AGENDA #5e

MEMORANDUM

 

TO:                  Mayor and Town Council

 

FROM:            W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager

 

SUBJECT:      Report on Time Warner Customer Survey

 

DATE:             November 24, 2003

 

 

The purpose of this memorandum is to provide a summary of the Time Warner Customer Survey for 2003. 

 

BACKGROUND

 

The Town’s franchise with Time Warner Cable requires Time Warner to conduct a subscriber survey every two years.  We reviewed the survey questions and received input from the University’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication before the survey was implemented.  Time Warner contracted with Aspen Media and Market Research, an independent marketing research company in Boulder, Colorado.  Telephone interviews were conducted with 300 randomly selected subscribers of Time Warner in Chapel Hill from September 3-8, 2003.  The attached report provides more information about the survey methodology (Attachment 1).  

 

On October 7, the Town Manager and staff met with Time Warner representatives to discuss the attached survey results.  We provide a summary of these results below, with some staff comment.  The Manager asked Time Warner to provide a revised page 11 of the report, “Ratings of Service in the Home,” in order to provide more detailed differences between the 2001 and 2003 survey results.  Attachment 1 includes this new page 11. 

 

DISCUSSION

 

We provide a summary of some key points below:

 

• The survey shows a significant shift by customers to digital cable, with 31% of respondents saying that they subscribe to digital tier in 2003 compared to 16% in 2001.
• More than half of respondents (51%) reported problems with their cable service in the last year compared to 45% in 2001.  According to the survey, 68% of respondents experienced outages in the last year, compared to 46% in 2001.  This difference may be explained in part by the December 2002 ice storm event. Other problem areas, such as “Other technical problems” and “Converter problems,” showed significant decreases.
• Respondents rated “Courtesy of office personnel” either excellent or good in 77% of cases.  However, 44% of respondents gave excellent/good ratings to the ease of getting through by phone. We have asked Time Warner to pay particular attention to this area of service.
• Those who had an installer or technician visit in the last year rated six aspects of the service they received, with excellent/good ratings from 63% to 81% for all aspects.  However, five out of six of these excellent/good ratings showed decreases from 2001 to 2003.  We have asked Time Warner to pay attention to this trend as well.
• The majority of respondents (87%) said that Time Warner’s bills were adequate and easy to read, an improvement from 2001’s rating of 84%.      

 

CONCLUSION

 

We will continue to work with Time Warner to implement customer service improvements.  The next formal survey of this type will take place in 2005.

 

ATTACHMENT

 

1.      Chapel Hill Customer Survey, September 2003 (Time Warner Cable and Highline Research Group) (p. 3).