Rick Germano, the head of the US telecom giant Comcast's customer service department, has given out his own email address for customers who are angry with his department. He said that this will be part of the company's efforts to improve its customer service reliability.
In addition, the company is now using Twitter to [404 Check: was link to http:/ / www. delawareonline. com/ article/ 20090520/ BUSINESS/ 905200310/ 1003, anchor: monitor customer satisfaction.]
But, in the absence of a systems approach, the sheer variety of the problems that Comcast's badly-designed customer-support system generates will overwhelm even the most heroic manager and the most dedicated employees.
Mr. Germano could save himself and his staff a lot of grief, Comcast a lot of money, and his customers a lot of frustration if he took a look at http://www.newsystemsthinking.com/
and saw the difference that systems thinkers like Tri Babbitt and the Bryce Harriuson team can make to the performance of his customer-service organisations.
The improvement process would have to start with him, of course, because the main obstacle to vastly improving the performance of his department is Mr. Germano's evident addiction to a heroic / Command and Control Leadership model that is simply obsolete for successful 21st century organisations..
The question is whether he wants to be a old-fashioned hero or an effective 21st Century manager.
If the latter, then the sooner he starts thinking in systems terms, the sooner the performance of his department and the levels of customer-satisfaction will dramatically improve.
