It was interesting to hear that there was a lot of thinking and talking about the future of the business. Clearly people devoting mind time to how they can stay ahead.

I attended a very interesting conversation with Brian Roberts with Peter Chernin. It was clear he was thinking about the business all the time -(in fact he said that he is constantly thinking that the whole edifice would come down on him – he said “that’s what I have Steve Burke for, he always see the glass half full and I ALWAYS see the glass half empty – I thought that was interesting). He was talking about how Comcast is dedicating a lot of thought on how to improve the customer experience both in terms of content and technology.  He was very proud to show off Comcast’s new interactive guide interface,  which was indeed impressive.  It was clear how much thinking is going on about the customer experience at the level of the customer interaction with the content.

But WE know that the most important interaction is the human connection.

And though Brian Roberts did say that the cable industry is the industry people “love to hate” – he offered clue into how Comcast is intending to transform the customer experience as it relates to the one time that people will actually see a Comcast person face-to-face, i.e  the in-home appointment.

So today I went to check out how things are going at the level of the earth, not the stars – from the pinnacle of glamour and power, to a day spent with a tech – with one of TOA’s customers’ people in the field.

And somehow there were a lot of things that seemed the same to me. He was also thinking about how to make the customer experience better. Crawling in attics and closets… drilling, hooking and thinking how best to do things. But the difference was that he was there on the front lines – in people’s homes, under their carpet and inside their kitchen. It’s amazing how intimate this job is. People let you into the most private parts of their home and life without much reservation, exposing their most intimate physical space. Maybe it’s because, at the end of the day, the cable guy is just another sort of handyman, I don’t know… but it’s a fact that you get to see a LOT when you’re on this job. And it’s a hard job, both physically and mentally, to be the front line of the industry that ‘people love to hate’ as Brian Roberts put it and do a great job – which the guy did!

And if that’s the case, and you have great people doing a tough job, working one by one to transform the image of customer service – it behooves the leaders to provide them the best tools and the best methodologies to help them do their job with the least annoyance and disruption – to search and find the most innovative technology – software and hardware – to take away the burdens of the job and let them focus on what they do best and need to do best. Interacting with the customer well. It will pay dividends more than any great menu driven interactive guide – as well thought as it might be.

Over the years, we’ve spent many hours talking about the service business, which both of us are in, and today we talked about the idea and the practice of service differentiation, one of my favorite topics.

In product and technology, almost everything is a commodity at this point. Everything. You can always find someone who will give it to you cheaper (and sometimes, even, better).

So what can never be commoditized?

Genuine Caring.

What is ‘Genuine Caring’?

It basically means giving customers a feeling that your concern for their satisfaction is something beyond the ‘same old, same old’.  It’s not just a post-service survey. It’s making that survey count. It’s not just asking what was good and bad or wrong and right in the service – it’s letting them know how their experience will change the way you’ll do business with them in the future. It means asking them what they think and then giving them a sense that what they said REALLY matters. A tall order when you have millions of customers.

And how do you do this?

Well what did that old Dean Witter ad say?

“One customer at a time.”

To be continued….

John and Arhaus are all about the customer – it is first, second and last on their minds – in fact John says in this article about his use of TOA: “the delivery and scheduling side of the operation are highly ranked among customers. Customer approval hovers at 98 percent, whereas in the past, the rating topped out at 85 percent. We’re white glove service …We fluff pillows, remove trash…and we’re clean shaven. We do it all. We run a tight ship here.”

That’s what every customer focused business should be about.