Rogers Drops Services

From Random Notions' Business At The Speed Of Stupid file.

For more than 20 years, Rogers Cable has provided 20 to 30 radio stations over its analog cable service. Customers could hook up their cable to their stereo systems and listen to crystal clear radio. Granted, not many did; only about 1% according to a Rogers spokesperson. However, considering that Rogers has hundreds of thousands of subscribers, that's still a fair number.

On January 2nd, Rogers dropped the radio service. In order to provide more high-definition television stations, which a greater number of customers desire, they needed to free up bandwidth on their lines. Technically it makes sense. What doesn't make sense is the way they did it. They dropped the radio service without giving any notice to their subscribers. This demonstrates a clear lack of respect for the customer.

Would it have been difficult or costly to provide advance notice? Not at all. Rogers mails out monthly bills anyway, and they often include ads for other services. They could even have printed the notice right on the bill if they didn't want to spend money on an extra insert.

True, they're only ticking off a few thousand customers. But those few thousand have friends. And there are other games in town, numerous satellite services that would jump at the chance to pick up a few thousand new users.

Respect is both cheap and valuable. It doesn't cost much to show it, but it can reward greatly.