Archives for June 2008

I have been a long time Comcast customer for their cable TV and Internet services. Earlier this year, I added on their phone service. That brought the need to run another line to my house.

Since it was winter, the ground was frozen, and they said they’d come back in the spring to bury the cable.

The ground thawed, and nobody showed up. We called Comcast, and they sent somebody out to take a look. They said somebody would be there in a week or so to bury the cable.

A month passed, and the cable was still snaking across my lawn – primed to get caught up in the blades of a lawn mower.

I’d been putting off another call to Comcast, because a decade of customer service experience with them established that dealing with them was an exercise in frustration and aggravation.

How many times did I call about Internet outages before I finally learned that there was just one response from tech support: “unplug your modem and plug it back in.”

I would always call after that didn’t work and that’s all they had for me.

But then I remembered a post from Mike Arrington at TechCrunch about Comcast customer service via Twitter.

Comcast has a guy named Frank Eliason from Comcast Customer Outreach in Philadelphia, PA on Twitter @comcastcares.

So I posted a Tweet to @comcastcares:

@comcastcares does it usually take many months for new cable leading to my house to be buried?

I got a response from Frank @comcastcares an hour later asking for more details:

@affiliatetip NO – Send me an email and I will have it taken care of. Include phone # on account & contact # We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com

So I responded and shortly after I got a phone call from a very apologetic lady (I forget her name) at Comcast. She was really helped and assured me that they would expedite the job.

Then my doorbell rings and Gregg McKissock, the Technical Operations Manager at the local Comcast office, is there to ask for some details and check things out.

I got another call or two that evening to update me on the progress and a further follow-up a day or two later.

Earlier this week, the job was completed, and I’ve got a renewed opinion of Comcast.

I’ve gone from seeing them as a necessary evil to being a raving fan. Thanks a lot to Frank @comcastcares for setting things in motion.

How can your company use Twitter as a touchpoint to assist and please customers?

GoldenCAN, a data feed solution for affiliates and merchants, has announced two new features, a Keyword Store and Keyword Category Store.

These are good solutions for affiliates that don’t have a working knowledge of data feeds, but want to create niche storefronts.

Keyword Store
“Keyword Store” option enables you to create a store for any specific keyword or search term such as DVD player, Camera, apparel, Shoes, Camcorder.

Keyword Store will display the search results depending on how many and what kind of merchants you have in your store. There is no limit on how many merchants you can have in your keyword store. You can add as many merchants as you like as long as you are approved for the merchant’s affiliate program. Keyword Store gives you the ability of having unique combination of products and contents on your website.

Keyword Category Store
“Keyword Category Store” option enables you to create a store for multiple keywords or search terms as categories.

Once you create the Keyword Category Store, you can add up-to 15 sub categories under the store. You can define the display text and search keyword for each individual category. This way you can create a unique store with different categories.

Keyword Category Store and Each sub category will display the search results depending on how many and what kind of merchants you have in your store.

More details at http://www.goldencan.com/news_updates-133.aspx.

Recently, the Federal Trade Commission issued an approved set of final rules modifying the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.

The FTC’s final rules provide marketers with a set of regulations that address some of CAN-SPAM’s biggest challenges, and, more importantly, the regulations align some of the Act’s provisions with industry reality.

If you are emailing, you are required to understand the regulations and, where applicable, modify practices to conform to the new CAN-SPAM requirements that go into effect on July 7th, 2008.

The Email Sender & Provider Coalition (ESPC) and UnsubCentral have teamed up to help marketers discover the information needed to successfully navigate the new CAN-SPAM rule provisions.

Date: Tuesday, June 10
Time: 2PM EST/11AM PST
Duration: 45 Minutes

Some things you will learn on this call:

• How to clearly interpret the new regulations
• How the new rules affect your daily business
• How the new rules will apply to different scenarios
• What you need to know to avoid legal issues