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I just got off the phone with a Charter Communications telesales agent who was trying to get me to upgrade from my high speed internet subscription to a full package of TV and phone. This was the first time they tried to call me about an upgrade, but they have religiously sent 1-2 mailing per week for the past year with the same offer. Every week I have wondered how much money do they waste sending out these mailings? I guess this strategy may work for Charter, but I was never going to upgrade.

This wasn't to say the agent did a poor job. If fact he perfectly balanced politeness with the aggressiveness needed to be a good telesales agent. I will not upgrade with Charter because the focus their marketing budget on old world marketing while ignoring the key customer touch points that make a difference in their customer relationship.

There are a number of touch points that Charter doesn't do well (see their website), but I want to focus on a missed opportunity in the customer relationship that would have cost less than all those mailings. Even though I subscribed to their High Speed internet package only as a result of their monopoly, they had a great opportunity to cultivate a relationship with me. Instead, they sent me 1-2 mailings per week and had a telesales agent call me. They treated me like an opportunity and not as regular customer.

I think of the time where my internet connection went down for 2-3 days (a big deal for my lifestyle). Charter did not contact me to apologize for the inconvenience. They didn't offer me a nominal refund for the inconvenience. Possibly they may have offered a refund to those that called in to complain, but what of us who didn't complain? Did they think we didn't notice our internet down for 2-3 days? They did send a mailing about their generous packages though!

Charter missed a true opportunity to build a relationship with their customer. A call or a letter or a email would have said we recognize the impact we have on your life and take it seriously. That would have built a connection with me. Instead they tried to pretend the outage did not happen and went on sending me their 1-2 mailings per week. What does that say about how they view me?

Maybe it's just me, but old world marketing doesn't work. I want a company who will invest marketing dollars in their touch points with me, not throw them away on mailings (Do you not realize you have my email address???). Sorry Charter, I will not be upgrading to your bundle until you upgrade your view of me as a customer.

Am I the only one who thinks this?

UPDATE: I just saw this post on the Harvard Business Review Blogs about an experience with a high end gym. Again, the gym ignores the customer experience during the relationship, but they quickly go into action once the customer cancels their membership. A little too late!