Charter Communications hiring hundreds in state

Charter Communications says it’s adding jobs in Wisconsin, including many callcenter positions, as the cable TV industry struggles with customer satisfaction, according to a national survey.

Charter, which in 2016 acquired Time Warner Cable and moved into Milwaukee and other markets under the Spectrum brand, said Tuesday it is seeking to fill more than 275 jobs in Wisconsin, including up to 120 customer retention positions in Milwaukee.

In Fond du Lac, the company is hiring 80 customer service representatives. In Appleton, it’s hiring about 50 customer service reps, and in Madison about 25 broadband technicians.

Most of the call center positions are full time, with shifts starting as early as 5 a.m.

Charter doesn’t make public its pay for the centers but says it seeks job candidates from a wide variety of backgrounds.

The Milwaukee call center focuses on customers considering other telecom options, the Appleton center handles calls from customers having an issue with their services and the Fond du Lac center deals with billing and pricing issues.

The number of calls handled by someone in the centers on any given day varies, partly based on the reasons for the calls and the day of the month, said Greg Bieker, vice president of billing and

call center operations.

The company looks for job candidates with customer service experience.

Any interaction with customers, whether it’s on the phone or in person, helps people get started on the right foot, Bieker said.

Nationwide, Charter says it has committed to hiring 20,000 employees as it returns call-center jobs to the United States and insources its technical workforce. That strategy, the company says, is behind the hiring of more front-line representatives in Wisconsin, where it has nearly 4,000 employees.

“We are doing this in part by ending our reliance on offshore call centers previously used by Time Warner Cable and hiring employees who live in the communities we serve,” Charter regional communications director Kimberly Haas said in an email.

“Bringing these jobs in-house means better trained employees who can better address customers’ needs and offer solutions. All of this leads to expanding our workforce here locally,” Haas said.

The company also says it is lessening its reliance on third-party service providers.

“By bringing these jobs in-house we can provide the necessary training that will result in a consistent experience for our customers whenever a Spectrum technician visits your home,” Haas said.

Charter acquired Time Warner Cable in 2016 for roughly $60 billion and now dominates Wisconsin’s cable television market.

Under Spectrum, Charter serves customers in more than 775 Wisconsin communities.

Some of the changes promised under the Time Warner Cable acquisition included an all-digital network with faster internet speeds, no modem lease fee and a plethora of television channels under various bundle plans.

The company also has beefed up its customer call centers rather than closing locations as some had feared.

“Many employees start in these roles, learn a lot about the business, and then progress their career in customer service or move to other parts of the company,” Haas said, adding that 95% of the company’s leadership team at the Milwaukee customer call center came from internal promotions.

The changes come as cable TV companies struggle with customer satisfaction, according to the 2017 American Customer Satisfaction Index that tracks more than 300 companies in 43 industries — with measurements on a scale of 0 to 100.

“Customer satisfaction with subscription television service slips 1.5% to 64, tied with internet service providers for last place among 43 industries,” the 2017 ACSI report said.

“The threat of competition from (internet) streaming services has done little to spur improvement for pay TV. Customer service remains poor, and cord-cutting continues to accelerate. More than half a million subscribers defected from cable and satellite TV providers during the first quarter of 2017 — the largest loss in the history of the industry.”

The Spectrum (Charter Communications) brand scored 63 on the ACSI survey, up from 60 in 2016.

In response to the survey, Haas said, “That’s part of what we mean when we talk about redefining what a cable company can be: adding thousands of front-line employees to better serve customers, returning call-center jobs to the U.S., and insourcing our technical workforce to ensure better training and craftsmanship.”

Despite a 5% gain, Spectrum’s score was below the industry average, according to ACSI.

“Nevertheless, Spectrum is the most improved,” ACSI said, partly from its acquisition of high-scoring Bright House Networks.

“For the industry overall, very few elements of the customer service experience have improved. According to subscribers, in-person service is one aspect that has gotten better this year, but the improvement is slight (up 1% to an ACSI benchmark of 78). Website satisfaction also has inched up 1% to 74. The remaining components of pay TV are unchanged or worse than they were a year ago,” ACSI said.