TORONTO – A pair of individual complaints do not a trend make, but it’s worth noting that two questions from the floor of the annual general meeting of Rogers Communications were from individual shareholders concerned about poor customer service (something that has been explored here).
It’s worth noting because very often at these meetings there are no questions from the floor at all, let alone ones that are direct complaints to management. One shareholder, who admitted he has switched his television service to a competitor, voiced an oft-heard complaint about channel deletions: that a specialty service he liked was dropped by Rogers, but with no corresponding rate reduction for him, even when he called to complain.
The other brought to light another long-standing consumer irritation over win-back promotions – where he was offered a discount on his Rogers Cable, if he chose to stay and not switch to a competitor – noting it was like telling customers “oh, you caught us, so now we’re going to give you a better rate,” said the shareholder. Sometimes when customers are offered such deals, but only when they are switching to the competition, it can have the reverse effect if they believe they have been getting ripped off all this time, that their incumbent provider could have afforded to let them have their service for cheaper before the threat to leave.
CEO Guy Laurence told the two men that providing good customer service to as many customers as Rogers has is more of “a journey rather than a destination… and we’ve fallen behind on that journey,” and promised the company will do better and “catch up to customers’ expectations,” but that those changes will take some time.
In his prepared remarks earlier in the meeting, Laurence addressed the fact that changes are in the offing and that the time he spent in his first few months on the job with front-line employees (even going out in the field dressed as a Rogers technician) will help inform those changes.
"You’re either number one, or you’re not.” – Guy Laurence, Rogers
While the business overall is on pretty solid footing, he said, “our rate of growth, relative to our peers, has slipped. This is not satisfactory. We need to improve revenue, grow ARPU and reduce churn further. To me, it’s all about winning and winning consistently. You’re either number one, or you’re not.”
To re-ignite that growth, Laurence said he is looking at a number of items, but first on his list: “We will look to deliver an improved and more consistent customer experience by putting our customers needs front and centre,” he said. “We will keep our founder’s legacy alive. This company was built on Ted Rogers’ entrepreneurial roots. His passion to be first lives on in every single employee and it’s something I intend to develop.
“We will focus on fewer, bigger initiatives and we’ll execute them with precision,” he continued. “We’ll also be running a number of cross-functional projects, starting with the NHL. I’m making it the poster child for how we can work together internally.” That means from the camera operator at the games to those in the network operations centre making sure the games stream well “to the publisher running a contest in Today’s Parent,” Rogers intends to bring the NHL to Canadians in all sorts of new ways, said Laurence.
“We’ll harness the breadth and depth of our assets to make them work together as One Rogers.”
Perhaps “One Rogers” is the new “The best is yet to come.”
