Cablefax The Magazine - July 2012 - 36

2012 Top Ops Awards
INDEPENDENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AWARD
Armstrong
For Jeff Ross and his 900 cable
employees, customer service is about
more than fulfi lling a mission statement
or keeping up with the Joneses. It's a
point of local pride. " You don't want
to go to church or the store and have
people go, 'There's that evil cable company', "
he says. " So it's personal. " As
President of indie cable op Armstrong,
Ross carries a lot of weight on his
shoulders. He oversees service to some
277,000 customers across Kentucky,
Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West
Virginia-all from a headquarters in Butler
County, PA. And he's the steward for a family business that
began in 1946 when Jud and Ned Sedwick started hanging
telephone wires across Armstrong County, PA. The family has
deep ties in the area, and good customer service has become
an essential part of its legacy. " We always try to give back to
the community, " Ross says. " I think that it all connects. "
Armstrong's renewed focus on customer service started
about 10 years ago when execs created a centralized Customer
Service Center in Butler to fi eld service, information
and sales calls more effi ciently. The CSC began with employees
specializing in 4 simple skill sets but has since evolved
into a bigger operation with 273 agents excelling in 37 specialized
skills. A sophisticated routing system gets customers
A Strong Team: (L to R) Glenn Dittman, Senior
Installer; Terry Dickerhoof, VP of Customer Service;
Jeff Ross, Pres; Sherri Lutz, Customer Service Rep;
and Don Tacik, VP of Operations
to an expert in each area. The CSC
handles just under 2 million inbound
contacts and about 583,000 outbound
calls each year, with employees often
pitching in to devise more effi cient
systems to handle all the traffi c. One
example is the " Trouble Shooter, "
which CSRs helped develop with
management to better diagnose the
root cause of video service issues.
So far, the tool has helped Armstrong
resolve 75% of reported video issues
over the phone, reducing truck rolls
and increasing satisfaction.
It's no wonder that Armstrong's
" Net Promoter Score " (a system
devised by Fred Reichheld to measure customer loyalty) is
pretty much off the charts, recently reaching 61.97. That beats
Federal Express and Southwest Airlines. Armstrong's NPS
for service installations is 75.06. That passes Apple's score
by nearly 10 points. " By the time you've installed the service,
you know we're not the typical cable company, " says Ross.
Armstrong fulfi lls 85% of its service requests within 3 days of
the call (and more than 95% within 5 days). And it strives for
same- or next-day service when a tech's available. " If you call
before four o'clock, we're going to fi x you today, " he says.
Armstrong's near obsession with satisfaction and constant
Fast Facts
✦ In the 1940s, the Sedwicks ran two crews of six men, hanging
telephone lines throughout western Pennsylvania. Within
the first year, the company had grown to 12 crews.
✦ Armstrong has 14 local system offices.
✦ Armstrong employs one field technician for every 667
customers served.
improvement has also changed how it evaluates employees. In
fact, the company recently spent nine months studying a better
way to internally measure CSR performance with a 360-point
scale that includes 90 points for call handing, 90 points for the
call model based on the type of call and 180 points for helping
to create " The Armstrong Experience, " its initiative to constantly
exceed customer expectations. What's more, employees
embrace the measurement system largely because they helped
create it and understand its power as Armstrong faces intense
competition from both DBS and Verizon FiOS in its markets.
" We feel we really need to set ourselves apart, " says Ross.
In the end, it's about making customers feel important.
That's not easy when there are 277,000 of them. But Armstrong
somehow pulls it off. " It's not like we can know every customer, "
notes Ross. " But we want to create the perception that we
do. " So far, it seems like Armstrong is fi nding success in that
endeavor. And that local pride remains intact. ✴
- Michael Grebb
36
cablefaxmag.com
July 2012
CableFAX: The Magazine
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Cablefax The Magazine - July 2012

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