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Let’s talk: Rogers unwraps RedBoard blog
March 2nd, 2010 a 11:02am
You’ve been talking about us.
We’ve been listening. And we’ve been learning about what you like – and don’t like – about our products and services and policies.
We’ve been finding our voice in these online conversations – joining in on discussion forums, leaving comments on blogs, answering your questions through the @RogersHelps Twitter account and telling you about the latest Rogers news through the @RogersBuzz account.
Today we’re excited to launch a new forum for these conversations. RedBoard will be a place where we can talk about our vision, explain our services and policies and geek out about the latest new technology. Our goal is to keep jargon to a minimum and to focus on providing useful information, interviews with decision makers and answers to your questions.
But this won’t work if it’s a monologue. The name RedBoard is a metaphor for whiteboards used for collaboration. We want to hear from you – the good feedback and the bad. The best way is to leave a comment on a relevant blog post. You can check out our comment policy here or find other ways to reach us on the Talk to Us page.
So what do you think? What would you like to hear about in a customer-focused Rogers blog?
Keith McArthur is Senior Director of Social Media at Rogers.
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Congrats Keith & team on launching the RedBoard blog! I hope that this endeavour sits well with not only your customers but the online community as well.
I think the real test will be to see what action items you can take away from this initiative. I’ll be following closely and watching. Good luck.
First comment ever! Thanks for christening our blog Emma.
Congratulations on the new blog guys. Looks great.
I think this will be a great place to pass on information to the masses. Twitter is a great tool but not everyone is comfortable searching or managing the information obtainable. This should provide the missing link between Twitter and your corporate site (which is a little difficult to navigate if you ask me).
Will be sure to keep visiting.
Congratulations on the new blog. As Emma mentioned above, it will be interesting to see how you take feedback and respond to it. There have been a few missteps in the past while, and having a venue to respond to these will be helpful.
Thanks!
Agreed.
I sincerely hope customers are allowed to voice their needs, concerns and opinions regarding Rogers’ services here.
Jim and Joe – as long as comments are on topic and respect our comment policies we’re going to publish the bad feedback with the good. We’re not always going to make every customer happy, but we’ll listen, pass the feedback along to the appropriate teams and incorporate customer feedback into our decision make process where we can.
Hiya Keith!
Great introductory post! I am very much looking forward to having a more open dialog with Rogers. As a customer of Cable, Internet, and Wireless, this change brings a whole new level to Rogers customer service and interaction and I feel like Rogers will now finally be getting feedback from their users.
That being said, I wish this blog the best of luck and hope it doesn’t get crusty and old like other blogs I’ve read. This page is now bookmarked lol!
This change if very welcomed and I feel it merits acknowledgement from the Rogers community!
“A small step for social marketing. A giant leap for Rogers!”
Congratulations, Rogers! It’s been more than six months since I wrote a letter to the president about the urgent need for your company to get social, and interact with your customers outside of tech support. Finally, it’s happening and I, for one, am very pleased to witness this evolution in your marketing efforts.
You have one more task, and it’s getting a Facebook Fan Page of this Redboard.
May you live long and prosper!
Congratulations on the new blog!!! Going to retweet it now so others are aware!
Take care!
This is great! Nothing bad can come out of interacting with your customers.
Rather than creating another corporate blog that typically ignores the Rogers hotspots such as the recent fiasco with the QuickSmart guide, why doesn’t Rogers take the time to communicate with customers on vibrant social media spots such as Digital Home’s Digital Forum. We have close to 100,000 members discussing Rogers products on a daily basis.
Rogers has already failed in creating on-line forums because consumers want to go some place that is objective and not controlled by big red.
I invite the folks at Rogers to come join us at Digital Home Canada and talk about the issues that real customers are facing and the problems they are having.
Hey Hugh! Thanks for checking out the blog. Good suggestion on a post about Quick Start – we’ll be posting on the interactive guide over the next few days.
As I wrote in my introductory post, we’re participating in the online conversations about Rogers wherever they take place in social media. We’d been respecting your request not to engage with customers in Digital Home, but I’m thrilled that you’ve invited us back. Forums like yours are a great place for us to learn from our customers and to engage with them.
Likewise, I would invite you to keep visiting back here and to chat with us through comments on the blog.
Is this new venue going to ignore me like the @RogersHelps does when I have a problem? You can set up all the social media channels you want but it doesn’t change the fact that the people on the phone can’t fix my problems with my service.
Sorry to be jaded.
Hey Gary. Thanks for checking out the blog. Please accept my apologies if you reached out to the @RogersHelps channel and didn’t hear back from us. Our goal is to get back to everybody in a timely fashion so I’m sorry if your tweet feel through the cracks. If there’s still something you need help with, reach out to me directly at @RogersKeith.
Nice idea having a blog! I’ve noticed that Rogers customer service is getting a lot better. Kudos!
I’d like to report some coverage issues; specifically, in-building EDGE coverage at the Lakeshore campus of Humber College. The main auditorium, for instance, has zero network coverage, though people on other networks do have coverage there. I always have to switch to wifi at school, which is a pain (need to keep relogging in, there are areas of school that don’t have wifi, etc). I’d love to stay on EDGE the whole time. What is the best way to report issues like this? I always get the feeling that reporting it to overworked customer service folks is just a waste of my time.
Thanks for your help!
Glad you’ve noticed an improvement in Rogers customer service Tom. We’re constantly working to improve our network so this is helpful information. I’ll pass on to the network team.
I would also tend to agree with Hugh! I go to sites like Digital Home (of which I am a member) to get the real story, the real questions, and the real answers. I will be very skeptical if this site is just Rogers tooting its own horn.
Hey Tom. We think there’s room for conversations with customers both in Rogers branded sites and third-party sites. Check in once in a while and let us know how we’re doing.
I think this blog is a great idea! I’m always a fan of new outlets for customer interaction, especially if those outlets are public and contribute to greater transparency. Like some of the other comments, I’ll be interested to see how Rogers deals with feedback, and whether it addresses customer concerns objectively and head-on.
Let me add a second comment directed at Keith and his team.
Since your blogs are generated by your team, it could be inappropriate to comment on issues that are not related to the subject at hand. If I can suggest, can you find a way to create a Topics category, or a means to voice our opinions on specific issues, i.e. Quick Start Guide, Interactive Program Guide, New PVRs, iPhone, etc.
I really want to ask about a bunch of things, but most importantly, I’d rather not see answers like “we’ll pass the feedback to our teams” where we never have the assurance of delivery. We truly need direct answers from your department heads with concrete facts.
Thank you.
Thanks for the suggestion Robert. There’s certainly merit in what you propose. RedBoard is just one of the tools in our social media portfolio and we’ll be rolling out more over time. We’ll think about the most appropriate venue for what you’re suggesting.
Hey why not show some constructive ideas istead of Pro Rogers hype? I have real concerns and questions. Like improving Northwestern Ontario coverage.
Thanks Shane. Stick with us – hope you’ll find that this blog does address real concerns and questions. As for coverage in Northwestern Ontario, we’re constantly working to improve our networks and will let you know when we can discuss improvements to coverage in your region.
I remmeber being seeing a notice on a friends Rogers bill that Nipigon, On will be added soon.. That was like 5 or 6 years ago. So I would love to know when? As its pointless to stay with Rogers when you have no coverege when you leave the city of Thunder Bay. The last time I got stuck in the bush I had to use my friends TBay Tel cell to call for additional help. It wasn’t cool being hasseled for having a Rogers phone.
Thanks again Shane. We’ll share details when we can.
Congratulations on the new blog. I hope that this can serve as a source of meaningful interaction between Rogers and its customers.
The social media team, especially @RogersMary have been doing a great job interacting with many of us in Rogers customers.
RogersMary made a number of posts on DSLReports.com and they were nothing more than boilerplate responses – when the going got tough, RogersMary was nowhere to be seen anymore! This is why I am skeptical of this site.
Hi Tom. I was just in the forum last night, before I saw your post here. As I indicated, I am consistently reading the forum and providing feedback to our team. I’m happy to reply if I feel I can offer value to the conversation. Appreciate your feedback, I’ll be sure to pop in more often :)
Hi GreatBigDog… nice to see your comments on our blog. Thanks so much, I appreciate the kind words :) We have a great team here!
@Hugh Thompson.. Hugh, to be fair the social media team has been interacting with its Android phone customers in various forums.
Granted the interaction in the forums was more of a reactive rather than proactive nature. It would be of great benefit to both Rogers and its customers if they could be more active in these and other forums.
This is what you creative folks decided to do with the $50 overage charges and the very expensive tiered internet services you offer?? Thanks Rogers. Im glad I cancelled Home Phone, Cable TV and my Extreme PLUS and switched over to Bell.
I dislike some of Rogers policies and pricing as much as anyone, but greeting an attempt at communication with open hostility isn’t productive for anyone involved. You wouldn’t run into a Rogers Wireless store and start yelling this stuff, so don’t do it here.
Plus it puts the person trying to talk to you in the awkward position of either censoring your input, or allowing your negativity to pollute the conversation. You can say exactly the same thing in many more constructive ways.
Rogers is committed to providing all our customers with the best Internet experience possible while maintaining competitive, fair monthly rates that reflect how they choose to use the Internet. Only a small percentage of our total customer base goes over their monthly usage cap. For those who do consistently go over the maximum usage, our customer care representatives can help review their current plans and to decide which best suit their needs.
This is the type of boiler-plate reply that I’m afraid this blog is going to be filled with. It doesn’t address the original poster’s comment and is something everyone has likely already heard. Is this what we’re going to expect with the rest of the blog, when a controversially subject comes up?
@RogersKeith:
First item of business should be a review of the policies wrt to Android.
1) Opening question, why is Rogers requesting increasingly locked down firmwares from HTC instead of asking for the lastest versions of the OS? You will please 100% customers with you maintain a community friendly software stack (this includes the SPL).
At purchase time August 2009, the Rogers HTC Magic was probably the most community friendly Android device on the market. I am talking about the SPL and the available RAM. The device was essentially the same as the Google ION. The first update from Android changed the SPL and locked it down some. The second update from Android locked it up pretty tight, no known workarounds yet.
Cheers,
Gervais
I agree – why isn’t Rogers moving forward with the developer’s updates, and instead is insisting on locking down the device to 1.5?
The 911 issue was an issue of 1.5 Cupcake, and fixed in 1.6 Donut. But instead Rogers issued a custom 1.5 ROM with their own fix.
This seems counter-intuitive to me. Why not just update to the software supplier’s version?
Hi Anthony. Thanks for your question. HTC advised that the Rogers HTC Dream would only receive an update to 1.5 due to memory limitations with the device. However, the Rogers HTC Magic received a 1.5 update with Sense UI and will also be upgradable to 2.1 OS by mid-year. We have also announced the Sony Ericson X10 with an upgrade path to 2.x. and the Acer Liquid will debut with 2.1 this Spring.
Regarding RogersMary’s comment about hos HTC claims the Dream can’t handle the OS update because of memory limitations, please note that the G! in the US (the Dream here in Canada) is going to be getting _2.1_!!!
So, sorry, but I think Rogers needs to call HTC and ask about it. Maybe Sense UI won’t work on the Dream, but Android 1.6 and 2.1 _will_ work on the Dream.
Thanks for questions Gervais. I’m going to ask my colleague @RogersMary to respond, as she’s been engaging regularly with our Android customers.
Hi Gervais – Thanks for joining us on the blog, great to see you here :-) While I can’t always provide an immediate response to every suggestion, I can assure you that I am sharing your feedback with the appropriate team so it can be considered during the decision making process. When it comes to Android, we are the leaders in Canada and will continue to own this space with many new devices recently launched and more to come in the future.
Our devices are optimized for our network, which is a standard industry practice. This allows us to ensure our customers are getting a consistent user experience and technical support.
RogersMary said: “This allows us to ensure our customers are getting a consistent user experience and technical support.”
Unfortunately having multiple Android phones all running _DIFFERENT_ versions of the OS guarantees that users will NOT have a consistent user experience.
The features available differs greatly between versions, and most importantly, not all apps are available for each OS version.
I have to jump in and say, as a consumer, the very last thing I want is a device ‘optimized for your network.’ Like my home/office internet connection, I want to be able to use any reasonable device with it. I hope you can see how this statement comes across as a confusing form of marketing with questionable motivations to the consumer. In reality there should be diminishing (to zero) reasons for any device carrier optimization.
Phrases like “owning a space” are also very unappealing as they suggest a monopolist attitude. What I want is to pay Rogers a reasonable fee for standard Internet connectivity in a competitive market with choices. If Rogers wants to make product offerings on top of access, I want to be able to consider them, not be forced into compromises. Therefore I’m happy that you clarified in this discussion that we’re able to use standard Internet devices on the Rogers network, this is a fair and balanced position for Rogers and consumers and the growth of this industry.
2) Just like Rogers eventually provided a waiver for the 911/gps update, can Rogers provide an update that returns the SPL to the one in the original firmware with a waiver clearly stating this move is unsupported? If there are legalities involved that prevent such a move, then why not setup the redboard as the community-based support system and please EVERYONE all at once? You can have the cake and eat it too.
3) So Rogers requested increasingly perfected (locked) SPLs in order to promote a consistent user experience and to provide consistent technical support?
4) Since I can ask you which version of the Android OS the Rogers devices will have at purchase time, I would like to extend that logic to ask you which versions of the SPL the devices will have at purchase time. So for phones like the Xperia X10.
5) One irony I hope doesn’t escape you, where is HTC Sync for Linux?
FYI All Rogers Android devices to date run Linux as the underlying OS.
6) “our network” does that include Fido?
7) Is it Rogers policy to be opaque regarding the nature and contents of Rogers firmware updates?
8) Specifically when a fix is readily available for a bug in the Android OS (this include the kernel). What’s the Rogers policy on the time to fix and deploy to the devices? I ask because the 911/gps bug was known 4 months before Rogers deployed a fix (and what a deployment is that Rogers policy as well?).
9) Going forward will Rogers provide OTA updates (there’s an option for it on the Magic+)?
10) Will the RUU application be supported on platforms other than Windows XP 32-bit or will sideloading be the standard method to update? Will the update procedures be device specific or common to Android devices?
Hi again Gervais. Thanks for your continued comments and questions. I can’t stress enough that our continued priority is customer safety and our strong recommendation is that all customers download the bug fix for their Rogers HTC Dream or Magic. As I’ve said before, we take this matter very seriously. The bug you refer to was on a different operating system on a different network. As for the rest of your comments/questions, we’ll do our best to answer those in future posts.
Here’s an idea – why not come out with a competitive broadband service with an over use fee that actually makes sense. The blue guys now have *the* fastest connection on the market (notwithstanding the extremely misleading tactics you guys are using about twisted pair copper) with a $30 cap on over use. Now that something’s much more reasonable.
Also why not be more clear and upfront over the time of day you throttle and shape bandwidth as well as the type of bandwidth you’re targeting.
Let’s have some honest discussion around issues like this. Anything less and this will just be another corporate attempt to co-opt “social” media.
Hey Paresh. Thanks for checking out the blog.
We’re always working to improve our high speed internet service. Here are some of the enhancements we’ve introduced over the past year or so:
1. Significant improvements in download speeds for three-quarters of our customers, including a three-fold increase for customers on the Lite service
2. TV Call Display– a new innovation that is free to Rogers Home Phone customers in Ontario who have Call Display and Digital
3. Reduced pricing on higher tier Internet services including Extreme Plus, down from $99.95 to $69.99 and Ultimate, down from $149.99 to $99.99
4. The introduction of Rogers On Demand Online, free to customers subscribed to any Rogers product
And we’re transparent about our network management policies. You can find details here:
http://www.rogers.com/web/content/network_management
1. Download speeds have gone up – great. Your caps however do not match. What’s the point oof going to higher tiers if all it means I’m going to reach my cap faster? Loading Twitter on your top tier is of dubious value compared to your mid tier.
2. Only of use to rogers phone users. the blue guys have their own perks (i.e. controlling the pvr via the iphone)
3. you fail to comment on the ridiculous bump in the over use fee. it’s not even a competitive rate! where is the option for heavy downloaders to pay a reasonable monthly charge?
4. That’s great, but why not focus on your core products and make them world-best? can you honestly say your internet offerings are better than what customers in asia, europe, and even the US can get? why are Canadians short-changed?
The network management page seems to be missing the forced DNS redirection policy. Or is that considered “protecting network integrity and the security of our customers”? I know I feel reassured now that I can no longer get legitimate 404s.
great idea… trying to reel in our comments on a company controlled social website. There’s freedom of speech for you. Here’s a tip Rogers…. quit the daily b.s. and do something useful for a change. Don’t try to control the comments of your users, which is what the site is all about. Instead do something about the utter b.s. that your company puts out day after day.
To those of you who feel the need to ‘congratulate’ Rogers on this site.. you’re only being fooled. It’s ridiculous social marketing.
I have to agree with Bill. This is all talk, no action. Fix the problems and you won’t need to spend so much time on social media trying to convince your customers you actually care.
I absolutely agree with both Gary and Bill. Starting something just to say that we’ve started something is a whole lot different from actually putting something into action and bringing results to fruition.
Until consumers see results, Rogers can start as many RedBoards as you can imagine. In the end your products and the support/service you provide for those products will either make or break customers’ trust in you.
Thanks for visiting Bill. Over time, we’re hoping we can show you that we’re not here to control the conversation but to listen, learn and engage in a dialog with our customers.
You should take an example from your competitor, Wind! From day one they’re listening, learning and engaging. It took you only a few years to give a crap. And that quite possibly only because a new entrant came in and outshined in the shortest time possible.
After the fact boasting doesn’t put Rogers in a top spot, rather puts them in a ‘reactionary’ mode, as always.
Hey Puleen – This is a learning process for us and we’re doing our best to engage our customers and help were we can. I invite you to come back over time and let us know how we’re doing!