Want to ensure customers are consistently satisfied with a brand or product? Get in touch with the employees who field those make-or-break service requests. Their available tools and methods are what leave smiles or scowls on customers’ faces.

One route to customer loyalty is through employees’ hearts, minds and complaints, according to Kristy Schaffler (pictured), director of customer experience for Comcast Corp.’s California regions. This is why Comcast keeps the lines of communication between employees and higher-ups wide open. “We have some of the highest scores of any company [for] employees that are motivated,” she said.

Employees stay motivated to serve the company and its customers because they know their input won’t fall on idle or unresponsive ears. This is because Comcast has a system that encourages them to point out what’s broken directly to those who can fix it.

Schaffler spoke with Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Comcast CX Innovation Day event at the Comcast Silicon Valley Innovation Center in Sunnyvale, California. They discussed how employee feedback loops its way into customer experience at Comcast (see the full interview with transcript here). (* Disclosure below.)

Keep ’em all in the feedback loop

If tools are not cutting the mustard in the heat of issue resolution, employees can communicate it directly to headquarters. A team there then has two weeks to respond to the reporting employee. For example, a software developer who may own the tool has to reply directly to the staffer.

When employees decide collectively that something is causing major problems, it gains “elevation” status. This means it is bumped up to superiors most equipped to do something about it. “Anybody who’s watching that elevation gets an email in their inbox with the actual comment from the person who owns it,” Schaffler explained.

One such case involved a capability within Xfinity Home that allowed users to view security-camera footage on their mobile phones. A technician made a report on customer issues with the application, which went up to someone who updated the software. The senior VP of customer experience at corporate headquarters sent his congratulations on a job well done. That message went directly back to the reporting employee.

“It’s just a celebratory moment when you can be able to get that direct feedback from the customer — it comes up through the employee, the employee’s owning it as an issue that they can’t solve personally, but they know to get it to the right people,” she concluded. 

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Comcast CX Innovation Day event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Comcast CX Innovation Day event. Neither Comcast Corp., the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE