An Ownership Mentality Enables Internal Innovation

Five people at a conference table listening to a young woman standing at the end of the table with her back to us.

Diane Christman’s three questions with Eric Burton.

Why is employee feedback important for supporting innovation? 

When Comcast aligned the business to the net promoter score (NPS), we put in place an elevation program that allows frontline employees across the entire business to provide recommendations for improving employee and customer experiences. Emphasizing frontline feedback helps ensure we launch something that works well over the long haul. It’s been transformational in how we plan, build roadmaps, prioritize, and make decisions.

How do you identify winning behaviors that support quality interactions?

We developed what we call “The Eight Behaviors,” that, when exhibited well, result in quality interactions. When we listen to contact center interactions, talk to customers after a technician visit, do an NPS survey, and evaluate store interactions, we tie back to these behaviors. Think, too, of chatbots. We ensure the words we use exhibit these behaviors. All Comcast Cable employees take a course to understand how those behaviors define quality and guide how we interact with each other.

What’s an example of how behaviors drive corporate innovation? 

One of The Eight Behaviors is “take ownership.” With the alignment to NPS, there’s no confusion about performance when it comes to customer experience. From an innovation perspective, it drives us to think differently. Moving the needle requires a long range plan and perseverance. We assign people to work on forward-looking things that may or may not pan out, with a long runway and leeway to test and learn.

This article was originally published in 2023 Second Annual Intrapreneurship & Innovation Report.


Eric Burton, SVP, Tools and Technology, Comcast

Eric Burton
SVP, Tools and Technology
Comcast

Eric Burton plays a key role in developing CX strategy at Comcast, working closely with his peers across the organization to create great teammate and customer experiences.

Explore More

Gibbs Jones

C5 Emeritus
Owner (Spartanburg)

ARCpoint Labs

Gibbs is a customer experience executive with over 25 years of customer experience leadership and expertise in the design, optimization and implementation of customer contact operations. Gibbs has combined skill in the human and technology side of customer contact operations, including the procurement and installation of ACD equipment, workforce management and CRM systems. He has directed the start-up of multiple customer contact operations, with industry expertise in consumer electronics, communications, retail, manufacturing, financial services, banking, and direct sales.

Gibbs has over ten years experience in the Cable Industry. Most recently Gibbs was the Senior Vice President of Customer Experience for Suddenlink Communications. Gibbs worked with Suddenlink’s six regional senior vice presidents and the managers of its customer-contact call centers in Arizona, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas and West Virginia to measure and improve Customer Satisfaction through transactional and relationship Net Promoter Programs and JD Power Research Studies.

Gibbs was also responsible for the company’s social media strategy where he made sure Suddenlink was active in the major social networking channels and found new ways to improve customer loyalty in this space.

Currently Gibbs owns two ARCpoint Labs locations. ARCpoint is a leader in the B to C and B to B drug and alcohol testing industry. Additionally, Gibbs has a consulting practice that helps companies improve their customer experience.

Gibbs is a Certified Net Promoter® Associate and has been a speaker at various conferences and is frequently called upon to discuss considerations related to measuring and improving the customer experience, exceptional contact center management, and optimizing the employee experience.

 

Skip to content