Calix Is Investing To Ensure YOU Are the Consumer Giant in Your Market

Michael Weening

President and Chief Operating Officer, Calix

 

We have always said the greatest threat to broadband service providers (BSPs) is the consumer giants. That includes Amazon, Google, and any other over-the-top provider who says they want to “partner”—when the real goal is to build a stronger direct relationship with your subscribers and turn you into a dumb pipe. 

Any consumer-direct competitor is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. As a BSP, you need to learn to spot these threats. Watch out for any company that has these three characteristics.

  1. They put their brand first. Their goal is to expand their brand presence with the BSP’s subscriber.
  2. They have a direct relationship with your subscriber. The consumer giant has the subscriber sign into their app and markets directly to the end subscriber—making it easy to replace the BSP by swapping a WAN.
  3. They know data. They understand the power of BSP data and how to capitalize on it.

Again, Amazon reinforced its consumer-direct mindset after announcing plans for 83 rocket launches to deploy its satellite broadband network. From there, it’s a short step to having every EERO connected to that network.

By contrast, Calix has bet exclusively on YOUR success. That’s why we give you the tools and support you need to become the consumer giant in your market by:

  • Putting YOUR brand first. The BSP brand comes first with the CommandIQ® mobile app. With every new partner product launch, we align the BSP brand to the partner to make the BSP stronger.
  • Ensuring YOU win the relationship. Unlike partnering with a consumer giant, when a subscriber cancels their broadband service, the GigaSpire BLAST stops working. When they cancel Arlo from the BSP, they have to go through the painful process of sitting in a long queue to get it up and running again—Arlo will never market to them. The BSP owns the relationship, period.
  • Leveraging Calix Cloud (Marketing Cloud, Support Cloud, and Operations Cloud)—the most advanced real-time data engines in the market. Whether the BSP is a cooperative focused on member satisfaction or a for-profit provider focused on revenue growth, Calix Cloud enables the BSP to be as good with data as a consumer giant. In addition, the Calix Customer Engagement and Services army is ready to help with analysis and best practices.
  • Building exciting experiences. The consumer giant will not keep up with your offerings. You beat them to market on Wi-Fi 6 and now on Wi-Fi 6E with the GigaSpire BLAST. Through 2022, the BSPs that partner with Calix will crush the consumer giants. How so? Calix will continue to roll out exciting partnerships. For example, Arlo cameras will expand to whole home/SMB security. Plus, we’ll enable you with community Wi-Fi, a full SMB solution, and more to come.
  • Linking the network to the subscriber. Only a Calix-enabled BSP will be able to link the subscriber Wi-Fi network to the access network through cloud automation. That means fewer truck rolls, greater customer satisfaction, incredible OPEX savings, and zero regrettable churn. There is no comparison.

Whether your mission is member satisfaction or running a successful private BSP, we have invested over $1 billion to enable even the smallest BSP to become the giant in their market. That’s the power of our analytics and platforms to enable exciting subscriber experiences.

If you have any feedback or if there is any way I can assist you, please email me at michael.weening@calix.com.

Wishing you continued success,

Michael

 

 
 

Home Security Perfectly Aligns With Our Mission. That's Why Every Subscriber Gets ProtectIQ

Kirby Underberg

President and CEO, Chariton Valley 

Kirby Underberg

President and CEO, Chariton Valley 

At Chariton Valley in Northeast Missouri, our mission is to improve the quality of life for our customers. Any CEO of a broadband service provider (BSP) knows this mission sounds simple but execution can be complex. In our case, these key considerations influence how we fulfill our mission:

  1. We serve multiple stakeholders. Chariton Valley Telephone Corporation (CVTC), the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) is very focused on the wellbeing of our members. Chariton Valley Communications Corporation (CVCC), a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC), is a wholly owned subsidiary of our cooperative and is expanding into areas outside of the ILEC.
  2. We are growing rapidly. Chariton Valley will add 15,000 customers in the immediate future.
  3. We have embraced Intelligent Access EDGE-based fiber as part of our business transformation. Before I took over as CEO in 2016, all resources and planning went into building and growing the wireless company. I did not see wireless as our future, so we switched in 2018 to a fiber future. CVCC just sold our mobile/fixed wireless business of 20,000 customers.
  4. We have competitors in our market racing to the bottom. Spectrum is sparking a “race to the bottom” by cutting prices. Our team refuses to play this game. We also had another competitor offer 12 months of “free” service to new subscribers—a tactic we will not embrace as they sacrificed quality and service. Instead, we hit the market with a campaign that emphasizes Chariton Valley will be here for the future, offering a superior experience when their free period expires.
  5. We need to stay on top of “the next big thing” that subscribers and members care about and need. Most recently, that’s been home network security.

The only way to get our fiber expansion build off the ground was to develop a five-year, $42 million fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) buildout for our ILEC service territory, yielding an average of a 30-year return on investment. This was important to ensure everyone—from the members of the cooperative to the new areas we reach—receives the highest quality network. The ILEC network buildout will be complete in Q1 of 2023, at which point all our resources can be focused on the organic expansion of the CLEC.

Profits enable our cooperative to continue our investments in the community’s success. Those investments are also significant as we compete. I constantly challenge the leadership team to avoid the “bell-head” mentality (my word for monopoly thinking). We need to be customer-first, fierce competitors, and drive profitability— making it a win-win for Chariton Valley and our customers.

Recently, a conversation with Michael Weening, president and chief operating officer at Calix, helped me realize that offering home security protection for all our customers was both an opportunity to help us grow as well as an obligation to help us fulfill our mission to improve lives. Think about it. Our customers access an internet that adds 350,000+ new malware programs a day, every day. The world also saw a 600 percent rise in cyberattacks last year. Meanwhile, antivirus programs only work if a program is installed on the device. Home network security is a service subscribers want and need. We realized that, by offering it, we could differentiate from our competitors, set ourselves up for future growth, and align with our mission to improve customers’ lives.

Subscribers Will Always Need More Security

Calix ProtectIQ can stop 100+ attacks a month per home against any device connected to a GigaSpire Wi-Fi network. The question was: How did we want to package this as an offering? We debated our go-to-market strategy and considered these options:

  1. Add ProtectIQ to 100 percent of our GigaSpire base at no additional cost and drive profits by upselling ExperienceIQ (a parental controls service) for a monthly fee. The logic here was that every subscriber needs security, but only families need parental control. Calix Marketing Cloud (Marketing Cloud) identifies families for our marketing team to drive the upsell, and “security for everyone” messaging will become a core service for all fiber plans. With an achievable attach rate for ExperienceIQ, we saw a path to profitability.
  2. Charge for both ProtectIQ and ExperienceIQ through upsell campaigns leveraging Marketing Cloud.
  3. Offer ProtectIQ for free for 12 months and then use an approach we have seen competitors use: apply negative billing—have a charge appear on every member’s bill on month 13.

We instantly rejected option three as contrary to our customer-first values. We rejected option two because improving customers’ quality of life is our goal. We felt our values obligated us to offer ProtectIQ as a value-added service to our members at no additional cost. This left us with the only decision a customer-first organization can make—100 percent of customers protected. We added ProtectIQ to every service plan and will upsell ExperienceIQ via Marketing Cloud insights to the families who need parental controls via Marketing Cloud insights. We know this approach will reinforce our brand in the market as customer-first while contributing to profit goals through our ExperienceIQ campaigns.

Adding Value and Putting Customers First

Our customers have learned that we care about their security, experience, quality of life, and the community. That approach has helped us win in every market we enter. I’m confident it will ensure we win in the future.

We are still at the start of our business transformation journey. I am proud of our team as they continue to avoid the “bell-head” mentality and instead add value with services like ProtectIQ. Keeping customers safe is our obligation, especially given our mission to improve customers’ lives. (In fact, next up for us will be adding Arlo, so we become our customers’ partner for physical home and small business security.) Offering such services will keep our customers loyal to us for decades to come.

Contact Michael Weening at michael.weening@calix.com or the Calix Customer Engagement and Services team to discuss a strategy for adding ProtectIQ to your Wi-Fi package.

  

 

Calix Leadership Series Webinars: Summary Highlights

 

Robert Herjavec, founder and CEO, Cyderes (newly merged Herjavec Group & Fishtech Group), and star of Shark Tank 

Herjavec joined our Leadership Series webinar for a Q&A with Michael Weening on “Finding Your Competitive Advantage.” The conversation covered cybercrime escalations because of the crisis in Ukraine, as well as the latest consumer trends in cybersecurity. Herjavec also gave advice to leaders navigating big shifts in workplace culture due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  1. Broadband service providers (BSPs) can win with security. No longer the preserve of corporations, cybersecurity is a now consumer concern. But security is complex, so make it simple. Take a platform approach to make it easy for subscribers to pick the services they need, and charge for these as revenue-generating add-ons to their monthly service.
  2. Trusted relationships offer peace of mind. Consumers will logically look to their BSP to protect their home network—it’s a natural fit. Always look at solutions through the lens of adding value to the customer. Extending your brand with service offerings to protect their network and data will increase subscriber loyalty and longevity.
  3. Humankind’s insatiable need for speed will drive growth. Bigger bandwidth creates opportunities for bundling security as a differentiator to drive BSP growth. Subscribers don’t want disparate single products from multiple vendors; they want a service. Being able to offer subscribers an integrated, managed, end-to-end suite of the latest security technology is a huge opportunity for BSPs.
  4. Don’t expect the impossible; expect the extraordinary. Leadership starts with operational excellence; you don’t need to be an expert, but you do need to understand every aspect of your business. Employees want leaders who walk the walk.
  5. Great workplace culture matters. As the workforce continues to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, make your workspace a collaborative, cool, and fun place to be. Teamwork happens when we spend time together, and it’s critical to building your company’s culture.

Watch the Calix Leadership Series replay to discover more insights into the big trends in cybersecurity.  

 

Marshall Goldsmith, New York Times Best-selling author and executive coach

Goldsmith featured in our most recent Leadership Series webinar,“Why Great Leaders Are Attracting and Retaining the Best Talent in 2022” where he shared insights during a Q&A with Michael Weening about how great leaders are adapting their work culture and leadership style and building winning teams in the new COVID-19-influenced era. As Goldsmith says, “We live in incredibly changing times; the role of leadership has become more important than ever before.”

Goldsmith’s renowned ability to get results for top leaders has drawn more than 150 CEOs—including our 2021 guest Alan Mulally—to achieve positive, lasting change in behavior: for themselves, their people, and their teams.

Watch the Calix Leadership Series replay and discover how simple changes in your approach can help you reshape your company's future and move from being an excellent leader to becoming exceptional.

 

Calix Leadership Series Webinars: Summary Highlights

 

Robert Herjavec, founder and CEO, Cyderes (newly merged Herjavec Group & Fishtech Group), and star of Shark Tank 

Herjavec joined our Leadership Series webinar for a Q&A with Michael Weening on “Finding Your Competitive Advantage.” The conversation covered cybercrime escalations because of the crisis in Ukraine, as well as the latest consumer trends in cybersecurity. Herjavec also gave advice to leaders navigating big shifts in workplace culture due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  1. Broadband service providers (BSPs) can win with security. No longer the preserve of corporations, cybersecurity is a now consumer concern. But security is complex, so make it simple. Take a platform approach to make it easy for subscribers to pick the services they need, and charge for these as revenue-generating add-ons to their monthly service.
  2. Trusted relationships offer peace of mind. Consumers will logically look to their BSP to protect their home network—it’s a natural fit. Always look at solutions through the lens of adding value to the customer. Extending your brand with service offerings to protect their network and data will increase subscriber loyalty and longevity.
  3. Humankind’s insatiable need for speed will drive growth. Bigger bandwidth creates opportunities for bundling security as a differentiator to drive BSP growth. Subscribers don’t want disparate single products from multiple vendors; they want a service. Being able to offer subscribers an integrated, managed, end-to-end suite of the latest security technology is a huge opportunity for BSPs.
  4. Don’t expect the impossible; expect the extraordinary. Leadership starts with operational excellence; you don’t need to be an expert, but you do need to understand every aspect of your business. Employees want leaders who walk the walk.
  5. Great workplace culture matters. As the workforce continues to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, make your workspace a collaborative, cool, and fun place to be. Teamwork happens when we spend time together, and it’s critical to building your company’s culture.

Watch the Calix Leadership Series replay to discover more insights into the big trends in cybersecurity.  

 

Marshall Goldsmith, New York Times Best-selling author and executive coach

Goldsmith featured in our most recent Leadership Series webinar,“Why Great Leaders Are Attracting and Retaining the Best Talent in 2022” where he shared insights during a Q&A with Michael Weening about how great leaders are adapting their work culture and leadership style and building winning teams in the new COVID-19-influenced era. As Goldsmith says, “We live in incredibly changing times; the role of leadership has become more important than ever before.”

Goldsmith’s renowned ability to get results for top leaders has drawn more than 150 CEOs—including our 2021 guest Alan Mulally—to achieve positive, lasting change in behavior: for themselves, their people, and their teams.

Watch the Calix Leadership Series replay and discover how simple changes in your approach can help you reshape your company's future and move from being an excellent leader to becoming exceptional.

 
 

One-on-One With Gina Shuler of Home Telecom: Innovating To Drive a 314 Percent Increase in Subscriber Upgrades

 

Gina Shuler

Vice President Marketing, Home Telecom 

Established in 1904, Home Telecom is one of the largest independently owned telecom companies in South Carolina, serving 37,500 subscribers across three counties in the southern part of the state. Spanning four generations of family ownership and leadership, Home Telecom is rapidly expanding its fiber-to-the-home business in the Greater Charleston area while ensuring its rural subscriber base also benefits from technology innovation. Calix spoke with Gina Shuler, Home Telecom’s vice president of marketing, about how they’ve established a strong position in their competitive local market.

A Strong Heritage and a Bright Future

“Home Telecom has been around for almost 120 years and we’re incredibly proud of the fact we remain a family-owned company—as innovative as ever. We’ve evolved from being primarily a telephone company to a full-fledged broadband provider. A key turning point occurred in 2004, as we started offering fiber to the home with our acquisition of Daniel Island Media, enabling us to expand our subscriber base. We operate in a fast-growing area of South Carolina; an average of 30 people move here every day. This creates significant opportunities for us to develop greenfield fiber areas; by 2025, we project our internet subscribers to be nearing 47,000. Throughout this transformation, we’re working to ensure that our core rural customers also benefit from the same innovative technologies. Thanks to state and local grants, we’re committed to moving all our DSL customers to fiber over the next three years.”

Using Revenue EDGE To Compete and Win Against the Big Players

“We compete against some pretty large players like AT&T, Comcast, and Charter and to win, we need to offer much more than bandwidth. We need differentiating services while living up to our brand promise that we’re easy to do business with. We focus on the complete subscriber experience and that’s what Calix helps us to deliver. We’ve deployed the end-to-end Calix Revenue EDGE solution as the foundation of our premium MyWiFi Xtreme offering, including GigaSpire® BLAST systems, our branded version of the CommandIQ® mobile app, ProtectIQ® for network security, and ExperienceIQ™ for parental controls. We launched the service Q3 of 2021 and the response has been extremely positive; 65 percent of new residential installs have selected MyWiFi Xtreme, and we’ve increased average revenue per user (ARPU) by 67 percent.

“And when you factor in our same-day tech support—something the bigger players just can’t deliver on—we’re competing on so much more than price. As a local company invested in our community, we have a unique relationship with our subscribers: We see them in the grocery store, and they know exactly where to find our CEO if they’re not happy about something!”

Harnessing Data Analytics To Boost Upgrades by 314 Percent

“We’ve been using Calix Marketing Cloud since 2017, and its impact was immediate. We ran a 60-day campaign to drive upgrades to our 1 Gbps service, using Marketing Cloud to specifically target the work from home demographic. We used the same offering, marketing mix, and execution from a previous campaign so we could easily compare the results. The performance improvement with Marketing Cloud was absolutely staggering: Compared to the previous campaign, upgrades were up 314 percent and we cut the marketing cost per upgrade by 75 percent. And we’ve seen this level of success replicated in every other campaign we’ve run on Marketing Cloud. Our CEO initially wasn’t sold on the value Marketing Cloud could bring, but after that first campaign, he’s a believer.

“Looking ahead in 2022, we’re expanding our use of Marketing Cloud—using data analytics to further develop and refine our propositions. We’re also going to be using Marketing Cloud for subscriber acquisition—taking advantage of the lookalike audience capabilities enabled through the integration with Facebook.”

Establishing South Carolina’s First Gigabit Community: What Comes Next?

“We’ve been partnering with Calix since 2009 and one of the most exciting projects we’ve undertaken has been the development of South Carolina’s first gigabit community in Nexton in 2013. The cutting-edge ‘GigaFi’ experience brings fiber to every single home and business in the town, ensuring the fastest speeds now and into the future. We offer managed Wi-Fi in businesses and homes, with community Wi-Fi everywhere else. It’s served as a living lab where we can test out the latest and greatest technology—it’s been so exciting to see how it’s developed.

“Our next strategic initiative is broadening our multi-gig services across our entire subscriber base—upgrading all our systems to XGS-PON. We’ll start by offering 1 Gbps subscribers the 2 Gbps option, ultimately upgrading all subscribers so they can benefit from the exciting new experiences we have on offer. This will create more upsell opportunities as we roll out MyWiFi Xtreme with GigaSpire BLAST systems and EDGE Suites to more subscribers—driving higher ARPU and increasing stickiness.

“Looking ahead to the future, we’re confident that we’re well-positioned to take on the industry giants and win. We’ve future-proofed our network so that, as bandwidth needs increase, we can meet demand. We’ve embraced innovation—partnering with Calix to bring exciting experiences to our subscribers. And perhaps most important of all, we’re bringing our rural subscribers with us into the connected world. We’re so proud of how far we’ve come, and are committed to helping our communities thrive.”

Enroll your team in Calix Broadband Marketing Academy. 

 

 
 

Launching ProtectIQ for Your Subscribers: What Are the Best Go-to-Market Options a CEO Should Consider?

 

Matt Collins

Executive Vice President of Commercial Operations and Chief Marketing Officer, Calix  

Anyone who reads the news knows that cybercrime is growing at an unprecedented pace. Fortune reported a 105 percent increase in ransomware cyberattacks worldwide in 2021, due to the surge in remote work outside office networks. And here in the US, the FBI received a record number of cybercrime complaints 2021, with associated financial losses topping $6.9 billion. And in light of recent geopolitical events, most experts and pundits expect this risk to become even more significant in the foreseeable future.

What does this mean for you and your community? Leaders of broadband businesses are realizing home network security services—like ProtectIQ®—are no longer a “nice to have.” They have become essential. That’s why leaders like Kirby Underberg, president and CEO of Missouri-based Chariton Valley, are embracing their responsibility to keep subscribers protected. As he pointed out in his article in this issue of the Leadership Beacon, network security goes hand-in-hand with the mission of his business.

A Societal Imperative: Put Your Subscribers’ Wellbeing First

The way to think about it is this. When your kids or grandkids get in the car, you make them wear a seat belt. You all have a similar obligation to your subscribers. You’re bringing broadband into their homes and connecting them to amazing experiences. You’re also potentially opening them up to viruses, malware, or worse.

We’re excited to see hundreds of our BSP customers rising to the challenge and making ProtectIQ home network security part of their managed Wi-Fi offerings. In the last year alone, 90 percent more BSPs defended their subscribers from cyber intrusions by offering ProtectIQ.

Make ProtectIQ a Part of Your Value Proposition for Subscribers

ProtectIQ is a service that your subscribers will value. Here are three strategies for building ProtectIQ into your proposition.

  1. Add ProtectIQ to your standard offering. This option is simple. It demonstrates your commitment to protecting your subscribers while potentially generating high ARPU because you’re adding entirely new capabilities to the package. Service providers who are taking this approach recognize that they are providing an entirely new, highly valuable service (not raising prices or asking for more money for the same services). As they enhance their standard packages, they are adjusting the price to reflect the addition of this new service. Most importantly, your commitment to providing home network security will significantly enhance your brand because you are taking a tangible step to prove you actually care about your subscribers’ wellbeing.
  2. Include ProtectIQ to create a new tier. This strategy also demonstrates your commitment to subscribers’ security, while giving them greater choice. Home network security is significant enough that it can justify adding a new tier to expand your ARPU with subscribers who are particularly astute regarding these challenges. However, many subscribers are still not well informed regarding the challenges and may not fully understand the incremental value of the package. Of course, subscribers who choose not to upgrade will remain  exposed to growing security risks.
  3. Market and sell ProtectIQ as a standalone, add-on service. There are some service providers who prefer an à la carte offering strategy which provides their subscribers with maximum flexibility. However, with flexibility comes operational complexity for the service provider and their field tech and support teams. The service provider team must assess each individual subscriber at the time-of-service initiation and as they support them over time. More importantly, this approach tends to be the least successful in terms of adoption, because it not only requires the subscriber to understand the challenges of security, but it also requires them to weigh the relative value of a security offering  versus other options. This strategy is the least successful because it requires subscribers to understand the growing challenge of home network security and the many options they can consider for addressing it themselves or through the service provider.

Ultimately the most successful service providers are acting to simplify. They are simplifying their operations and their offerings while at the same time, helping their subscribers by offering them a managed service that will address their most important needs. If caring for subscribers and their wellbeing is a part of your brand promise, you might argue that this approach is a no-brainer.

While we see BSPs successfully adopting all three strategies, a growing number are making ProtectIQ part of their standard subscriber offering. Examples of service providers who are successfully implementing this strategy include Bascom Communications, CentraCom, Centranet, Chariton Valley, Jade Communications, and Norvado. As Kirby Underberg said: “We made the only decision a member-first organization can make—100 percent of members protected.”

We are here to help you succeed with ProtectIQ, from developing your proposition and business models to running amazing marketing campaigns to drive adoption of the service. Contact me at matt.collins@calix.com or contact the Customer Success team to help you move forward. 

 
 

Marketing Beacon

A trusted source for marketing insights. Mails quarterly.

 

Customer Support Beacon

A trusted resource for customer experience insights. Mails quarterly.