May 06--Cable and Internet giant Comcast unveiled a new prototype retail store in Chicago on Tuesday that it hopes will raise the bar on its customer service experience.
Dubbed Studio Xfinity, the store at 901 Weed St. in Lincoln Park will offer what it calls the latest technologies, service and support. It also will accommodate on-site product exchanges, bill-paying and new equipment pickup.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts was on hand to announce the new store, which is scheduled to open in June. It will be the first of its kind in the U.S., executives said.
Roberts called the new store design part of a "complete transformation of what the customer experience is all about." Other initiatives include the creation of 5,500 new customer service jobs over the next few years, opening three new call centers in the U.S. and setting on-time service call goals by the third quarter, with customers getting a $20 rebate if technicians arrive late.
"We can do better, that's what today is all about," Roberts said.
More than 2,000 new employees will staff the three customer support centers set to open this year in Albuquerque, Tucson and Spokane. All 84,000 Comcast employees will undergo hospitality training to improve customer service, executives said.
There are four Xfinity stores and 27 service centers in Chicago. What sets the new store apart are amenities such as scheduled appointments, demonstrations of the latest technologies and new on-site customer service innovations. Executives say it will be akin to an Apple store experience.
Among the innovations on display will be a voice-controlled TV remote for the X1 system, which was announced Tuesday at the Internet and Television Expo in Chicago. The new technology will enable users to change channels, adjust the volume and search for shows, recordings and on-demand offerings by talking to their remote control. New customers will get the remote when they sign up for service, while existing customers can get one for free online or at an Xfinity store.
The upgrade of Comcast's retail experience comes on the heels of its failed $45 billion merger with Time Warner, which was shelved last month amid regulatory concerns and growing public backlash to the deal, which would have created the largest cable and Internet company in the U.S. The merger needed approval by the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission.
Highly publicized customer services issues, such as changing the name on the cable bill of suburban Addison resident Mary Bauer to "Super Bitch," may have helped swing sentiment against the merger, according to some industry analysts.
Roberts said Tuesday the customer service issue "probably wasn't determinative" in quashing the merger but said the company needed to make changes regardless of the decisions by federal regulators.
"It's unacceptable some of the individual instances that have been well documented, and so it was a rallying cry, I think, inside the company, that we are going to top to bottom, rethink every way that we do business," Roberts said.
Comcast, which announced this week it now has more Internet customers than cable subscribers, is moving on, with the new store a clear initiative to improve its customer service reputation and experience. It also is putting more resources behind its Internet service. The company said Tuesday it will launch Gigabit Pro, a super-fast 2 gigabit-per-second Internet service, in Chicago later this month. The service will be available to anyone within close proximity of Comcast's fiber network -- which covers a large portion of the Chicago area -- and will require an installation of professional-grade equipment. The cost of the new service has not been disclosed.
Chicago is the first market in the Midwest to roll out Gigabit Pro, which went online this year in Atlanta, California, Chattanooga, Tenn., and Florida.
rchannick@tribpub.com
