3 Lessons I Learned from Hulu Plus

Due to some wiring issues, I suddenly found myself without my Charter Cable on the second floor of my condo. And since the condo association is picky about drilling holes and running wires, the chances of getting my second floor rewired…well, lets just say I’m not holding my breath.

I’ve kind of gotten used to watching my favorite shows from the comfort of my room,so I immediately decided to explore what my Roku had to offer besides the Netflix which I was using it for.

Enter Hulu Plus.

It promised access to my favorite shows without the cable for just 7.99 a month. And although some of my favorites weren’t available (CBS has a problem with letting their viewers watch anywhere but on TV it seems) I was able to watch other favorites like Grimm. And then I began discovering new stuff…like ABC’s Revenge and Castle.

Hmmm, I began thinking maybe being without cable wasn’t so bad, maybe this whole streaming content thing was even better. I could even deal with the fact that some of my favorite Syfy shows had that dreaded ‘web only’ message meaning I couldn’t watch them on my TV with the Roku because Hulu said they were working on fixing that. I was happily crushing on Hulu Plus to the point that I wasn’t even looking at non-drilling options for restoring cable.
But…you knew there had to be a but in there right, I mean, honeymoons end. And my Hulu honeymoon was no exception.

The first hint that there was trouble in paradise was when the shows I watched would jump huge chunks of the episode. Sometimes I could back out of the app and re-enter and it would fix itself, other times it made it worse.  Then, as I started running out of new discoveries, the fact that so many of the shows I wanted to watch were available on my PC but not on my Roku-TV combo really started to tick me off. You can magine how ticked off I was when a show I had been watching on said Roku suddenly came up ‘web only’.Now I’m wondering if I jumped into this whole $7.99 a month Hulu Plus commitment prematurely.

It also has given me the opportunity to learn a couple of lessons about customer service.

Lesson #1: Even long time clients can be lured away if the situation is right.
I’ve had Charter Cable and Internet for years, I’ve even blogged about them here before. Yet rather than call and ask them if there was a way to get my cable connection back to my second floor without drilling and outside wires I turned to something that seemed easier and yes, cheaper.

Lesson #2: Know your clients situation
Perhaps if when that tech disconnected my second floor he’d made a note for customer service to call me about it a few days later I’d be reconnected now. Staying in contact with your clients, listening to what is going on with them and offering them solutions before they are lured away is key.

Lesson #3: Don’t let the honeymoon end, be consistent.
My breaking point with Hulu Plus was when a show I previously had access to became unavailable unexpectedly. Suddenly all of the little things that I had been willing to put up with before weren’t OK anymore. Sometimes when we are dealing with long-term clients we tend to relax thinking that they are simply going to remain loyal. We aren’t as ‘on point’ as we used to be, maybe we take a little longer to respond or get a little sloppy. And those are the things you can’t afford, because you never know which little thing is going to be the tipping point that causes that client to decide that they made the wrong commitment.

I still haven’t decided whether I’ll be leaving Hulu Plus, but I re-committed myself to not taking my clients for granted by consistently providing them with stellar service.