Our employees have been working hard to improve the customer experience over the last several years.  Our customers deserve the best experience every time they interact with us.  While we’ve made progress, we need to do a better job to make sure those interactions are excellent … from the moment a customer orders a new service, to the installation, to the way we communicate with them, to how we respond to any issues.  

That’s why I am pleased to announce today that Charlie Herrin has been named SVP, Customer Experience, reporting to both Dave Watson and me.  In this new role, Charlie will partner with leaders across all business units, including customer service, technical operations, sales, marketing, training and development, and product innovation to reimagine the customer experience and ensure that we are delighting our customers at each touch point.  Charlie will listen to feedback from customers as well as our employees to make sure we are putting our customers at the center of every decision we make.  

Anyone who knows or has worked with Charlie has seen first-hand his unwavering commitment to the customer.  In his most recent role as SVP, Product Design and Development, Charlie led the design team behind the development of X1 and spearheaded the company’s initiative to deliver a consistent user experience across platforms.   Charlie and his team received the 2011 Emmy Award for outstanding achievement for the Xfinity TV iPad app and a 2013 Emmy Award for the X1 user interface.  X1 was a breakthrough for us, and we need the best customer service to accompany these great products.  Charlie will bring the same passion for customer-focused innovation that he brought to developing products to this new role.  Charlie will begin his new role immediately, but will continue to work with our CTO, Tony Werner, and his current team until a new head of product design and development is in place. 

Over the last few years, we’ve been incredibly focused on product innovation and delivering great content and technology experiences.  But this is only one half of the customer experience equation.  The other half is operational excellence in how we deliver service.  The way we interact with our customers – on the phone, online, in their homes – is as important to our success as the technology we provide.  Put simply, customer service should be our best product. 

We have made significant changes and investments in customer service that have set a solid foundation.  Under the leadership of Tom Karinshak, SVP, Customer Service and Patrick O’Hare, SVP, Field Operations, we are addressing some very real pain points that are making it easier for our employees to serve our customers, and easier for our customers to do business with us.  We rolled out new tools in our call centers like Einstein to help our employees provide better, faster service to our customers.  At the same time, we shortened our technician appointment windows to 1-2 hours, introduced new self-service apps so customers have more choice in how they interact with us, and we are making improvements to our service centers across the country.  Tom and Patrick will continue to lead this important work in customer service and field operations.  

Now it’s time to take the next step forward in that transformation.  Our customers deserve the best and we need to work harder to earn their trust and their business every day by exceeding their expectations. 

Transformation isn’t going to happen overnight. In fact, it may take a few years before we can honestly say that a great customer experience is something we’re known for.  But that is our goal and our number one priority … and that’s what we are going to do.