Comcast revamps Xfinity stores to improve customer experience

Gripping his TV remote, Bob Klewans, 75, wandered into the Xfinity store on South Columbus Boulevard one recent afternoon. Unlike in years past, he was met by a Comcast greeter and chatted up by one of the store's managers.

He had a problem with his remote, he said, flourishing it.

They talked, and Klewans was told he could get a new one. Klewans, a retiree who seemed happy for the friendly interaction, gushed about his treatment and the remodeled store, one of the busiest in the Philadelphia area. It officially reopened this month.

Of the old format, Klewans remarked, "It was like going to a bank, and like a bank, there would be 14 teller windows and only two people working. You would get in line and wait and wait."

Comcast has had its share of customer service embarrassments in the last year - first names changed to vulgarities on bills, bottom-of-the-barrel national satisfaction ratings, outages, and repeated reports of missed technician visits.

But the cable-TV giant says it's on a path to improving its dismal customer service reputation, and corporate executives point to hundreds of company stores that are being remodeled, relocated, and infused with technology to cut waiting times, part of a multiyear and multimillion-dollar project.

Most Comcast customers use the centers to pay bills or get or drop off set-top boxes.

"It would be safe to say the opportunity is huge," said Sian Doyle, Comcast's senior vice president of retail, who was hired three years ago for the project. "We are at the beginning of a long journey."

Customers in the new stores "feel that they are part of the Xfinity brand rather than being there with something utilitarian" - Comcast stores could one day retail electronic or TV-related products, company officials say.

Doyle said that there were 580 Comcast-owned stores in the United States and that the company had modernized or improved 120. It intends to "touch" - or do something with - most of the 580 within three years, she said.

In the region, Comcast has opened or remodeled five stores in Philadelphia and one each in Mount Laurel, Havertown, and Langhorne. The company intends to open an Xfinity store in Exton this year, and one in King of Prussia next year.

Comcast plans to improve most of the Philadelphia region's 24 stores, said Mark Dionne, director of the retail sales for the Philadelphia area and New Jersey, who moved to this region from Seattle two years ago. The stores "are in transition," he said.

Comcast officials say that about 200 people a day visit a suburban store, such as the new one in Havertown, and that 300 to 500 people could visit busier stores, such as the one in Roosevelt Mall or on Columbus Boulevard. The idea is to make them bright and modern - and welcoming.

Comcast recorded a training video at NBCUniversal for store employees with a program called "GREAT" - "Greet, Relate, Explore, Ask and Thank."

Visitors can wander the store and watch TV while they wait for service - an electronic board tracks when it is their turn at the customer service desk. The stores also have TVs for people to watch while they wait, and ATM-like payment machines.

Eventually, Comcast plans to send customers a message when their turn comes up - so they can wander around a mall or strip plaza - and enable online scheduling for store appointments.

Doyle, who was raised in Wales and spoke only Welsh until she was 16, got her start in retail at Wal-mart's British subsidiary Asda.

Doyle ran the Orange wireless store chain, owned by France Telecom, in Britain. She began with 250 Orange stores in 2006 and expanded the chain to 420 by 2010.

She crossed the Atlantic Ocean, taking a retail job with Rogers Communications, a Canadian telecommunications and media company, closing about 200 stores and opening 50.

Comcast's plan is for 80 percent of its subscribers to live within a 15-minute drive of an Xfinity store. "We're nowhere near that now," Doyle said, adding, "As we evolve our products, the stores will evolve as well."

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