Michael's Insight

Google lacking customer support for new mobile phone

Google learning that users want real support for Nexus One [Ars Technica]

Oops. In their plans to roll out their first piece of hardware directed at consumers, Google forgot to include a customer-support component. Last week, the search giant rolled out a mobile phone called the Nexus One, which runs their Android mobile operating system. Customers who have purchased the phone from Google's web site and have run into trouble with the phone have discovered that technical support isn't just a phone call away.

Google's customer support plan for the Nexus One includes online support forums and technical support via email, but Google says that it might take several days to respond to issues that are emailed to them. Basically, other than online support, Nexus One customers are on their own. According to Ars Technica, customers that pose technical support issues to the phone's manufacturer - HTC - or the phone's wireless carrier - T-Mobile - aren't getting much help either.

Maybe the lack of customer support for this new product is just growing pains for Google expanding into a new market.  Or maybe it's a result of Google's rigid customer-support paradigm that doesn't include a "contact us by phone" option for any of the company's other products. Either way, this impersonal and slow customer response process doesn't sound like a winner to me when it comes to Google's efforts to break into the mobile phone market.  Could it be a perfect example of the virtue of sticking to what you're good at?

MyInsight.com launches today

Today Insight is launching a new web site that will create a whole new portal for our customers to communicate and interact with us. The site is MyInsight.com.

MyInsight.com is the result of a complete rethinking about how we wanted to communicate with customers and other visitors to Insight's web site. Several months ago, we began a process to design a site that reduced visual clutter, provided advanced information about our products, and was easy to use. Many thousands of hours were invested in creating a new way of communicating via our web presence.

One of the new features visitors to MyInsight.com will notice is the 3 Ways to Watch TV under the Digital Cable section that allows users to explore Smart Surfing, On Demand programming, and DVR features on Insight Digital 4.0. Want to know more about how to use Insight's remote and our themed channel line-up - check out Smart Surfing. Interested in learning about the plethora of programming that's available On Demand - see the On Demand section. You can become an expert on recording shows digitally by clicking on the DVR section.

Customers with questions about our broadband and phone products can find additional information in those sections - including updated information about setting up a wireless home network and securing your broadband-connected computers.

One of my favorite updates that MyInsight.com promises is an updated section called Help Central that provides answers to a long list of frequently asked questions about each of Insight's products. Want to know how to pay your bill online or set-up a new email account? Help Central will walk you through step-by-step.

I encourage you to surf on over and check out MyInsight.com. Give the new site's features a try. I think you'll find MyInsight.com to be a much more helpful resource in using Insight's products and interacting with Insight.  But remember, this is just the beginning.  We have lots of new features and updates in the pipeline for Myinsight.com already.  And if you have any suggestions, please post them here -- I'll be sure to discuss them with our product development folks.

Storm Aftermath -- Still Recovering, One Week Later

Believe it or not, we still have 30,000 customers in our service area who still are without electricity, phone or cable.  The damage by last Sunday's surprise hurricane-force windstorm has been shocking. 

Friday morning, power was finally restored at our Network Operations Center.  Two huge generators kept our network up and running for 5 days, nonstop.  Those generators ran the equipment but the building was largely without lights or air conditioning.  Even though the generators kept the systems powered, it still took people showing up to work, every day and every night, in sometimes sweltering heat, to monitor our storm-stressed network and keep it working as best we could.

Storm Aftermath -- The Slow Recovery

Nearly a quarter million households in the greater Louisville area are still without power in the wake of Sunday afternoon's storm. This is the result of over 5,000 broken lines and nearly 300 snapped utility poles.  American Electric Power reported that over 300,000 were still without power in central Ohio and it might be six more days until everyone has power restored.  Duke Energy reported 500,000 still out of service in the Greater Cincinnati area, including our service area in Northern Kentucky.  Needless to say, this type of damage affects all utilities are impacted by the damage of this surprise severe weather.  We are too.

Our Network Operations Center (NOC) remains without power.  Those of you outside the Louisville market and those in Louisville who have power and Internet service remain online because of the back-up generators that have now been keeping us up and running for over 30 hours.

Blogging and customer care

A few colleagues have asked me if writing this blog has exposed me to an onslaught of customer complaints.   They also wonder, if I have received some, how do I handle them. 

I'm pleased to report that, although there have been a few individual service-related comments posted, it has really only been a handful.

To begin this discussion, I thought I should highlight the recently-added message on the left side of this blog's main page regarding comments:

WOW! Where's our Workforce?

A while back we were given the opportunity to hire a number of experienced customer service representatives who were looking for new positions.  Why?  Because their jobs were eliminated when their employer and our competitor -- WOW -- closed one of their local call centers.

Customer Service 101

Yikes.  That was a spirited reaction to Karl's report about my blog over on Broadband Reports yesterday.  Some cynics over there questioned my motivation for reading blogs and responding to customers.  I actually intended to write about customer service anyway, so I guess this is as good a time as any. Here's one quote from the reactors. 

...Mr. Willner takes some time to scan through this and other sites, but don't for a second think it's all about customer service. It's about keeping PR fires under control.

I understand the comment but actually disagree with it.  I scan the blogs to deal with individual issues but we apply what we learn from those issues to fundamental changes in the way we do business and in the services we offer.  I have a very different motivation than "putting out PR fires." 

Human Contact Doesn't Cost Extra at Insight

According to recent articles on Broadband Reports and MSNBC, AT&T is planning to charge customers $5 to talk to a live billing representative, even if you're the victim of identity theft. Broadband Reports says: 

We mentioned in March that AT&T is prepped to start charging $5 in May if you want to talk to a live billing rep over the phone. MSNBC discovers the practice after an id theft victim (forced to close her checking account) was charged $2 for trying to pay AT&T in cash:

Payne objected to the "administrative charge" that was added to her bill but got no sympathy. Instead, she said, she was told she should consider herself lucky because the fee was about to go up to $5.

"We want our associates to spend their time helping customers as they are thinking about their wireless plans or looking at phones," AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel says.

You gotta be kidding me. Apparently, AT&T doesn't want