There’s no official entertainment post today. I hope you are enjoying your Memorial Day with family and friends. But, let’s not forget the reason for today and that is to celebrate those who have served and currently serve here and abroad protecting our freedom. Thank you!
Career Pathing – the WOW! Way
Three days ago, I had the opportunity to train and teach three new technicians on the Career Path Program they will enter upon completion of their training. This program is designed to provide Broadband Technicians with a clear progression of skills, each of which represents a pay increase once the employee demonstrates he or she can perform the work and maintain certain performance metrics. It also provides technicians with the opportunity to become involved with, and be partly accountable for their progress through the different skill levels. Finally, it provides technicians the opportunity to earn pay increases in any given month of the year – pay increases that are skill-based and not tied to the annual review/merit increase process. A Career Path Program for Broadband Technicians seems logical, right? Since I provide this training almost every month, I was surprised to learn I’ve started taking it for granted.
This month we had an unusually lively group of technicians and they asked a lot of questions. As a result, I ended up describing the original Career Path program launched in 2003, and the iterations it had gone through over the past seven years to accommodate changes in our market, changes in our product offerings and changes in technology. As the training came to a close, one of the technicians spoke up and said, ‘You know, I worked for ‘X’ company for over three years. I never had a performance review from them, not even one, and I sure never got any pay increase because of my skills.’
I was more than surprised. No performance review in three years? No pay increase as the employee was able to perform more complicated work? I realized once again, that I sometimes take for granted the culture and core values of WOW!. We do pay for performance – top performers are rewarded in multiple ways at WOW!. We also pay competitively. If someone can do A, B, and C jobs, that someone should be making more than a coworker who can only perform A-type jobs. And we are committed to our annual review process. Employees deserve to get feedback, find out where they are excelling, where there is room for improvement and what they contribute to their team, their department and the business.
It’s a simple matter of Respect – treating employees the way anyone would like, no, the way anyone would expect to be treated
It’s also a matter of Integrity – doing the right thing and connecting compensation to skills and performance
It’s a simple matter of Accountability – making pay adjustments timely and appropriately
It’s a matter of Servanthood – showing employees that as managers, we know we owe it to them to follow the first three statements above.
There’s those Core Values again. They’re pervasive as all get-out at WOW!, even where compensation is concerned. Next month, when I stand up to train new technicians on the Career Path Program they’re about to enter, I will tell them about the real roots of the program – the Core Values that are the foundation of WOW!.
Communication, Camaradarie and Celebration
I just came from an All-Employee Meeting, or AEM as we sometimes call them. This is something WOW! locations do at least twice a year. At an AEM, we review our current company strategies and our progress against them from both performance and financial perspectives. Usually it takes place offsite, around a meal (breakfast) and it involves major maneuvering of work quota and route planning for our technicians. At this meeting we introduce any new or changing strategies and sometimes, like today, we have the opportunity to talk about new technology. Our CEO, Colleen Abdoulah usually wraps up the meeting (yes, in all six locations!) with a personal message. But FIRST, before we do any of that, we recognize and appreciate top performers and significant employee accomplishments.
Why does this kick off the meeting? Because employees at WOW! are so passionate about our business, so accountable for their role in it, and so dedicated to servanthood, the managers who design these meetings feel compelled to start out by recognizing the front line employees who make us successful.
Today, while our 300 employees arrived, assembled and ate breakfast before the meeting started, we ran a loop of selected WOW! Moments with pictures of the employees who created them. Year-to-date, this region’s employees have generated 2,780 customer compliments! When the formal meeting started, we applauded 88 employees who received perfect attendance bonuses (that’s 43% of the total eligible); we cheered for 31 STAR Performance technicians, we whooped it up for a dozen sales reps (almost 25% of the team) who have exceeded quota every month this year, and we clapped for the 11 employees who topped the region in Just Ask Service Protection Sales – over 400 transactions just from this group! Last but not least, we honored the 19 employees who were promoted so far, in 2010.
Only then did we go through performance numbers and progress this year, and at the half way point, we played a quick table game – designed to emphasize the power of teamwork. There was lots of chatter and camradarie as the game progressed because there were prizes for the top 3 performing tables. The second half of the meeting was dedicated to future strategies and a new technology that will set us apart from our competition, followed by the personal message from our CEO. And guess what? After Colleen delivered the ‘meat’ of her message, she ended by… appreciating and recognizing all the front line employees who literally drive our success.
Hmmm. I think there might be a message in there somewhere.
The Little Cable Company That Could
Once upon a time (2001) there was a little cable company with about 60 employees that decided to try and climb the hill of success… in spite of a fiercely competitive market with companies that had much, MUCH bigger engines. This little cable company called WOW! said to themselves, ‘We think we can, we think we can… if we can just live up to our name.’
In their first year of business they added internet service to their video products and started hiring and training employees to deliver a ‘memorable experience.’ Lo and behold, many residents started to switch to WOW!. Encouraged by the progress, the little cable company started hiring even more people who held the same core values: Respect, Integrity, Accountability and Servanthood. Business became brisk!
Much to the little cable company’s surprise a large percentage of their NEW customers were a direct result of their CURRENT customers sharing their happy, positive experiences. The company invited their customers to ‘refer-a-friend’ and continued their focus on exceptional service. The little cable company was proud to have employees who made such a good impression, so they made a steady practice of recognizing and rewarding their employees’ outstanding performances. They shared out the annual profits with everyone who worked there.
One day, a customer wrote a complimentary letter that talked about how the little cable company had ‘WOW’ed her’ and POOF! the WOW! Moment was born. Now the little cable company focused on providing WOW! Moments for their customers and for each other. The little cable company added phone as a third primary service, and kept chugging along, hiring really good people with strong, service-oriented values.
Eventually this little cable company grew to be 1300 strong. Over the years they won customer satisfaction awards from famous sources like JD Power and Associates, PC Magazine and Consumer Reports. But the little cable company didn’t take this for granted. Not at all. Always mindful of the bigger engines making noise on the tracks, the little cable company taught its employees that it was an honor and a privilege to serve others. The employees embraced this philosophy and always tried to leave their customers smiling.
Today, the little cable company is planning for its future by looking at the next hill and being fueled by appreciation for everyone who contributes to its success. ‘We think we can, we think we can… ’ As long as we keep our sense of appreciation and stay focused on WOW! Moments, the next hill will never be too big to climb.
A Day in the Life of a WOW! Customer Care Associate
Shelley - Customer Care Associate
The Day in the life, of a Customer Care Associate, is a hectic and demanding job. This position handles inbound customer calls primarily skilled at billing and cable trouble type calls.
The duties and responsibilities of the Customer Care Associate are:
Provides cable troubleshooting expertise by supporting analog and digital video equipment to include VOD ( Video On Demand), interactive guide, remote controls, and parental controls.
Troubleshoots poor video quality and unavailable channels the customer expects to receive.
Processes billing payments.
Provides information and answers questions on billing cycles, payment due dates and the impact of non-pay status.
Accurately educates the customer on general charges to their account based on package and proration when changes are made to the package.
Proactively analyzes the customer’s account, and educates the customer on other services that might be of interest.
I was fortunate enough to catch one of our Customer Care Associate, Shelley, during her busy schedule. She was nice enough to answer the following questions for me:
Tell me what a typical day in the life of WOW! Tier 1 is like?
Shelley – A typical day for a Tier 1 is taking billing and service related calls from our customers and providing them with the best customer service experience possible.
What are the tools you have available to do your job?
Shelley – We have the best resources available to assist our customers to provide a one call resolution, i.e. portal for policies and procedure to include troubleshooting. We have training flashes daily and desk drops which notify us of any new changes or updates to the portal. We also have the Help Line and Tier 3’s who are accessible 24/7 and who are very knowledgeable and willing to help. My supervisor is always available to assist me when needed.
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
Shelley – I feel the most rewarding part of my job is giving 110% on every call to assist the customer and to provide a customer experience that is second to none. It’s an awesome feeling when the customer calls in very frustrated with a billing or service related issue to see how happy they are when I can provide the correct answers and to actually fix their issue after using all my available resources.
What type of training is provided to be effective at your job?
Shelley – When I first came to WOW, as with all new employees we are provided with extensive training by our training department to ensure once we hit the floor we are well prepared. This training continues despite our tenure or experience. We are continuously receiving training through QA’s, training flashes, gap training, or side by side coaching from our Supervisor or the advanced lead representatives. This consistent training truly shows WOW’s commitment to provide our customers with the best customer service experience.
What is the most asked question you get from customers?
Shelley – Since I work in the early morning, the most frequent questions I get asked is “Can I get an extension on my bill?” Occasionally I will get the question “What can you do about lowering my bill?”
Can WOW! Tier 1’s answer other questions about my service?
Shelley – I would like to think I can provide answers to any questions presented by the customers, however, tier one’s have a limited job description such as answering billing questions and assisting with video issues. We can and will answers a variety of policies and procedure questions if needed.
The physical demands, of a Customer Care Associate, are not as high as the mental strain they go through on a daily basis. These individuals handle a high volume of calls from different states. Please be patient with these wonderful people. They are here to help you and make your WOW! experience as pleasant as possible.
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