In choosing Suzanne Keenan as this year's Woman to Watch, Women in Cable & Telecommunications has selected someone with a huge watch of her own. As senior vice president of customer service for Comcast Cable Communications Inc., Keenan oversees how the MSO interacts with some 21.5 million basic-cable customers, 6 million high-speed Internet customers and 1.2 million circuit-switched telephone customers.
With an academic background in engineering and a work background rich in marketing and field work, Keenan arrived at Comcast in 1999 well “engineered” to meet the challenges of a job respecting the power and importance of both clients and technology.
David Cohen, executive vice president of Comcast Corp., remembers one of Keenan's initiatives to improve service to customers while harnessing technology in the process: “In 2003, under Suzanne's leadership, Comcast opened eight new call centers and expanded seven more, bringing all inbound video service calls from former AT&T Broadband systems in-house. We have hired 3,000 people to staff those new and expanded centers.”
As part of Keenan's “Think Customer First initiative,” about 10,000 Comcast customers are interviewed each month and provide a significant amount of valuable data on how customers are responding to Comcast's products and customer service. Internal measurements of this initiative, says Cohen, indicate that customer satisfaction improved by four points in the second quarter of this year.
What motivates so effective an executive? Keenan credits “a love of learning new things, being challenged and taking risks, and making a difference in the business.
“I get the most satisfaction in bringing out the best in others and myself. And the more responsibility you have in the organization, the greater ability you have to shape this difference on a broader scale,” Keenan says, adding that one of her great pleasures is “achieving great results by helping others to be successful and not focusing on who gets the credit.”
WICT certainly noticed Keenan's energy and outward focus. According to the WICT Foundation, “it was clear that she is passionate and reaches out to others.”
Keenan arrived at Comcast after serving in various management roles for PECO Energy's distribution company, including vice president of customer and marketing services. She graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a B.S. in nuclear engineering and an M.A. from the University of Pittsburgh in health physics.
She resides in Bala Cynwyd, Penn., near Comcast's headquarters, with her husband and two children. Keenan, who has her eye on so many others, is, herself, most definitely a Woman to Watch.
