Time Warner CEO Helps Customer on Street Scare Time Warner Employee
From the NY Post (purportedly; We couldn't find a link, but we're dumb.)
January 4, 2006 -- TIME Warner CEO Dick Parsons stuck up for one of his customers during a stroll down Seventh Avenue on Monday morning. Hedge fund manager Jeff Green was on his cellphone arguing with a Time Warner Cable customer service rep when he recognized Parsons on the street and walked over to him. Parsons patiently listened as Green recounted how he'd gotten up early to pick up a new cable box in person - thus bypassing a $30 installation fee - only to find out the office was closed when he'd been told it would be open. The service rep, who wasn't being especially cooperative, suddenly changed his tune and agreed to waive the installation fee when Green informed him Parsons was standing next to him and was sympathetic to his plight.Clearly the answer to our customer service problem is to create more CEOs. As many as one per customer. (Thanks, David!)
This is a test using rich text formatting and html links. It's the generic "company" ad that should appear on all posts with the Company category if they don't have an ad attached to a specific company.
Post a comment
Comments:
Well, clearly the less on here is: whenever you're having trouble with a big company, tell them that the CEO is standing right next to you & sympathetic to your plight. The customer service rep you're talking to is sure to immediately believe you.
I think this is a variant on "Eating your own dog food" -- using your own company's products and services.
There are a lot of rational CEOs and execs out there that would be angered or ashamed by some of their companies' behaviors and policies -- behaviors that perhaps were put in place by middle management instead of at the highest levels. If those at the top let themselves be removed from the customers' situation by layers and layers of management, they have no idea of the kind of crappy experience that their custoemr are getting and they will do nothing to change it.
(Of course, some execs are shameless and have insitiuted bad customer-related policies themselves. Their companies probably cannot be helped.)
I cannot imaging an exec at one of the major airlines regularily flying coach on one of his company's flights, or even dealing with the phone tree of his company's customer phone line. These airlines are old and dying, for the most part. On the other hand, the CEO for JetBlue, a young, thriving airline, takes JetBlue flights and chats with customers.
It was on Page Six yesterday, so it has to be true!