Author Profile

Bill Wright

Bill Wright

I started with WOW! , in February 2001, as a T2 (technical support) with about 25 others in the call center. Those 25 included: T1, T2, Management, HR, NOC and the SVP. After 6 months and the purchase of Americast Cable, I was promoted to the position of T2 supervisor. At that time, I was the only T2 supervisor. I spent 4 years in that position and when the opportunity arose, I moved into the position I currently hold as the CEO Customer Advocate.

As the CEO Customer Advocate, my duties include: Listening to customer concerns and the resolution, responding to government agencies (FCC, Attorney General, PUC, BBB, etc.) and monitoring various websites for possible issues. My additional duties include assisting with the training and coaching of our Escalation Line Customer Care Reps and the coordination of visitors to the Customer Care Center.

Interests:
• Family
• Traveling

Random Fact:
I have visited more countries than states
o States – California, Colorado, Kansas, Nevada, Iowa, New Mexico
o Countries – Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Sicily, Mexico, Tunisia

Bill Wright's Blog Posts

Now It’s Time to Say Goodbye…..

I can’t believe this year has come and gone so quickly. And with the year coming to an end, so will my blog posting for the “Customer Experience / Support” section of this site.

The  idea for the New Year will be to combine the “Customer Experience / Support” with the “Culture” and “Education” sections and create the new “Voices of WOW!”  These new posting will be from the WOW! senior leadership team, giving you thier perspective and views of what is in the works for WOW!.  We would love to hear from you and find out what topics you would like to talk about as well.

Thank you to all that have contributed to the articles and to those of you that have responded!! I have had great time writing these articles and responded to our customers.

Have a very Happy and Safe Holiday Season!!!

Sincerely,

William Wright
CEO Customer Advocate
WOW! Internet, Cable and Phone

In Customer Experience & Support posted December 16, 2010 at 7:00 am

Is WOW! available for you?

The Check Serviceability department ensures every specific address request is measured by the probability that it can receive the products and services offered by WOW! Internet, Cable and Phone. In order for WOW! to determine if an addresses can be serviceable; location of our cable footprint must be known. The most common issue with address data entry is ensuring that every address submitted is clean and follows a DPV (deliver point verification) standard. This becomes magnified when entry of the data is spread over many departments and/or customer care representatives, and a large serviceable area. Bad addresses or non standard data entry can derail the serviceability process and can cause serviceability components (like Geographical Information Systems mapping or DPV systems) to fail. Currently today WOW! has implemented address verification tools to help review the address submittals for data accuracy.
To conclude; the aim for checking serviceability is to instantaneously determine the likelihood that a submitted address is WOW! serviceable. This determination will have the company save money and resources, allowing WOW! to shorten the duration between service requests and the point of install.

In Customer Experience & Support posted December 9, 2010 at 7:49 am

It is Tough All Over

  It is that time of the year again where, not only does the cost of living go up, the cost of doing business goes up as well. In order to support our customers and deliver the best customer experience possible, some customers are experiencing a rate adjustment this year. We do understand that these are difficult times and many people are just getting by. We all do our best to stick to a budget, especially this time of year. At the same time, our loyal customers must realize that in order to provide the incredible service, you have grown to know from WOW!, rates from time to time will need to be adjusted.  When the station providers increase their rates, we must also in order to stay in business. Also, with the high demand for streaming video across the WOW! network, WOW! will have to invest in our technical network to ensure we deliver the quality and reliability our customers deserve.

  This is not something that WOW! enjoys doing but it is something that needs to be done in order to bring the service to you.  WOW! is always looking for the best balance of the needs of our customer with the very real cost of doing business.

  Happy Holidays to you and yours!!

In Customer Experience & Support posted December 2, 2010 at 9:10 am

Happy Thanksgiving!!

 I wanted to give a little bit of my “Customer Experience” I have had with WOW!.

 I have always known that WOW! was a place that gave back to the community and back to their employees but a few special memories stick out for me.

 I remember a call that came in from a customer that had been late on the payments and having a very hard time getting by. They were just trying to make some arrangements to pay the bill. I do understand that cable TV is not a privilege and you can do without it, in most cases but to some it is the only contact with the outside that they get. I remember hearing that for the holidays, all the person really wanted was new towels for the bathroom. That’s it!! That is all the person wanted was her bathroom to look nice with new towels in it. That really put things into perspective. And guess what happened? Those towels, she had been wantin,g showed up at the home and you will never guess where they came from. What a company!!!!!

  This Thanksgiving, WOW! was able to give 20+ families Thanksgiving dinner that they wouldn’t have been able to afford on their own. An Angel Tree has been set up in the lobby of the Call Center with the Holliday wishes of children. We can’t seem to keep the requests on the tree because the employees are buying and wrapping gifts for these children. 

  This is just part of what I am thankful for. Being a part of a team that when the going got tough, they got tougher.  Always giving and never asking anything in return.

  It’s that time of year when you are supposed to look back and think of the things you are most thankful for. Why does it have to be only once a year?  Why can’t we all take the time, everyday, to look at the things, and people, that we should be thankful for?

There are many things in life I am thankful for and I appreciate them all !!

 Every day, I am thankful that I got out of bed on my own. What are you thankful for?

In Customer Experience & Support posted November 25, 2010 at 6:52 am

To Better Serve You…

 Have you ever had a problem, with a certain company, and the employees always seem to pass you off to another department?  How about calling into a call center and, after being on hold for a horrible amount of time, the answer you get is” I am going to have to transfer you to that department” just to be placed on hold again.  Not sure if that is a tactic to discourage your complaint or could it be that the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing?

 In order to give the WOW! customer’s the best possible experience we can, we cross train our employees so they don’t have to transfer you somewhere else where you would have to explain everything all over again. Our employees sit with other departments to get a better understanding of what the customers want.  WOW! also tries to hire, for internal departments, within the company. Therefore, the employees acquire a wider range of knowledge to better support the customer needs.

 Of course, there will be times where you will need to talk to specific departments that are not the norm for a call center and can only be handled by them.  But very few get passed our wonderful front line agents. They are really there to serve you !!

In Customer Experience & Support posted November 18, 2010 at 8:52 am

Bill Wright's Recent Comments

  1. I am so sorry you had such a bad experience with members of our WOW! team. I would like to discuss that further , if you have the time.
    There is an “opt-out” option on the search page, for customers not wanting to be redirected. Once you opt out, you would see an error message instead of the website suggestions. Let me know if you need any assistance.

    In Customer Experience and Support posted December 15, 2009 at 10:54 am

  2. Raising rates is not something we want to do. WOW! takes many variables into consideration before any increase to our customer’s is made. For example, the use of the Internet has increased over the last few years, with the popularity of online video and downloadable content. Also, with the amount of bandwidth consumed, combined with the ongoing improvements to our network, are also contributing factors. WOW! does everything it can to not pass these costs back to the consumer, but the reality is, operating expenditures do increase
    I hope you will understand that WOW! will always do its best to balance the needs of our customers as well as the costs of doing business.

    In Supporting WOW! Customers posted January 12, 2010 at 2:01 pm

  3. Thank you so much for the positive comments. I am very glad you enjoyed the article.

    Bill

    In Creating A WOW! Employee posted May 21, 2010 at 9:46 am

  4. Thank you for the wonderful comments! It makes me happy to know that you are happy. I will take your suggestion directly to the source and see what we can do to make us better.
    Have a wonderful day!!
    Bill

    In The WOW! Customer Experience posted August 16, 2010 at 2:39 pm

  5. Thank you for taking the time to leave your comments. Please remember; one bad apple doesn’t spoil the whole bunch. We work hard making sure all of our customer’s are treated with the utmost respect. Customer service agents are not perfect but we are working on that. ;)

    Thanks again,

    Bill

    In Is the Grass Ever Greener? posted September 30, 2010 at 10:07 am

  6. Unfortunately, I do not have a direct link to the page . You will need to be logged into the customer portal page to find it. Once you are there, about mid way down the page, you will see products and services. Go to WOW Network. Any maintenace that will be affecting the entire system, for more than 15 minutes, will be listed in there. Please contact me directly if you have any problems finding it from there.

    William Wright
    CEO Customer Advocate
    WOW! Internet, Cable and Phone
    wwright@wideopenwest.com

    In Maintenance, Did you know....? posted October 21, 2010 at 8:47 am