Comcast appears to feel that it’s a problem that their customers actually use their service. OK, that’s a little vague.

More accurately, they have a problem with that small percentage who use their service *a lot* despite doing so within their (current) terms.

Their new solution to this “problem” is to cut off that customer and probably motivate them to avoid being a Comcast customer forever. I don’t imagine that this sort of action will contribute to good word of mouth marketing by former Comcast customers.

While their bandwidth limits seem rational, history has proven that customer needs will expand beyond that – and quite often more quickly than Comcast would respond with policy changes or additional billing options.

In contrast, Time-Warner is testing tiered pricing. The more you use, the more you pay. That makes sense, particularly beyond a certain level.

In every group of customers, there’s a percentage of high-use customers.

You have two choices

• Cut them off. Tick them off. Run them (and probably their friends) off.
• Find a way to bill them that reflects their use and the value you’re delivering.

Think about that for your business. There’s probably a small percentage of high profit customers (or potential high profit customers) who might benefit from an additional level of service.

Running off the customers who need your products and services the most seems a little crazy, doesn’t it?