Charter 2004 Annual Report Download - page 20

CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS, INC. 2004 FORM 10-K
each node, with two strands activated and four strands reserved We believe that, despite our consolidation, we have not yet
for spares and future services. We believe that this hybrid sufficiently improved in the area of customer care, and that this
network design provides high capacity and superior signal lack of improvement has in part led to a continued net loss of
quality. The design also provides reserve capacity for the customers. Accordingly, we have begun an internal operational
addition of future services. improvement initiative aimed at helping us gain new customers
The primary advantages of HFC architecture over tradi- and retain existing customers, which is focused on customer
tional coaxial-only cable networks include: care, among other areas. We intend to increase our efforts to
focus management attention on instilling a customer service
(increased bandwidth capacity, for more channels and other oriented culture throughout the company and to give those
services; areas of our operations increased priority of resources for
(dedicated bandwidth for two-way services, which avoids staffing levels, training budgets and financial incentives for
reverse signal interference problems that can occur with employee performance in those areas.
two-way communication capability; and In a further effort to better serve our customers, we have
also entered into outsource partnership agreements with two
(improved picture quality and service reliability. key outsource providers. We believe the establishment of these
We currently maintain a national network operations center relationships expands our ability to achieve our service objec-
to monitor our data networks and to further our strategy of tives and increases our ability to support marketing activities by
providing high quality service. Centralized monitoring is increas- providing additional capacity available to support customer
ingly important as we increase the number of high-speed data inquiries.
customers utilizing two-way high-speed data service. Our local We also utilize our website to enhance customer care by
dispatch centers focus primarily on monitoring the HFC plant. enabling customers to view and pay their bills online, obtain
useful information and perform various equipment troubleshoot-
MANAGEMENT OF OUR SYSTEMS
ing procedures.
Many of the functions associated with our financial management
are centralized, including accounting, billing, finance and acquisi- SALES AND MARKETING
tions, payroll, accounts payable and benefit administration, In the third quarter of 2004, Charter shifted primary responsibil-
information system design and support, internal audit, purchas- ity for implementing sales and marketing strategies to the
ing, marketing, programming contract administration and divisional and system level, with a single corporate team to
Internet service, network and circuits administration. We operate ensure compliance with guidelines established by the corporate
with four divisions. Each division is supported by operational, marketing department designed to promote national branding
financial, marketing and engineering functions. consistency. Our marketing infrastructure is intended to promote
interaction, information flow and sharing of best practices
CUSTOMER CARE
between our corporate office and our field offices, which make
We have 36 customer service locations, including 14 divisional strategic decisions as to when and how marketing programs will
contact centers that serve approximately 97% of our customers. be implemented.
Our customer care centers are managed divisionally by a Vice Due to our focus in 2003 on certain other operational
President of Customer Care and are supported by a corporate matters and due to certain financial constraints, we reduced
care team, which oversees and supports deployment and spending in 2003 on marketing our products and services.
execution of care strategies and initiatives on a company-wide Marketing expenditures increased 14% for the year ended
basis. This reflects a substantial consolidation of our customer December 31, 2004 to $122 million. We expect to increase our
care function from over 300 service centers in 2001. We believe spending on marketing in 2005.
that this consolidation will allow us to improve the consistency We monitor government regulation, customer perception,
of our service delivery and customer satisfaction by reducing or competition, pricing and product preferences, among other
eliminating the logistical challenges and poor economies of scale factors, to increase our responsiveness to our customers. Our
inherent in maintaining and supervising a larger number of coordinated marketing strategies include door-to-door solicita-
separately managed service centers. tion, telemarketing, media advertising, e-marketing, direct mail
Specifically, through this consolidation, we are now able to solicitation and retail locations. In 2004, we increased our focus
service our customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week and on marketing and selling our services through consumer
utilize technologically advanced equipment that we believe electronics retailers and other retailers that sell televisions or
enhances interactions with our customers through more intelli- cable modems.
gent call routing, data management, and forecasting and In January 2004, we introduced the first national branding
scheduling capabilities. We believe this consolidation also allows campaign in Charter’s history. The ‘‘Get Hooked’’ branding
us to more effectively provide our customer care specialists with initiative was a key focal point of our national marketing
ongoing training intended to improve complaint resolution, campaigns in 2004 with the aim of promoting deeper market
equipment troubleshooting, sales of new and additional services,
and customer retention.
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