©2015 Bloomberg News
NNWFJ96JIJV0

(Bloomberg) — Comcast Corp., the biggest U.S. cable-TV provider, will create more than 5,500 jobs during the next few years to improve customer service.

Three new customer-support centers employing 2,000 workers will be set up in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Spokane, Washington; and Tucson, Arizona, Philadelphia-based Comcast said Tuesday in a statement. It also set a goal for punctual service and will credit customers $20 if a technician is late to an appointment.
“This transformation is about shifting our mindset to be completely focused on the customer,” Chief Executive Officer Neil Smit said in the statement. “It’s about respecting their time, being more proactive, doing what’s right and never being satisfied with good enough.”

Comcast’s plan includes tripling the social media team to respond to customers on Twitter and Facebook and other sites. Cable companies have been plagued by poor customer support. Subscription-TV and Internet-service providers sank to the bottom of the the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index last year, out of 43 industries. Comcast and competitor Time Warner Cable Inc. had the most dissatisfied customers.

In April, the city of Philadelphia issued a report criticizing Comcast’s service. The wait times for customer calls fell short of standards set by the Federal Communications Commission, according to the report.
On April 24,, Comcast dropped its plan to merge with Time Warner after facing regulatory obstacles.

To contact the reporter on this story: Meenal Vamburkar in New York at mvamburkar@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Cecile Daurat at cdaurat@bloomberg.net Lisa Wolfson, Andrew Pollack