One of our customers called me for help with his remote control. He had recently upgraded from basic to digital cable and this was his first time ever having a cable receiver. He had never had a cable remote control in his hand before. When our technician installed the receiver, he spent time educating him on all the features and functions of the remote control. He was well on his way to becoming a saavy cable tv consumer and was using the remote control successfully for about 10 days. All was well until…..he went on vacation for three weeks. That’s when the trouble began.
When he returned from vacation, he picked up the remote and couldn’t remember a thing about how to use it so he decided to call me. He said he could get the television to come on but there was no sound. He asked if I could help him and asked me a few questions.
“How do I get the volume to work?”
- On the left hand side of the remote control, there is a button with the letters “VOL” on it. He was pushing on it to no avail. I told him instead of pushing on the “VOL” button, he should push on the arrow up button and VOILA!!!!!, there was sound!
“How do I change the channel?”
- He was changing the channel on the TV and not having any success. I instructed him to put the TV on channel three which would allow him to change the channels from the receiver instead of from the TV. I asked him to push the cable button located at the top of the remote. After programming the remote in this way, there are two options to get to the channel of choice: (1) Using the channel up and down buttons located on the right side of the remote; (2) Using the keyboard located on the bottom of the remote.
On to the next question; “How do I turn off the TV?”
- I asked him to look at the remote control. Located on the right hand side near the top is the power button. Located below that are the buttons from left to right; AUX, DVD, AUX, TV and CABLE. I told him to press the cable button and then the power button. He did that and the TV went off! HURRAY!!! VICTORY! We used the same sequence to turn the TV back on.
I went through all these steps a couples of times with him just to make sure he had mastered the remote control. He was very thankful that I was able to help him. In fact, he ended up being more than just customer; he was a friend. He still calls me to this day, sometimes just to say “Hello.” Most recently, he called to say he’s thinking about getting a DVR! I won’t be surprised, and in fact, will be delighted, if he called me to help him with the DVR. Making friends while helping customers is something I always look forward to in my work at WOW!
In Education
posted January 8, 2010 at 8:00 am
An elderly lady called WOW! and was extremely upset because of the mystery charges on her bill. Based on what I saw on the bill, it appears that this particular house hold “loves” to order Video on Demand. As I was explaining the charges, she said “Kathy, I have no idea about Video on Demand. What are you talking about?” She told me she only watches only local channels (ABC, CBS NBC, Let’s Make a Deal” and “The Price is Right.”)
I explained to her that VOD offers free content including children’s programs, music, sports, health and news. VOD also offers pay-per-view content and in her case, the movies that were ordered were at a charge of $2.99 each or more. The charges more than doubled her monthly rate. No wonder she was in shock and denial! She asked me to explain how VOD works so I walked her through these steps:
- Turn the receiver to Channel 1. (Evansville Customers, Channel 100.)
- The main menu will pop up and using the arrow down button on the remote control, review the various categories, including a FREE Movie category. Any selection other than the FREE Movie category will have a charge associated.
- Arrow down to a specific category of interest, in this case, New Releases and press SELECT on the remote control to select the category.
I explained that, at this point in the process, the charges appear and electing a movie from this category will result in charges to her account. She then stated “Kathy, I have never been on those screens before and I did not order these movies” It was at this moment that I heard a muffled sound of someone talking in the background. She asked me to hold on a minute. After a minute or so, she came back to the call and apologized for calling me. To her surprise, her husband, watching her go through the VOD process interrupted the call and confessed that he had ordered movies. He said he had stopped after a few days because he couldn’t remember how to get back to that VOD screen! She “grounded” him right then and there and assigned him to dish duty for an entire month.
She asked if I could help her to prevent this from happening again. We proceeded to talk about “Parental Controls.” I also offered her the option of placing a “zero” credit limit on her account. A “zero” credit works sort of like a credit card with no credit balance. When an order comes through for a pay movie, the system checks the account for an available credit balance. If there is not a credit balance on the account, the order can not be placed. She liked that idea best so that’s what I did to help her keep her monthly bill from creeping up and her husband from getting in any more trouble. By the end of the conversation, we were all laughing heartily. Customers like this can just make your day!
In Education
posted December 18, 2009 at 7:00 am
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