Improving Quality

Introduction

As consumers we are engaged in transactions with numerous companies for their products and services, as a result of this our interactions often time go further than the purchase of the product or service. There may be situations where we have to engage in a return, adjustment, or some type of service. Minimally we expect the courtesy of having simple questions answered, by the company's customer service department and without cost, or so we think. This research paper takes a look at Comcast, the quality of service their customers receive, and what that service literally costs them.

The Comcast Corporation is a publicly traded telecommunications and mass media company in the United States; in fact it is one of the largest cable companies. Comcast was founded in Tupelo, Miss in 1963; today Comcast has over 129,000 employees to service their roster of products and services. Comcast's roster of products and services include entertainment in the form of cable television, information services such as broadband/wireless internet, and communication products such as phone service. Comcast is even branching out into the home security and monitoring business, adding yet another service to its Mass Media Empire. Comcast is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but provides products and services to millions of customers in 40 states and the District of Columbia.

Comcast Corporation is such a large company, servicing such a large population, that the company is toeing the line of monopolizing the market.

Problem Statement

Many organizations depend on customer relationships to generate sales, improved business, and repeat business; therefore it is extremely important to maintain the quality of those relationships. Many organizations have recognized the need for a broad new approach to quality management. If companies begin to offer improved quality management, companies can reduce costs, improve customer satisfaction, reduce risk, and increase income. The issue with Comcast is their monopoly like business practices make customers feel trapped in an abusive relationship. From the outside Comcast provides highly accessible customer service call centers, 24 hours a day 7 days per week, this seems like high quality customer service, but there are several problems, a customer service is inconsistent, unreliable, and expensive to the customer. Thanks to regulations imposed by the FCC, there are now comparable options available to consumers to choose as opposed to Comcast. Comcast still fails to realize the value of their customers, and the threat as more and more viable options become available to customers.

Literature Review

In the article Cable TV Rules (1998) Quill describes the cable TV industry, the competition between cable and satellite TV providers. And how the FCC regulations played in regulating prices. In the article Public Utility (2013), the writer talks about how the FCC played a role in the structure of determining what can be considered a public utility, companies like ATT, were in danger of being taken over by the state as a public utility in order to regulate prices and provide consumers with needed services like a telephone. The article The Role of Quality Management in Customer Management Service (2008) NelsonHall defines quality as it relates to customer focused organizations. Voice of the Customer (2013) Griffin describes the importance of recognizing customer requirements and learning to build a quality structure that meets those requirements. Indiana BMV get Top Honors (2010), Chapman highlights the success of a several decade long quality improvement program by the Indian BMV, received top honors for their complete turnaround in slashing wait times, to improving overall customer service. Federal Communication Commission articles gave background and insight on FCC policy, procedures, and reasons for regulations on prices.

Analysis

In today's high tech world, there are options like accessing your favorite programming from your handheld device, using only the mobile data network through the cell phone company. While with this is it may seem the competition is vast, for a company like Comcast it is still one of the major contenders and they know it. It shows in the manner which they interact with customers, the quality of service they provide, and their lack luster way of resolving issues. From the outside it looks as if Comcast has become more customer focused, they have run a series of television commercial promoting their new scheduling program that will not have customers waiting their whole day for a service call. In reality what often happens, is the technicians reschedule appointments with customer knowledge, telling them that they tried to call but no one answered so the technician did not show up. This seemed to be one of the top complaints about Comcast in the forums where customers go to vent. So it looks like the Comcast is using the "Voice of the Customer", techniques to improve customer service, but in reality no changes have really been made. Comcast needs to really listen to the voice of their customer, "in order to capture customer requirements." (Gaskin 2010)

Of course, before we implement quality, it may help to establish a common definition of the term. A number of organizations involved in establishing standards or methodologies - such as ISO, ASQ and others - provide specific definitions relating to quality management, continual improvement or other aspects of quality. Thought leaders such as W. Edwards Deming, Joseph Juran and others have added insightful observations on the nature of quality in the world of business.

Organizations often have their own understanding of quality. Quality issues in customer-driven organizations, companies define quality in many ways. Most define it in terms of measuring and setting service standards and metrics, with the goals of controlling costs, reducing risk in their customer focused areas, improving customer satisfaction and generating new revenues (NelsonHall 2008).

Customers are often the single most valuable asset a company has. Organizations can leverage quality management to gain peace of mind in their customer focused activities by reducing the risk of alienating customers, drawing bad press coverage, failing to meet compliance requirements or suffering other unexpected setbacks. .

A basic definition of quality values both "efficiency," which in this context means "doing things right," and "effectiveness," by which we mean "doing