Despite denials from top Comcast execs, a leaked employee manual shows that all Comcast customer service reps, even tech support staff, are required to hard-sell every customer they deal with, using high-pressure scripts that interfere with doing their jobs.
The leaked manual comes from The Verge, who've been collecting anonymous stories about life inside the two-time Worst Company in America.
The Verge obtained some of the internal training materials and metrics for customer service employees, which show the company considers sales to be worth about 20 percent of performance.
Guidelines for repair reps, which show how a trouble call can be segued into a sales call, are part of S4, Comcast's "universal call flow." S4 is an evaluative measurement to ensure that all agents "give every customer a great call experience every time." It stands for: start, solve, sell, summarize.
Part S3, or "sell," includes four parts: "transition to relevant offer," "present offer," "overcome objections," and "proactively close sale."
For transitioning to a relevant offer, Comcast suggests lines like, "Did you call us from your home phone today? I noticed that you didn't have phone service on your account," and "Other than Boardwalk Empire, what kind of TV shows do you like to watch? Great, me too." The "sales" portion of the call is worth 20 percent of the total score.
Employee metrics show how Comcast pushes customer service reps to make sales
Comcast training manual [PDF]
(via /.)
