This describes an encounter with Comcast a friend of mine had in 2007:
They could save a lot of money by eliminating all non-sales jobs from their corporation.
This isn’t Comcast, at least not just Comcast, this is the standard way that companies work nowadays.
Comcast tells the rep what to do.
Rep, treats the customer like sh*t, gets his money. **
Random customer complains.
Comcast blames the Rep.
Reps blame management.
Round of “Comcast is evil” tweets
Round of “Reps are abused” articles to share on FB
Nothing happens.
There are two missing pieces which will prevent change:
Customers no longer vote with their wallet (We don’t, I won’t convince most people of this, I know, but in a world where rich people have the most of the money, its hard for your dollars’ vote to count e.g., SuperPACs)
Customer’s expect companies to feel shame for being outed (They don’t), they act with the certainty that if they themselves were found out to be guilty of such reprehensible behavior, they would correct that behavior, (They wouldn’t. Its also predicated on Comcast being misguided and not purposefully bullish)
** (Yes they get the money, this is why they keep doing it, No it doesn’t mean they get everybody’s money, but enough people’s money that its worth it)
reminds me of
That’s hard to do in a monopoly market. I suppose you could cut the cord and go back to newspapers and letters.
There’s another factor that makes the situation even worse: outsourcing. That call center dude may or may not have worked directly for Comcast. There’s a good chance he worked for Call Center Inc, which is contracted to do retention work for Comcast.
That way, Comcast isn’t responsible for the rep’s behavior at all. They just lean on the contractor, and the contractor tells their employees to get those numbers up or they’re fired. If they do well, the owners of the call center get a bonus. If they do poorly, there’s another call center in Bangalore. And if the rep totally abuses the customer, there’s enough layers of responsibility that nobody gets blamed - and nothing gets changed.
And that’s the plausible deniability I’m talking about, Of course Comcast is responsible, blaming the rep is a work, a handwave. The rep only does what Comcast tells him to do and gets fired if he doesn’t.
(Full disclosure: I worked for one of these call centers, thankfully not in anything to do with money or Comcast)
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