...C AS E 20 The Broadstripe Service Guarantee Jochen Wirtz and Sven Tuzovic Cable companies traditionally focused on discounts for bundles of TV, Internet, and phone plans to win new customers instead of delivering great customer service. Broadstripe, a small cable company, launched a service guarantee with the aim of becoming the best-in-class service provider. Twenty months after the launch, Broadstripe’s management was reviewing the performance of the guarantee and had to decide what changes should be made, if any. B roadstripe, a small provider of cable, Internet, and phone services in four States (Michigan, Oregon, Maryland, and Washington) faced a difficult situation. Tony Lent, Chief Commercial Officer at Broadstripe, was convinced that the company had to dramatically improve its customer service. However, how does a small cable company differentiate itself from better-known industry giants and establish a best-in-class customer experience? Should a company at the edge of bankruptcy invest in customer service altogether? retailers, 75 for banks, and 65 for airlines. Importantly, the cable industry was also lagging behind their satellite TV or telecommunication competitors with DIRECT TV and DISH Network scoring an average of 68. As competition from satellite TV and phone companies intensified, an increasing number of consumers disconnected their subscription TV services in favor of online video services such as Netflix and Hulu. Responding to these competitive...
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...The Broadstripe Service Guarantee Jochen Wirtz and Sven Tuzovic CASE STUDY C AS E 20 Cable companies traditionally focused on discounts for bundles of TV, Internet, and phone plans to win new customers instead of delivering great customer service. Broadstripe, a small cable company, launched a service guarantee with the aim of becoming the best-in-class service provider. Twenty months after the launch, Broadstripe’s management was reviewing the performance of the guarantee and had to decide what changes should be made, if any. B roadstripe, a small provider of cable, Internet, and phone services in four States (Michigan, Oregon, Maryland, and Washington) faced a difficult situation. Tony Lent, Chief Commercial Officer at Broadstripe, was convinced that the company had to dramatically improve its customer service. However, how does a small cable company differentiate itself from better-known industry giants and establish a best-in-class customer experience? Should a company at the edge of bankruptcy invest in customer service altogether? THE CABLE INDUSTRY Traditionally, cable companies tried to appeal to customers with discounts for bundles of TV, Internet, and phone plans. Customer service, however, had mostly been disregarded. As a consequence, customer satisfaction ratings in the cable industry had been the lowest of any industry. Results of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) showed that the largest providers (Comcast,...
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...The Broadstripe Service Guarantee Customer service is an important factor to increase sales in almost all industries. Broadstripe, a small provider of cable, Internet, and phone services saw it as a solution to increase sales as their company was filed for bankruptcy protection in early 2009. To improve the customer service experience, Tony Lent, Chief Commercial Officer at Broadstripe, launched a 60-day MBG offering both new and existing Broadstripe residential customers 60 days to test the cable provider’s services (Wirtz, Chew, & Lovelock, 2012). This service guarantee had received excessive amount of positive feedbacks from both new and existing customers which led the company to have earned $162 million in revenue. The company achieved great success due to the improved customer service experience. A well-designed service guarantee has a huge impact on a firm’s service employees, operation current and potential customers and on marketing and sales. Firstly, service employees are extremely important to the company. They are the core part of the product, representatives of the service firm, brand ambassadors, affect sales, and determine productivity (Wirtz, Chew, & Lovelock, 2012). A well-designed service guarantee reflects directly on service employees. In addition, they would be able to represent the brand better knowing that they work for a successful company. Secondly, potential customers would automatically be drawn to the company if it provides a well-designed service...
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