Chief Product Officer, Calix
Secure connectivity today is as fundamental to people’s lives as water and electricity, and it comes with the same expectation: that it is always available. If there is a network issue, subscribers expect proactive and transparent communications. However, it’s hard for broadband service providers (BSPs) to be proactive when they must take several manual steps and touch various systems to determine the root cause of the disruption—and they are unable to communicate critical information to the appropriate teams in a timely fashion.
Historically, BSPs learned of an issue when a customer called to report it. The network operations team then spent a significant amount of time reviewing data and event logs and telemetry to determine the cause of the problem. Information sharing among internal teams relied on non-automated processes that often led to delays because different teams have different needs and use different tools.
For instance, the operations team is concerned with identifying and resolving the issue’s root cause. In contrast, the customer support team needs to understand which subscribers are affected and how long the problem will take to fix so they can communicate it with customers.
Automated Real-Time Network Visibility
Success in today’s hyper-connected and hyper-competitive broadband industry rests on having a 360-degree view of all subscribers, systems, and services. And if there is an unexpected network issue, BSPs need real-time information on what’s been impacted.
This is possible with machine-to-machine, automated real-time communications that unify all systems around the same data set and events. What used to take hours to determine is now delivered in seconds—dramatically reducing response time and improving the customer experience.
An automated notification message payload includes comprehensive information about subscribers, systems, and services—streamlining the communication of critical information to the various teams. For example, the operations team is equipped with the cause of the outage and what systems and services are down so they can immediately work on a resolution. Whereas, the customer support team has all the current information and are informed when a customer calls in, building trust and improving the customer relationship.
Proactive Communications Drive Satisfaction
BSPs can also deliver automated communications to subscribers notifying them of an outage and the expected time to resolution. This proactive approach changes the conversation with customers, reduces the number of incoming support calls, and builds trust with subscribers—benefits that are ultimately reflected in a BSP’s customer satisfaction score.
Network outages happen, from tornados to floods to construction fiber cuts (which we’re seeing a lot of due to investment in infrastructure). How a BSP handles the unexpected makes all the difference, and proactive communications is critical to ensuring a superior subscriber experience. In this latest edition of the Calix Broadband Operations Beacon, we highlight how to use new automated capabilities to transform your network operations.
Get in touch! Please email me at shane.eleniak@calix.com or connect with me on LinkedIn.
October 2023
Want To Deliver Award-Winning Subscriber Satisfaction? Transform Your Operations
Juan Garcia, Manager, Network Operations and Engineering, NextLight | City of Longmont
NextLight is a community-based and community-owned internet service provider (ISP) in Longmont, Colorado. Our subscribers are also our friends and neighbors, which gives us an extra incentive to meet and exceed their expectations. We’re proud to say we’re succeeding, as demonstrated earlier this year when NextLight was voted PCMag Readers’ Choice Top ISP in the nation, scoring 9.9 out of 10 for overall satisfaction.
Alan Marks, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Calix
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Dean DeLitta, Senior Manager, Customer Success, Calix
As a broadband service provider (BSP), you likely have several back-office systems to manage your operations, services, and subscriber interactions. Integration is crucial to enable information sharing between these systems, your teams, and—when necessary—subscribers.
Tony Stout, Chief Technology Officer, CDG
The technology service providers use to deliver and manage services—and how those tools communicate and share data with each other—are fundamental considerations for any service provider. This is especially true for broadband service providers (BSPs), where technology is the foundation of the ecosystem for the services they can offer and support.