July 1, 2010

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 five 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."

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