No. 1: AOL coping with change

Change has been a buzzword in politics this year. For AOL and its customers, change has been a dirty word.

The Internet service provider tops MSN Money's second annual Customer Service Hall of Shame.

The company received the highest percentage of marks for bad service of 140 companies surveyed by Zogby International for MSN Money. Of respondents who said they were familiar with the company's customer service, 47% rated it "poor."

"I think that there have been some things in the past that have happened with customer service, as it does with a lot of customer service," company spokeswoman Dori Salcido said. "A lot of that could be perception."

The once-ubiquitous Internet provider has hit more than its share of bumps as it struggles to reinvent itself. Since merging with parent company Time Warner in 2000, AOL has had massive layoffs, and Time Warner has endured painful stock drops.

• No. 2: Is Comcast a 'victim' of success?

Though AOL still has 9.3 million paying subscribers to its dial-up and broadband services (it once had 30 million), its current incarnation is as a free, ad-supported business. Services include instant-messenger AIM, MapQuest, Moviefone, a broad advertising platform and a host of entertainment and news sites, including AOL Money & Finance.

More from MSN Money

• Talk back: Do you have a story about AOL's customer service?
• The Customer Service Hall of Shame
• How companies were ranked
• Why we hate cell phone companies
• Company report: Time Warner

AOL had 26 million customer interactions last year by phone, e-mail, text or online chat. Customers remain "an important focus to us," Salcido said. The company:

• Spent more than $3 million on technology last year to speed the work of tech-support agents.

• Invested additional millions to streamline its automated phone system, as well as improve online self-help and online chat help.

• Trained agents, monitored calls, solicited customer comments and held weekly meetings to review feedback. "It's not like a one-day war-room thing; it's a continual process," Salcido said.

"I would say that just overall we're hearing from users on AOL that 'I want to be an empowered user,'" Salcido said. "A lot of people want to be able to control the customer experience themselves."

In the MSN Money-Zogby survey, 24% of those familiar with the company's service rated it "fair," 23% "good" and 7% "excellent."

Published May 28, 2008

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