Interview: Comcast Wants Top-Notch Customer Service

And execs know they're not delivering, yet.

This just in: Comcast CEO Brian Roberts knows that you hate his company’s customer service. And he wants to remedy that, he said in an interview with USA Today. He wants Comcast to be more like Uber, the widely praised car service. Then he wants to extend that service to Time Warner Cable customers.

 Roberts acknowledged in an interview with USA TODAY that the perception of Comcast’s poor customer service lingers. But he said the company is making fresh efforts to ease the headaches.

Uber “is fantastic,” he said, wielding his iPhone to demonstrate a new Comcast app that lets customers schedule an appointment and troubleshoot set-top boxes remotely. “I need to (be able) to push the button and see where my truck is. We’re beginning to make our service look like Uber.”

That such improvements — including the app and the company’s new cloud-based set-top box — will be extended to TWC relatively quickly if and when the companies merge remains a key selling point in Roberts’ attempt to combine the nation’s two largest cable operators. “We want to scale it and bring it to customers next year,” he said. TWC customers “don’t have the same speed.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee plans a hearing on the merger April 2.