I have seen the future and it is Comcast. No, really! Comcast is staging one of the biggest brand renaissance comebacks ever. I predict it will be right up there with Apple, GM, Marvel, and Lego. Personally, I would add my favorite, Delta Airlines, in the “comeback kid” category.
Now, for the backstory.
I was invited, along with a dozen customer experience gurus, to spend a day with Comcast leadership in their brand-new, just-opened Comcast Technology Center in Philly. We were there to be briefed on where Comcast has been, where they are, and, wait for it…where they are going. It was awesome, enlightening, and refreshing. I was joined by such customer experience heavy hitters as Jeanne Bliss, Shep Hyken, Scott McKain, Steve Curtin, Adam Toporek, John DiJulius, and our chief inviter and host, Jay Baer along with Comcast Chief Customer Experience Officer, Charlie Herrin. Google their names and you will see the invitees write the best-sellers and dazzle huge audiences as keynote speakers.
The day began with a write-it-down line from one of their top technology people, “I never knew I always wanted this.” While the line related to his daughter’s opening a gift, it could fit the quest of any customer-centric organization. More than skating to where the puck will be, it signaled deep customer understanding, deliberate dreaming, with a heavy dose of humility. Discovery is most profound when we are open to being amazed by its wonder. Insight is most pure when we are intensely curious without an ounce of need-to-prove. We witnessed every Comcast leader bubbling over with humility and curiosity.
Now, the cynics will claim we were wined and dined so we would write pro-Comcast blogs and articles like this one. We all agreed there may have been a modicum of self-serving intent behind their generosity. After all, their customer service reputation has been a poster child for what not to do. Yet, their honest desire to succeed by delivering an experience that will grow promoters was unmistakable. Their questions were sincere; their interest in our perspectives was genuine. We might have been there for them to show but more than that, we were there for them to learn. We could feel a turnaround in the making.
So, stay tuned for big things to come from a brand that was in the intensive care unit of the marketplace. They could be an instructive model for all who lost their way and relied on their customers to guide them back.
image via pixabay