The WOW! Buzz » Bill Wright

Now It’s Time to Say Goodbye…..

Bill Wright — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 13:00:59 +0000

I can’t believe this year has come and gone so quickly. And with the year coming to an end, so will my blog posting for the “Customer Experience / Support” section of this site.

The idea for the New Year will be to combine the “Customer Experience / Support” with the “Culture” and “Education” sections and create the new “Voices of WOW!” These new posting will be from the WOW! senior leadership team, giving you thier perspective and views of what is in the works for WOW!. We would love to hear from you and find out what topics you would like to talk about as well.

Thank you to all that have contributed to the articles and to those of you that have responded!! I have had great time writing these articles and responded to our customers.

Have a very Happy and Safe Holiday Season!!!

Sincerely,

William Wright
CEO Customer Advocate
WOW! Internet, Cable and Phone

Is WOW! available for you?

Bill Wright — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:49:25 +0000

The Check Serviceability department ensures every specific address request is measured by the probability that it can receive the products and services offered by WOW! Internet, Cable and Phone. In order for WOW! to determine if an addresses can be serviceable; location of our cable footprint must be known. The most common issue with address data entry is ensuring that every address submitted is clean and follows a DPV (deliver point verification) standard. This becomes magnified when entry of the data is spread over many departments and/or customer care representatives, and a large serviceable area. Bad addresses or non standard data entry can derail the serviceability process and can cause serviceability components (like Geographical Information Systems mapping or DPV systems) to fail. Currently today WOW! has implemented address verification tools to help review the address submittals for data accuracy.
To conclude; the aim for checking serviceability is to instantaneously determine the likelihood that a submitted address is WOW! serviceable. This determination will have the company save money and resources, allowing WOW! to shorten the duration between service requests and the point of install.

It is Tough All Over

Bill Wright — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 15:10:50 +0000

It is that time of the year again where, not only does the cost of living go up, the cost of doing business goes up as well. In order to support our customers and deliver the best customer experience possible, some customers are experiencing a rate adjustment this year. We do understand that these are difficult times and many people are just getting by. We all do our best to stick to a budget, especially this time of year. At the same time, our loyal customers must realize that in order to provide the incredible service, you have grown to know from WOW!, rates from time to time will need to be adjusted. When the station providers increase their rates, we must also in order to stay in business. Also, with the high demand for streaming video across the WOW! network, WOW! will have to invest in our technical network to ensure we deliver the quality and reliability our customers deserve.

This is not something that WOW! enjoys doing but it is something that needs to be done in order to bring the service to you. WOW! is always looking for the best balance of the needs of our customer with the very real cost of doing business.

Happy Holidays to you and yours!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Bill Wright — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 12:52:56 +0000

I wanted to give a little bit of my “Customer Experience” I have had with WOW!.

I have always known that WOW! was a place that gave back to the community and back to their employees but a few special memories stick out for me.

I remember a call that came in from a customer that had been late on the payments and having a very hard time getting by. They were just trying to make some arrangements to pay the bill. I do understand that cable TV is not a privilege and you can do without it, in most cases but to some it is the only contact with the outside that they get. I remember hearing that for the holidays, all the person really wanted was new towels for the bathroom. That’s it!! That is all the person wanted was her bathroom to look nice with new towels in it. That really put things into perspective. And guess what happened? Those towels, she had been wantin,g showed up at the home and you will never guess where they came from. What a company!!!!!

This Thanksgiving, WOW! was able to give 20+ families Thanksgiving dinner that they wouldn’t have been able to afford on their own. An Angel Tree has been set up in the lobby of the Call Center with the Holliday wishes of children. We can’t seem to keep the requests on the tree because the employees are buying and wrapping gifts for these children.

This is just part of what I am thankful for. Being a part of a team that when the going got tough, they got tougher. Always giving and never asking anything in return.

It’s that time of year when you are supposed to look back and think of the things you are most thankful for. Why does it have to be only once a year? Why can’t we all take the time, everyday, to look at the things, and people, that we should be thankful for?

There are many things in life I am thankful for and I appreciate them all !!

Every day, I am thankful that I got out of bed on my own. What are you thankful for?

To Better Serve You…

Bill Wright — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 14:52:11 +0000

Have you ever had a problem, with a certain company, and the employees always seem to pass you off to another department? How about calling into a call center and, after being on hold for a horrible amount of time, the answer you get is” I am going to have to transfer you to that department” just to be placed on hold again. Not sure if that is a tactic to discourage your complaint or could it be that the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing?

In order to give the WOW! customer’s the best possible experience we can, we cross train our employees so they don’t have to transfer you somewhere else where you would have to explain everything all over again. Our employees sit with other departments to get a better understanding of what the customers want. WOW! also tries to hire, for internal departments, within the company. Therefore, the employees acquire a wider range of knowledge to better support the customer needs.

Of course, there will be times where you will need to talk to specific departments that are not the norm for a call center and can only be handled by them. But very few get passed our wonderful front line agents. They are really there to serve you !!

A Special Thank You!!

Bill Wright — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 15:16:29 +0000

I just wanted to take today’s blog to say a special “Thank You!!” to those of you that have served in the military.

To take a message from my FB friends:
A veteran is someone, who at one point in their life, wrote a blank check payable to the United States of America for an amount up to, and including, their life. That is beyond honor, and there are far too many people in this country who no longer remember that fact.

Thanks to all the men and women, who have fought for the freedom we all know and love today. To all of the veterans that have worked at WOW! to give you the wonderful experience and to all of you veterans out there, THANK YOU!!!!

William Wright
Army Veteran

It is Getting Tough Out There

Bill Wright — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 13:55:21 +0000

It’s getting to be that time of year when the stress starts to hit you. The holidays are approaching, the weather is getting colder, the economy is not doing so well and the kids are coming home from school.
At WOW! ,we understand that people are having a rough time, with all the stress that life hits you with. We prepare our customer service representatives (CSR) for exactly that. They understand the pressures you are experiencing and here to help you, not hurt you. They are living in the same world the rest of you are in (I hope so anyway). If you give the CSR a chance, I think you will be very surprised at what they can do for you to help you through these tough times. Please understand, these CSR’s take many calls throughout the day and every situation is not the same. In order to provide you with the best experience possible, you must be patient with them as you would like them to be with you.

A little kindness goes a long way!!!

http://stress.about.com/od/tensiontamers/a/stressrelievers.htm

Does it get Better than this?

Bill Wright — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 14:14:49 +0000

How would you like to work for a company and suggest an improvement and you are idea is actually taken into consideration? Wouldn’t that make you feel great?? It would make you feel like you really are a part of the company and not just a number for no one to see. Well (and I know you know what I am going to say to that) WOW! is a company that listens.

There is a program, here at WOW!, that lets the employees make suggestion to better help our customers. “What?” “Really?” you say? Absolutely!! Who better to listen to then the people that are interacting with our customer’s every day? There isn’t. All of the suggestions are taken into consideration and, if it is something that can be proven to help with the customer experience, it is put into place. Not all suggestions are implemented, due to whatever reason (cost, impossibilities, etc…) but everyone is read and discussed for either immediate or future implementation. Is that ridiculous? I don’t think so. That just shows another way the WOW! is listening to improve themselves with the help of the people that make this the wonderful company it is!!

If you, our valued customers, have a suggestion, I would love to hear it and pass it on to the rest of the organization for review.

Maintenance, Did you know….?

Bill Wright — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 21:15:38 +0000

The majority of scheduled maintenance work is performed between 1am and 5am local time. This timeframe is used because it impacts the least amount of customers that have WOW! service. Preventive maintenanace work is also performed at night Monday through Thursday. This time is used due to the low usage of Internet and Voice. Video has low usage during these hours but our VideoOnDemand product tends to have a higher usage. Because of this, we schedule maintenance for VideoOnDemand at 5am local time. Whenever maintenance is performed that will affect a large group of customers or a community for more the 15 minutes, we will deliver bulletins to the affected WOW! customers via computers within 48 hours of the scheduled work. We will also post this information on the Network Status page of the Customer Portal.

A Company that Cares!!

Bill Wright — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 13:19:21 +0000

Have you ever walked into a business and, after being treated poorly or not to your standards, looked back and said “If I ran that company, this is what I would do”? Or, have you ever worked for a customer that just wouldn’t listen to the employees about what really needs to happen to make the customer’s happy?

Well, WOW! really does care what is being said. We really do listen to the customer’s requests ,whether they are internal (employees) or external (Consumers). There is a mix of employees that get together to discuss what is being asked. Their job is to evaluate the suggestions and make sure that it is in the best interest of the customer’s as well as the interest of the company. If you think about it realistically, companies are in business to make money. But, without the customer’s, they will not have a business to run. So it is extremely important to listen to all of our customers in order to deliver the best customer experience possible.

I love working here at WOW! and our customers seem to enjoy the service too. Have I mentioned lately that WOW! just keeps winning awards for customer service?