Making A CX Reversal: How Insights Enhanced Relevance & Connection At DISH

With a lower average net promoter score than the IRS, the pay TV industry certainly has its customer experience challenges.

— Learn how DISH Network turned to insights to connect with consumers on an emotional level at CRC, October 8-10 in Orlando. —

In order to build these connections, DISH wanted to understand how consumers nationwide think, feel, and talk about their families and their communities. We decided the best methodology to meet this ask was through a digital ethnography, with participants typically logged into a discussion board a few times each day to provide responses and share their photos and videos (which will be shown in our session!). Following this phase of research, we then reached out to a select group of respondents to complete a 30-minute one-on-one video interview with one of our moderators (again, we will provide real-life sounds bites from these recorded sessions so you can see it firsthand!).

In our research, we met 24 wonderful respondents, with many different definitions of family and community. Take John, for example, whose definition of immediate family includes himself, his partner, his sister, his brother-in-law, and their three children. John and his partner decided to move back to John’s childhood home to better support his sister and niece. “I grew up in this house and moved back in about 10 years ago when my niece was diagnosed with cancer. Me and my partner moved in to reduce the financial stress on my sister and her husband, so she could better focus on Zay and her treatment and recovery.”

We also heard from Able, who just welcomed a new baby to his family. To Able, community is companionship and common ground. He feels less connected to the community that he lives in because he didn’t grow up there. He tries to connect with people through his wife, but it’s harder to make friends and a lot of people are older than him. Concerns with his local community include income inequality and lack of diversity. But he has seen disasters bring communities together, mentioning tornados specifically because they are common in Iowa.

Through our exploration, it became clear that communities are stronger when there is a reason to unite. National disasters, sickness or death in the community bring people together. Based upon this theme, DISH was curious to know how our respondents felt about brands/companies stepping in during times of need, and if they had any examples of brands that do it well…or brands that aren’t succeeding.

In our one-on-one interviews following the ethnography and board, we discussed how companies can succeed in helping communities and captured reactions to the DISH Cares program. Specifically, we probed on their connection to a DISH Cares advertisement, how they feel about the donations of time vs. a monetary donation and how (if at all) the DISH Cares campaign changes respondent’s perceptions of and connections with DISH Network as a whole. DISH will reveal the results from the research and their implications in helping the brand build stronger consumer connection in our session on October 9^th at CRC in Orlando – We hope to see you there.

NewsTechniqueChelsea Gibbons – 20/20 Research