Comcast Balloons ‘Social Care Team’ To Stop Damaging Customer Service Stories From Going Viral

Comcast Cares… about its image. Comcast has never ranked highly when it comes to customers satisfaction and is a two-time winner of The Consumerist’s “Worst Company in America” title. The broadcasting/telecommunications giant has come under immense fire in recent months for the way it has treated customers, including changing one customer’s name to “Asshole Brown” on their bill and missing 14 scheduled appointments to install service at a residence. The last incident resulted in Comcast CEO Brian Roberts having a “stern talking to” from him momma.

These stories have been a thorn in the side of Comcast, as they usually start out small with an angry tweet from a customer and then go viral as news organizations (online, print, and TV) pickup the story. However, Comcast is looking to talk customers off the ledge by beefing up its “social care team.”

According to the Comcast, it will triple the size of its team that scours Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social media platforms to reach out to customers in need of assistance. Comcast’s aim is to solve each customer’s problem in a timely fashion before he or she becomes truly disgruntled.

“We have a great team dedicated to helping our customers on social,” writes Tom Karinshak, Senior Vice President of Customer Service for Comcast. “Their mission is to provide care and support to anyone who needs help, wherever they want it.”

That is definitely admirable of Comcast, but it’s this next statement that got quite a chuckle out of me. “The social care team has access to all the same advanced tools and training as our call center agents do, which means they can quickly jump in to solve problems.  They also have a direct line to our tech teams so they can schedule appointments.”

It’s funny because those are all Comcast areas of “expertise” that have fallen well short in the viral stories that continue to pop up around the Internet. Comcast can keep throwing bodies at the problem, but until there is an internal change of culture, customers may never find solace with company.