It is about the value I getting after all by Tony Green

Is this the value I am getting?

Recently my family decided to take the plunge and get rid of our land line since all of us had mobile phones and, normally, the only calls we received were telemarketing calls. I hoped all of the annoying calls you received when you were busy offering services/products you are not interested in buying would go away. I soon learned how unaware I was about the lengths people would go to in attempts to get a little bit more of my money.

One Friday evening a few months ago I had just cleared the dishes from the dinner table and I heard a knock on the door. For some unexplained reason, I answered instead of delivering my customary message of “Not interested” through my locked front door. My visitor happened to be a representative of Comcast who wanted to speak with me. I politely informed her I was already a Comcast customer. She explained that was the reason for her visit; my current coverage needed to be discussed so I might get the maximum value for my account. All the while she referred to this clip board with paper attached as if forms would make this intrusion on my evening more official.

I found the idea annoying that someone who I did business with would show up on my front doorstep unannounced after dinner on Friday evening.  I am aware, as a technical sales person, folks in general are becoming less and less tolerant of interruptive sales techniques.  Is it prudent to risk affecting the customer relationship to gain a slight increase in their revenue stream?  Perhaps Comcast believes there are not any other choices of vendors for all of these services and if they continued to pound, prod and otherwise interrupt its customer base they will be successful in milking incrementally more money out of their accounts.

Maybe I would have preferred to have received the call and simply hung up. Then again, I reminded myself showing up on my door step is all about the value I could be receiving. If they wanted to add value why no add additional channels to my cable offering without increasing my rates.

Once I calmed down I thought about the offer I get from AT&T to bundle my HDTV, High Speed Internet and phone service under one bill. If this is how Comcast is going to treat its customers should I take them up on their offer?