MBA-FBX5002 Ammlung Bobbi Assessment 1 Attempt 3 PDF

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Critical Thinking in Action

Critical Thinking in Action Bobbi Ammlung Capella University

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Critical Thinking in Action

Introduction Negative customer service experiences can directly impact a company’s reputation, revenue, and retention. The leaders of Panera Bread were able to effectively use critical thinking and VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) to solve their customer service mosh pit problem. Companies like Comcast have had several customer service issues over the years including their ability to meet appointments timely, customer retention policy, and the behavior of their customer service representatives. This paper will discuss customer service issues Comcast experienced, how they used critical thinking to solve their customer service problems, and how VUCA can affect their solutions. Comcast’s Customer Service Problem Comcast is a telecommunication service company that has had several customer service issues over the years that were highly publicized in the media. Their customer service policy regarding customer retention made it difficult for customers to cancel their Comcast service. The customer retention team would use tactics to convince the customer to remain with Comcast despite what the customer wanted. These tactics were extremely aggressive, and the retention specialists would even become aggressive directly to the customers. For example, a Comcast customer called in to cancel her service with Comcast and received the final bill where a Comcast representative changed the customer’s husband’s name from Ricardo to “Asshole” Brown [ CITATION Ash15 \l 1033 ]. Another issue with Comcast was their long wait times to receive a service technician at their homes to fix any issues and would range up to a service window of 8 hours. Thinking Critically to Solve Comcasts Customer Service Problem Applying the framework for thinking critically will help solve problems that can be complex. Comcast used clarity to define what their problem is and what goal they wanted to achieve which was improving their Net Promoter Score by improving their customer experience. It was clear they had a customer service issue which stems from their customer service representatives not being properly trained or being held to a high standard. Once Comcast was clear on the problem and their goals, they were able to come up with solutions. These solutions were to hire a customer experience person to help retrain their customer service employees and hire 5000 additional customer service representatives to handle the call volume. (Frankel, 2017) Their goal was to improve their Net Promoter score around customer satisfaction. Another solution was to improve arrival time for their technicians and providing follow up calls to their customers to ensure the problem was fixed. Once Comcast had their solutions, they implemented these changes immediately.

Comcast CEO Charlie Herrin stated, We said it was three-year goal. We revealed that plan in May of 2015. So, we went to the board of directors. We went to our business counterparts and our functional leads in the

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Critical Thinking in Action

business. We went to the employees and said, Look, these are the kinds of things we're going to be delivering over the next three years. And we had a framework for that. [CITATION Rob181 \l 1033 ] Once Comcast had solutions, they included the entire organization with the plan and expectations to execute. Comcast outlined some of the changes they made to improve the customer experience by updating the customer service policy written in 2017, “Our on-time arrival rate for technicians coming to your home has improved to over 97 percent. Our success rate for solving your issue on the FIRST call is up by 7 percent, getting us closer to our goal of fixing it right the first time, every time.” The initiative to improve customer service also includes a new callback feature that allows customers to schedule a call, rather than wait on hold indefinitely. Comcast has also introduced shorter appointment windows and real-time tracking that will let you know when the technician arrives — plus $20 off the next bill if the technician misses or is late for an appointment. [ CITATION Dan19 \l 1033 ] Comcast identification of problems, solutions, and executing these actions helped improve their Net Promoter score however they need to continue using the critical thinking framework to continuously identify any new or unresolved customer service problems, improve products, services, and employee skills. [ CITATION Sni20 \l 1033 ] My recommendation for Comcast would be to use the Net Promotor score data to identify customers’ needs and issues. Another recommendation, if customers are scoring their interaction with a customer service representation 7 or lower (out of 10), management should make courtesy calls to those customers to resolve any remaining issues and attempt to repair the interaction. After solutions are in place Comcast also must consider what may get in their way which we discuss in the next section.

Applying VUCA to Comcasts Business Situation When problem solving, a business must consider what potentially will get in the way by applying VUCA. Volatility can impact the results of the solution as it may take time for these changes to occur or show results. By the time the employees are trained the customer may need something different entirely. Uncertainty could mean that change is possible but not guaranteed. Comcast must be prepared that their solutions may not fix their customer service issues and improve their reputation. The complexity of their customer service problem despite investing in new technology and customer experience expert may not fix the problem due to employees having a difficult time adapting to the new customer service policy, management may not be capable or willing to implement the plan. Adding 5000 new employees will take time to build their customer service skills and retraining their current customer service representatives will take time to break bad habits. Ambiguity in the customer service policy may not be clear, concise, or executed as designed. My recommendation for decreasing volatility would be to continue to use measurements such as J.D Power, Net Promotor Score, or ACSI to identify if customers’ needs are changing or if your solution is working. By using the data, this will decrease uncertainty by understanding your customers timely. To decrease the complexity and ambiguity they would 3 Internal Information

Critical Thinking in Action

need to make sure employees are building new skills and management holds their employees accountable, using continuous improvement to identify customer service skill gaps. The customer service plan will need to be clear and concise of the goals and deadlines set forth by the company.

Conclusion In conclusion, Comcast has leveraged critical thinking to implement solutions to solve their customer service problems. However, they still have more work to do and by being consistent, using different measurement tools to understand the voice of the customer Comcast will continue to improve. Comcast has been successful thus far at improving their reputation with their customers and the success has come from investing in more training, technology, and execution in their strategy.

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References Feinberg, A. (2015, January 28). Comcast Changed Customer's Name to "Asshole Brown" But Is Totally Sorry. Retrieved from Gizmodo: https://gizmodo.com/comcast-changed-customers-name-toasshole-brown-but-i-1682409072 Frankel, D. (2017, November 10). Comcast claims ‘double digit’ improvement in Net Promoter Score. Retrieved from Fierce Video: https://www.fiercevideo.com/cable/comcast-claims-double-digitimprovement-net-promotor-score-since-customer-service-push Markey, R. (2018, September 06). Retrieved from The Net Promoter System Podcast: https://www.netpromotersystem.com/insights/inside-a-cable-giants-net-promoter-turnaroundnps-podcast/ Markey, R. (2018, September 06). How Follow-up Calls Can Inspire Change. Retrieved from The Net Promoter System Podcast: https://www.netpromotersystem.com/insights/how-follow-up-callscan-inspire-change-nps-podcast/ Miller, D. (2019). Why Does Comcast Have Such a Bad Reputation? Retrieved from Reviews.com: https://www.reviews.com/utilities/internet/why-does-comcast-have-such-a-bad-reputation/ Patel, S. (2020, June 16). 8 Proven Strategies to Improve Your Net Promoter Score (NPS). Retrieved from REVE Chat: https://www.revechat.com/blog/improve-net-promoter-score/#:~:text=Improving %20net%20promoter%20score%20(NPS,and%20increase%20customer%20lifetime%20value.

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