Growing up in Oregon there was one sensible player in town when it came to internet service. Where I was in particular, unless you lived under a rock and only needed internet speeds allowing you to monitor email a few times a week, download single JPEGs, or occasionally Google something, then you needed fast-speed internet from this one provider [I won’t name names].
Looking back, there were some things that this company did well enough. Their internet performance cut the mustard, but where they consistently scored zero and one-star ratings was support and account services. A constant source of frustration to all their users.
It was the usual suspects of complaints: complicated pricing models, surprise price hikes, incompetent/unsympathetic support agents, and long wait times which I had grown accustom to. So, when I moved to Southern California, I expected the same domineering abuse from my new provider… boy was I wrong!
From the get-go, Spectrum offered two internet options for high-speed and super-high-speed internet at a base price for 12-months that increased 25% thereafter but never raised again. That was the simplicity I always wanted and never got from my previous provider.
For two years the high-speed package worked fine, but when COVID hit and I was taking 100% of meetings remotely, I needed to upgrade. With Spectrum, the upgrade process was simple. Beautiful!
It was self-service in the sense that I logged into my account, clicked the button that said “+$20/mo.” and my modem restarted automatically with new internet speeds instantly clocking 5X faster than before.
I was not finished though; I wanted more. I wanted a new router because mine got old. So, I called into support ready to do combat with an uncooperative agent, but what I got instead was a friendly man who understood my needs and got me a new router in two minutes – free.
I was so blown away that I sat back to ponder how much better it felt to be treated as a valued customer than what I was used to feeling like after spending hours on the line with my old provider. In the end, it just reinforced my core belief that customer experience matters so much; both monetarily, and on a human-virtue level.
Without the benefit of having a monopoly on market share – which is the case for 99% of businesses – customer experience makes and breaks company success.
Have you ever been blown away by a surprisingly great client experience? Share your story on LinkedIn and let us know.
– Lee Sumner, Sr. Research Analyst