While watching a recent tv show on my Comcast cable service, I saw an ad from the same company.  The smiling Comcast employee (or actor portraying one) proclaimed “The whole culture of the company is shifting to customer service!”

As early as 2004, the American Customer Satisfaction Index reported that Comcast had the worst customer satisfaction score of any company or governmental agency in the United States.  Comcast even beat out the Internal Revenue Service in the race to the bottom.  Comcast repeated the achievement in 2007.  There is even a Wiki page reporting on the Criticism of Comcast.

The Comcast statement raises several questions.  What was the culture before this change?  Why is this shift occurring?  What is driving this shift?

It is unfortunate when a company has to advertise that they are increasing their customer service rather than demonstrating it.