HAMILTON – We all know the world of television has changed in myriad ways, especially with thousands of shows available on multiple channels or platforms. There are just too many to keep track of, whether we’re talking about consumers or industry folks.
There are now so many good shows on so many channels, one of the common questions people ask is “Where’s that show?” Findtv was created to help solve that problem.
Imagine a call centre rep faced with a customer who wants to switch her TV lineup, but remembers her husband likes Vikings, her son enjoys SpongeBob, her daughter is a Property Brothers fan and she likes old Seinfeld re-runs. Is she going to remember that she needs History (Vikings), Nickelodeon and YTV (SpongeBob), HGTV (Property Brothers), and Comedy or the many out-of-market channels carrying Seinfeld? That’s a tall order.
Heck, with the hundreds of channels and thousands of shows, will the customer service representative (who’s also selling bundles and broadband and phone and maybe wireless and home security, too) remember where the shows are when asked? Another tall order – and a potentially costly one at that. Findtv can cut down that call time – and improve customer satisfaction by making reps more informed, in real time.
Some carrier call centres are already happily using it and findtv’s usage is growing every day.
Findtv was created by Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien and is now operating as a joint venture with partners Nextologies and Fred Glander (also findtv’s content guru). It has the potential to shave costly minutes from customer phone calls, or if carriers want to use findtv on their customer-facing web sites, could cause a great many TV calls to simply not happen at all.
And, once in use, its recommendation engine could even spur up-sells of content because the tool suggests additional shows – and therefore channels – which customers need to satisfy their household’s video habits (“How about some Beyblade [Teletoon] with your SpongeBob? Perhaps some HBO or maybe BBC Earth to go along with your History dramas? You like Seinfeld? Well Rewind has a ton of movies from the early 1990s…)
(Ed note: Really sorry for the blatant promotion of our own product here. We promise not to do that again in Cartt.ca’s editorial space, but the tool is pretty cool!)
Findtv’s database currently boasts the most popular 7,000 shows in Canada and over 450 channels (including multicultural channels). The site is updated daily and has two weeks of forward-looking schedules stored within (Canadian shows are even tagged with a Maple Leaf icon). Users can search by genre, too, and findtv can be viewed in English or French.
Content manager Glander (you can contact him directly with any queries at fred@findtv.ca) produces a daily list of sports on TV – which we know from our call centre visits will come in very handy among reps whose customers want to know where their favourite teams can be found – as well as a new fall season premieres cheat sheet to quickly find when and where the brand new shows and new seasons of existing series will premiere.
“Traditionally, the TV business was built around networks, specialty channels and pay services,” said O’Brien, “but consumers now mostly know their favourite shows – and remembering the channels where they’re all found is a challenge. As far as we know, no one else in Canada has built a speedy tool like this that can work in a live call centre environment.”
As well, findtv is wide open to anyone to search for shows. Click here to check it out. Any carrier can take the link and add it to their web site (some already have) – directing consumers to findtv before (or even instead of) calling the call centre. Plus, findtv will work with any carrier wishing to import the tool into their internal customer care platform, too, if that’s the preferred avenue.
Findtv is an independent company whose hyper-focused goal is to help Canadian call centre reps – and their customers – answer the question: “Where’s that show?”
The answer is “Check findtv.”
