A year ago this week, following a disastrous few months of very public customer service humiliations, Comcast promoted Charlie Herrin to be the Vice President, Making Company Look Less Awful (Note: This may not be his official title). The company subsequently promised that customer service “will be our best product,” resulting in more than a few snickers from Comcast subscribers. Now it’s time to see if these leadership changes and vague boasts are going to get results.

The Oregonian reports that Comcast’s service areas in Oregon and parts of Washington state (once again thousands of miles away from Comcast’s home HQ here in Philadelphia…) will be part of a test program for the company’s hopefully revamped customer service experience.

Among the changes are a revised and simplified cable bill that Comcast hopes customers will be able to understand more easily.

Of course, having a bill that customers can read doesn’t do anything if Comcast’s billing department is still making mistakes. That’s a much bigger issue that can’t be changed with a cosmetic makeover but requires systemic improvement.

Speaking of window-dressing, Comcast stores in Oregon are getting a remodel so that customers who have come in to complain about their bills can be given a guided tour of all the great other products and services they could be buying from Comcast. Hey, at least the offices look less like something out of some Orwellian nightmare.

The Tech Tracker service — first unveiled in Boston last November — continues to be part of Comcast’s new and improved customer service rollout.

The tracker is intended to let customers get a better idea of when their install/repair tech will eventually show up. It also provides the customer with a photo preview of the tech that is coming in the hopes of preventing home-invaders from entering victims’ homes under the pretense of a cable tech appointment.

Comcast is also testing a program that takes customers whose problems were not solved on a first attempt and puts them in touch with a special customer service team trained to resolve problems without having to pass the customer on to yet another person.

Why Oregon? The Oregonian reports that Comcast chose the area because the company’s positive internal metrics don’t exactly match up with the not-positive customer service data for the market.

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