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question

Think about a recent time that you purchased something or tried to do so and were treated poorly as a customer. What was the essential problem?

If you ran the company, what would you do to ensure happier and more loyal customers?

Is humor, the approach taken by the cable companies mentioned in the article a good approach to

improving customer satisfaction?

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Cable and Satellite Providers Go for the Last Laugh

The New York Times

Who knew cable guys had a sense of humor?

Owning up to its ranking at the bottom of customer satisfaction surveys -- not only for cable but for all industries -- Time Warner Cable is poking fun at itself, and promising to do better, in a new marketing campaign starting this weekend.

''We get it,'' reads an open letter that the cable operator plans to publish in 18 news outlets starting Saturday. ''We've seen where Time Warner Cable falls on customer satisfaction surveys and we know the 'cable guy' jokes by heart.''

Time Warner Cable knows the jokes so well that it is starting to make some of its own. A new TV spot -- one of more than 30 planned for the campaign -- features a man dancing to the elevator music that people hear when they call the cable company and are put on hold. The company offers a mock apology for the fact that it is no longer offering extended periods of the music free, saying that it created a website with its greatest on-hold hits for people who miss the music.

[Video: "Hold Music" - Reduced Wait Time - Time Warner Cable Watch on YouTube.]

The ad is one of a series by cable and satellite operators, including Comcast and DirecTV, aimed at restoring trust and satisfaction in an industry detested by millions of disaffected consumers. Time Warner Cable has spent nearly two years working to improve its customer service, executives say. Among the goals: reducing the time people spend on hold, offering one-hour arrival windows for service visits, creating self-service options and delivering faster Internet speeds and more programming.

''We are done making excuses,'' Robert Marcus, chief executive of Time Warner Cable, said in a telephone interview. ''We are all about fixing and making the situation better. Poking fun at ourselves and acknowledging these issues is a big step, and a good one.''

While Time Warner Cable is making fun of itself, its competitors are making fun of each other. The satellite company DirecTV released two new commercials this week that star the Emmy Award-winning actor Jeffrey Tambor. He plays the chief executive of a fake cable company that tries to beat the competition from satellite providers by merging with another much-hated cable company. After the merger, executives acknowledge that they forgot to come up with ideas on how to take on DirecTV. ''We got messed up last night, you're lucky we're even here,'' one says.

[Video: Cable Corp Merges with CableWorld | DIRECTV Commercial Watch on YouTube.]

Comcast and Charter Communications, meanwhile, have both released ads in recent months that mock DirecTV, which was acquired in July by AT&T for $48.5 billion. The Comcast ad called the merger ''the dawn of an old day,'' saying that it offered ''yesterday's technologies today: TV from space, as long as it's not too rainy or windy, or there isn't a branch in the way.''

[Video: Temperamental TV: 30 Watch on YouTube.]

The Charter ads -- one of which spoofs ''Star Trek'' -- characterize satellite TV as a 20-year-old technology that doesn't work during bad weather.

While the ads might generate some laughs, branding experts said that they were likely to cause more harm to an industry already suffering a dire image crisis. Customer satisfaction with TV and Internet service providers scored dead last this year, resulting from poor service and higher prices, according to a survey of 43 industries by the American Customer Satisfaction Index.

This despite the fact that the category is a big advertiser. Time Warner Cable's ad spending, for instance, totaled $60 million in 2014, while DirecTV, with a nationwide customer base, spent $355 million, according to WPP's Kantar Media.

Allen Adamson, a branding expert at WPP's Landor Associates, said the new ads were likely to reinforce the negative perceptions consumers have about both cable and satellite television and will make it harder in the long run for the companies to improve their image.

''They are all throwing stones at glass houses,'' he said. ''The net takeaway is that it is going to reinforce all the negatives about the entire category.''

The enmity, some industry analysts said, didn't do Comcast any favors with regulators this year with its failed $45 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable, which collapsed under regulatory pressure. Regulators are now scrutinizing Charter's proposed acquisitions of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, which together total $67.1 billion.

Since their deal fell apart, both Comcast and Time Warner Cable have ramped up public relations campaigns about their initiatives to improve customer service.

Time Warner Cable executives said they were doing this not to sway regulators but because it was good for business. They added that the time was right to open the marketing campaign because the company had already started making strides in its initiatives.

For example, the number of calls Time Warner Cable receives has dropped about 12 percent in the past two years, and its technicians now arrive within their designated one-hour time windows 98 percent of the time, the company said. Time Warner Cable is also creating a new ''tech tracker'' service that lets customers monitor appointments and see the technician's name, identification number and photo when the technician is on his way.

''We wanted to make sure that when we did,'' start a marketing push, ''we had a lot of things to say about what we'd already done,'' said Dinesh Jain, chief operating officer of Time Warner Cable.

But it remains to be seen whether Time Warner Cable can change the image of the cable guy. Ultimately, the task might fall to Charter if regulators approve the merger.

''It takes a short time to establish a really bad relationship, and a really long time for customers to have a really good point of view,'' Mr. Marcus said. ''We don't like being at the bottom of that list.''

Mr. Adamson, the branding expert, said customers were looking for cable and satellite companies to show them -- not tell them -- that they have improved their service.

''There is much skepticism and burned bridges,'' he said. ''Promises don't really stick in this category.''