Well done Charter, people would prefer to buy bundled services from AT&T because they think phone companies provide better customer service than cable companies. Both cable companies and telecoms rank towards the bottom of the American Customer Satisfaction Index.

A survey from a Michigan consulting group found that 54% of customers looking to purchase bundled services in the next year would prefer to patronize a phone company, compared to 44% of consumers who would buy from their cable company. The difference may seem slight, but it represents a serious threat to cable companies. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Now heavyweights AT&T and Verizon, which have enjoyed better results on customer service surveys, are encroaching on Charter’s core business in markets nationwide. That lends more urgency to fixing customer service woes, said Joe Stackhouse, Charter’s senior vice president for customer operations.

“We need to continue to improve our service,” he said. “We know we’re not where we need to be.”

Charter has worked on integrating its call centers, to get calls answered faster, Stackhouse said, and recently set up a “day of” desk, to quickly help customers with problems on the day of an installation or a service visit.

Customer service isn’t just about answering the phone quickly. People hate Charter with a seething passion because of the company’s pigheaded unwillingness to solve the most basic complaints. Telling customers “no” faster won’t help.

CONSUMERS: Telco ‘bundles’ more attractive than cable’s [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
(AP Photo/Tom Gannam)

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