Are Cable and Satellite TV Providers Changing Their Poor Customer Experience Image?

Cable and satellite providers have traditionally struggled to engage customers compared to industries like retail, casual dining, and hospitality. In the fourth year of our ongoing research on engaging customer experiences, the narrative isn’t too different. Once again this sector came in just about last (beating only health insurers), but the story is showing some signs of change.

It’s clear from the chart above that Internet TV providers are far out-performing their cable and satellite competitors. No surprise. In fact, there tends to be an underlying assumption that the best customer experiences come from newer entrants in the market. What we found hardly disproves that. When looking at both Internet TV providers and the traditional players, it’s obvious that the newer entrants are better at winning customers. But this doesn’t paint the full picture.

We also found that two out of the four traditional providers included in the 2013 study have managed to improve their NPS markedly. In 2010, these same brands all had negatives scores. By 2013, DirecTV has moved into a positive state with an NPS of 11. In addition, Comcast has made a significant 13 point improvement. While still not exactly a shining example of customer love with an NPS of -31, Comcast's jump from -44 shouldn’t go unrecognized.

While legacy systems and processes are often blamed for inhibiting customer experience transformation, it’s clearly no excuse. Consider the Ritz-Carlton that has been around for close to 100 years and, once again, came in as a top-performer in this study. Wegmans, another top 10 winner, was established two years before Comcast. Without a doubt, change is certainly possible.

Internet TV has put a substantial amount of pressure on traditional market leaders. Lower prices and easy-to-use interfaces have lured a considerable number of consumers away from their cable and satellite providers, but they seem to be up to the challenge. Leaders in this space are already showing evidence that cable and satellite companies are most certainly capable of changing their poor customer experience image.