DIRECTV 2006 Annual Report Download - page 8

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Providing the Gold Standard in the
Customer Experience
Our plans call for improving the customer
experience at every stage of the customer
lifecycle. It was certainly an honor to
receive the highest score for customer
satisfaction among satellite and cable
companies from the American Customer
Satisfaction Index in 2006. However, we
still have much work to do in order to
achieve the excellence our customers
deserve.
Starting with our very fi rst contact
with the customer, we’ve implemented
several new initiatives to increase cus-
tomer satisfaction. New customers receive
a welcome call shortly after DIRECTV
lights up their television screen for the fi rst
time, longer term customers are rewarded
and retained with loyalty programs, and
all customers can now tune into a new,
interactive customer service channel on
DIRECTV with on-demand answers to fre-
quently asked questions. In addition, our
new customer relationship management
system provides us with additional tools to
improve customer service and profi tability.
Another important strategy to assure
the highest level of customer service is to
increase control over the entire customer
experience. We have already increased
the number of in-home visits by our Home
Service Providers to approximately 90 per-
cent of all work orders, up from 57 percent
just three years ago. In the last year,
we also opened our fourth call center
in Missoula, Montana, to strengthen our
ability to provide technical support to
customers that have new products and
advanced television services. As a result,
we have increased the staffi ng of our
owned-and-operated call centers to over
4,000 agents, more than three times as
many as we employed in 2003.
Introducing Compelling Products
and Services
Delivering the best television experience is
the key to our success. The recent launch
of three new set-top receivers – a DVR,
an HD receiver and an HD DVR – provides
DIRECTV with a solid technology platform
to build upon. Perhaps our most impor-
tant initiative in 2007 is to leapfrog the
Building on last year’s operating performance,
DIRECTV is well positioned to continue
driving strong fi nancial results. Key to our
plan is continued solid subscriber growth
while maintaining a focus on higher quality
customers that optimize ARPU, margin
and churn.
6 DIRECTV