Cablefax The Magazine - July 2010 - 31

INDEPENDENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AWARD
WOW!
Let's cut to the chase. Last year in the J.D. Power survey
Denver-based overbuilder WOW! achieved the highest customer
satisfaction ranking in all its service regions for video,
Internet and phone. That's never been done. By anybody.
More? That makes 10 JDP awards in fi ve years.
" I've never seen a company more focused on customer
service, " says ACA COO/VP Rob Shema. " And it starts at
the top " with [Pres/CEO] Colleen Abdoulah and [SVP of
Customer Care] Mike Furst, he adds.
While J.D. Power recognition is nice, " whether we win
[awards] or not, it doesn't change who we are or how we
treat each other or our customers...the focus will always
remain on taking care of the customer, " Furst said during a
Webinar earlier this year. " The true measure of our efforts
comes from the voices of our customers.... "
Customers " are our lifeblood and we know they have a
choice...so one of the ways we differentiate is [by] offering...
the very best customer experience possible...but most
important, we have to perform at this level consistently.... "
How does WOW! do this? Privately held, it's " obsessively
focussed " on the customer, Abdoulah says. So, it's
not so much what it does as how. WOW! believes
it's not selling cable as much as it's selling customer
service, creating a superior customer experience
that results in " WOW! Moments " for subscribers.
" We have a fundamental belief that a great customer
experience can only happen if you have a similar employee
experience...It's about the golden rule we all learned in
school - treat everyone the way you'd want to be treated, "
Furst said. " It's pretty simple really, happy employees equal
happy customers. So we put tremendous focus and energy
into ensuring employees have all the necessary skills and
tools to do their jobs...and to do them very well. "
There's also WOW!'s internal customer service model. It
holds there are two types of customers in the company: " Those
who are directly interacting and serving...bill-paying
customers; and everyone else who needs
to be serving those who are serving the
external customer...This model helps to
clarify our complex business, establish
priorities, and ensure strong integration
across the many customer touch
points in the company. And it serves
as a continual reminder of the most
important parts of our company - our
employees and our customers. "
HE'S GOT THE POWERS: Customer
Care chief Mike Furst insists satisfied
customers, not 10 J.D. Power
Awards in 5 years, produce
WOW! Moments.
INDEPENDENT TECHNOLOGY AWARD
The Massillon PSIP Team
Change can be wonderful, but at times unnerving. That's
why Massillon Cable TV decided to gently ease its 45K
subs into the digital age last year.
Led by our '09 Independent Strategic Thinker of the
Year, Bob Gessner, Massillon was one of the first indies
to go all-digital, eliminating its last analog channel in
July '09. Yet Gessner and Massillon have so much concern
for subscribers, they wanted to soften what could
have been perceived as an abrupt technological blow.
That led Massillon and vendors RGB Technology and
Conax to deftly massage PSIP (Program and System
Information Protocol), allowing subs who watch digital
TV without a set-top converter to find their favorite (now
digital) nets in all the old, familiar places on the dial. For
example, if during the analog era subs had received ESPN
as Channel 27, the team maneuvered PSIP data so it would
CableFAX: The Magazine
July 2010
appear in a very similar position, 27.1, in the all-digital confi
guration. " The power of PSIP data becomes apparent when
you don't use it, " Gessner says. " Suddenly, the networks
are a jumble of numbers with no semblance of order and no
relationship to the channel numbers viewers have used for
many years. "
Massillon Headend Technician Mike Meeks led the effort.
The PSIP lineup launched last summer.
PSIP is a technical standard that identifi es programming
and channel information. The biggest challenge was getting
new channel data to work consistently on all TVs. " Some
set manufacturers handle the information differently, " Meeks
says. " It was a lengthy process, since there are dozens, if not
hundreds, of digital tuner variations, " Gessner adds.
The next steps, Meeks says, include " adding guide data
for channels so customers can see the name and description
of the program they're watching. "
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31
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Cablefax The Magazine - July 2010

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