an analysis. “Being on TV did not help the star get his problem fixed, nor did it stop him from receiving the unhelpful, patronizing attempts at service the company has become famous for.”

The Fool added, “Essentially, Time Warner Cable is a company living on borrowed time. It has lousy customer service and ranks at the bottom of the most recent American Consumer Satisfaction Index report for pay-television companies and fourth from the bottom as an Internet service provider. In both cases, the company ranks well below average in the two categories that are themselves the lowest-ranked industries scored by ACSI.”