New service features from Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH) and Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) offer Uber-like transparency to customers, letting them not only know the ETA and location status of the technician who's about to visit their home, but their name, as well.
So how are these pay-TV operators' installation partners reacting to these new customer-friendly tools? Just fine, said Erik Carlson, executive VP of operations for Dish.
"We received great feedback from our technicians and customers during testing," he told FierceInstaller.
According to Carlson, Dish's new My Tech service requires no additional integration or labor on the part of installers, who are already delivering the data as part of existing work protocol.
"My Tech is the natural progression of existing practices and capabilities that have been in place for several years," he said. "The feature simply offers customers access to information that we already use to manage technicians' schedules and routing. Technicians will see very little change in their day-to-day operations; however, customers will be able to realistically manage their time and expectations."
FierceInstaller sent out inquiries to around a dozen installers who do work not only for Dish, but also Comcast, which just began deploying its Tech ETA app in the Northwest region. Several of the installers who did respond to our inquires said they were reluctant to comment on an existing client.
Announced last week, the My Tech app lets Dish customers track arrival times of technicians via mobile devices, giving them 75-minute windows in which a tech will arrive. Tech ETA, meanwhile, offers a 30-minute arrival window notification to customers, and allows Comcast customers to track their technician's progress on a map.
The transparency among operators comes amid fast-declining pay-TV subscriber numbers, with more than 625,000 video services customers ditching their subscriptions in the second quarter.
For more:
- read this Dish Network press release
- read this Comcast press release
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