Charlie Herrin

Here's something unexpected: Comcast's customer service may actually be improving.

The company has a reputation for abominable service, perennially ranking near the bottom of customer satisfaction studies. Comcast generates hundreds of complaints annually to state and local cable TV regulators in Oregon, and horror stories linger of rude or abusive interactions with subscribers.

And yet look at the numbers.

In the second year of Comcast's broad customer service overhaul, complaints to Oregon cable regulators are down 25 percent. They've also declined 40 percent since 2014.

Complaints are falling nationally, too, according to the highly regarded American Customer Satisfaction Index. Its most recent report showed a surge in Comcast subscriber satisfaction, to its highest point since 2001.

"We would say there's something there, it's real impact," said Forrest Morgeson, ACSI's Director of Research.

Two years ago, Comcast made Oregon the test bed for its customer service push, responding both to disparaging headlines and the prospect of growing competition from other telecom companies and from streaming video services.

The company is adding Apple-style retail stores around the metro area and introduced innovations to help consumers understand what they're paying for and when technicians will arrive for service calls. It's rolling out new tools nationally to help them improve their home Wi-Fi, and diagnosing problems before customers call to complain.

"We know we still have a lot of work to do. I think what we're happy with is the progress we've made and the focus we have on it," said Charlie Herrin, the Comcast executive shepherding the customer service overhaul. The Philadelphia company just promoted him to a newly created position, chief customer experience officer.

Few companies reach as many Oregonians as Comcast does, with 600,000 subscribers in Oregon and Southwest Washington. And when Herrin says Comcast still has a lot of work to do, that's a profound understatement.

Even after last year's surge in satisfaction levels, it remains below average in the ACSI's ranking of cable TV companies and well below the median among internet service providers. And that's a low bar - the telecom sector is among the most complained about under ACSI's rankings.

In a brief visit to Portland earlier this month, Herrin explained that Comcast's goal is steady improvement. He wants to reduce the number of bad interactions with customer service reps by reducing the number of times subscribes need to call in for help.

"I want to prevent the calls in the first place," Herrin said, "and create a different model."

For example, if several subscribers in the same neighborhood use the company's tool for testing internet speeds, that triggers an alert at Comcast to look for a problem in the local network. The company redesigned its bills to make it clearer what customers subscribe to, and what it costs, in hopes of reducing confusion and calls.

And Comcast has a robust social media presence, fielding complaints on Twitter. Herrin said that's often the best way to get results on customer service problems, and is a good alternative if calling the standard customer service number doesn't get results.

Comcast said it received 22 million fewer customer service calls last year, even as it beefed up the number of people taking calls. By itself that doesn't mean customers are having fewer problems - subscribers may be reaching the company online, instead.

But it does indicate that something is changing in the way Comcast interacts with its subscribers, which Herrin said reflects rising consumers' rising expectations of all businesses.

"The relationship customers have with companies now is a lot more personal or direct," Herrin said. So Comcast needs to be constantly in touch with its subscribers, anticipating their needs so they can respond promptly.

"It's not a transactional world anymore," he said. "It's more of an experiential world."

Who ya gonna call?

Different regulators handle complaints for different types of telecom services. If you don't have success getting concerns resolved with your company, here are a menu of options to consider:

Landline phone service

Contact the Oregon Public Utility Commission, (800) 522-2404 or puc.consumer@state.or.us.

Cable TV service

In Portland and most of Multnomah County, contact the Mount Hood Cable Regulatory Commission, 503.823.5385 or mhcrcinfo@mhcrc.org.

In Washington County and parts of Clackamas (including Lake Oswego, Rivergrove and West Linn), contact the Metropolitan Area Communications Commission, 503-645-7365. Online complaint form here.

Internet service

Contact the Oregon attorney general, 877-877-9392.

Even as Comcast worked to become more sensitive to consumer perceptions, though, it has continued raising rates and clouding its pricing behind complicated service bundles and temporary discounts.

Oregon cable regulators recently asked the state Department of Justice to investigate the broadcast and sports fees Comcast now tacks onto nearly every cable TV subscription, even for customers already under contract.

Historically, Comcast and other telecom companies have held near monopolies in their local markets. Congress blocked local regulation, so the businesses responded by trimming the amount they spent on service. They boosted profits with the knowledge that few subscribers would leave because they had no place to go.

Now, though, nearly the entire Portland area has at least two choices for high-speed internet service. And many homes can choose between two cable TV companies. (It's Comcast and CenturyLink in Portland and Vancouver; in Washington and east Multnomah county, it's Comcast and Frontier.)

Competition hasn't had any apparent effect on pricing, according to Fred Christ, administrator of the Metropolitan Area Communications Commission in Washington County. But he said it may have spurred investment in customer service.

"Comcast, to be fair, really has done a lot to avoid the horror stories," Christ wrote in an email. "They have hired a lot of folks - not always locally, but in the U.S. Their techs seem very well trained and customer oriented. I've visited their Hillsboro office quite a few times since it opened. Wait time is reasonable to excellent, and agent experience has always been good."

If you're a customer who's tried to navigate a byzantine phone tree, or who has struggled through a billing dispute or extended service outage, it may be hard to believe such frustrations are any less common.

And as fewer calls come in to his office, Christ wonders if subscribers have just stopped trying to address their exasperation with an unregulated industry.

Comcast and its peers are saddled with "an entrenched reputational problem" they'll have to overcome if they want to win over a new generation of viewers who prefers to stream video online, said Morgeson, from the ACSI.

"It'll be interesting to see if the cable companies can keep up with the competitive forces and adapt," he said. "We've seen entire industries go under because the technology is changing so quickly."

-- Mike Rogoway; twitter: @rogoway; 503-294-7699