Charter is currently the only non-dish provider in my area of Worcester, which means, by default, they are my service provider. In the past two years of dealing with Charter, I have had many negative experiences peppered with only a few positives. When choosing a client to monitor, I chose Charter, in hopes that maybe it would be a good outlet for my grief and frustration.
The two main areas that are the focus of the monitoring are in Customer Service and quality of product. These are the elements that people seem to only speak about when talking about Charter.
In my previous social media monitoring mid term report, I explained how sites like samepoint and social mention were a little harder to use for Charter, because some terminology was deemed "positive" when it was, in fact, "negative." Therefore, moving forward I concentrated more on using a qualitative analysis, reading tweets and Yelp reviews. I also came across a website which provided me with some very strong negative feedback, pissedconsumer.com.
Before getting into the reviews, it should be noted that people are barely even talking about Charter. They don't trend. Each time I look on Twitter, I usually only see about 5 tweets a day.
Looking at IceRocket, it can be seen that they are hardly talked about on the blogosphere. The most they've "trended" was to .00030% of all blogs.
Given that the reviews I could find were mostly negative, it may not be a bad thing that they are hardly talked about.
Yelp:
The Worcester branch of Charter currently has 1.5 stars on Yelp. Breaking it down even further, there are five reviews; four of them are 1 star completely negative and the other is 4 stars. The 4 star review, though, as you read it, seems to be mis-graded:
As you can see, in his review he talks about being charged extra hidden fees and forced to take unnecesary bundle deals, followed by waiting in long lines. When finally reaching the front of the line he met with one customer service rep who went above and beyond to repair his pricing. That one customer service rep should absolutely be applauded. However, if I would recommend that Charter view this seemingly positive 4-star review as a negative review instead, given the context.
Twitter:
Charter Communications has a Twitter account, where they mostly talk about things that are on TV:
The things that customers tweet at Charter are far more insightful than Charter's tweet themselves.
The closest I can find to a positive tweet regarding Charter, seems to be more neutral tweets announcing job openings.
I, myself, tweeted at Charter in a fit of rage. Charter George responded to me, which I had not noticed right away. After a few days, he took the time to tweet again. This made me soften up a bit to the company that I was reading all of the negative reviews about.
Facebook:
Charter Communications runs a Facebook page. Most of the problems addressed on Facebook throughout the past couple of months have been negative, however, they have been addressed. Charter reps use their own Facebook pages. I didn't even realize at first that they were Charter reps. Other than the helpful advice they give, they are distinguished in that underneath a picture of their face, they all have a Charter logo.
They only started commenting on every post beginning in March. Before then, posts and complaints seem to have gone unnoticed.
Pissed Consumer:
Pissed Consumer is a site that allows users to vent about lack of quality service. Charter has 207 complaints on that site.
Analysis:
Before analyzing, it should be noted that Charter has recently implemented a new customer service guarantee plan. As it is the first couple of weeks of the plan, there has been little feedback and little change. However, the frequent responses on the Facebook page is most likely a result of that plan.
Charter needs to have strong customer service. Other service providers also rank low, but not as low as Charter. Unfortunately, there are times that Internet and Cable may go down, and that may not be their fault. However, they need to emphasize with their customers and make those rough times go easier.
Customers are unhappy with the quality of their actual service and the lack of actual service. The few people who are positive, seem to be because of an absence of negative, rather than an abundance of good.
Goals:
Charter should have very clear goals. They should first follow through with the customer service guarantee. Once they can be assured that their customers are having more positive experiences, they should utilize social media more. Engage the customers. The fact is that most Charter Customers are customers because they have no other choice. Charter should not treat them accordingly. They can use Facebook and Twitter to poll their customers on what they want, and what they love about their current service.
Target Audience:
Again, Charter's customers are locked in, so their target audience is more geographical than anything else. Their target audience are the residents of any location in which they operate.
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