As service providers contemplate what action to take to ensure they own the subscriber experience, the foxes are getting firmly entrenched with subscribers and will be difficult to remove. These other companies are quietly taking over the experience that your subscribers have with your service and relegating you to the pipe provider. Unless you’ve strategically decided that your company is only going to deliver the pipe to the side of the subscribers’ homes, this is a dangerous place to be relegated to for many reasons:
- Pipe providers are a commodity—a race to the bottom: “Which provider has the fastest speed for the lowest price, I’ll chose them.”
- It removes your ability to differentiate and compete on experience.
- You will STILL get the trouble calls. “My Internet isn’t working” (No, it’s probably one of the 5 pods or 20 devices you have in your home that’s causing problems, but we aren’t sure so we can’t help.)
- You lose all visibility into the subscriber experience and your ability to effectively support that experience remotely. This could generate more truck rolls as you try to determine if the problem is yours or theirs.
- You lose the ability to offer them new services in the future if you do not have a platform in the home.
In some cases, service providers are actively inviting the foxes into their subscribers’ homes. The foxes say—here is an easy service for you to give your subscribers and you can make a couple bucks. The foxes may even give you a small window of visibility into the home, if and when they feel like it. The danger of this is that your subscriber at any time can decide to just take service directly from the fox and cut you out. Be careful that your partners aren’t competing with you.
So how do you keep the foxes out?
- Take preventative measures. If you intend to own the subscriber experience, what are you waiting for? Make sure you have solutions that do not relegate you to the pipe provider. Deliver a powerful Wi-Fi experience to ensure your subscribers do not need to look elsewhere. Preferably a platform that enables you to launch new services in the future.
- Secure your subscribers. Subscribers rarely will go looking for another provider if they are receiving an exceptional experience from you. It’s just too much hassle.
- Seal off entry points. Be careful who you partner with and understand who is funding them. Don’t give an entry point to a known competitor.
- Use robust materials. Use a solution that was designed for service providers, not one that your subscriber can go buy at the closest big-box store.
Devices in the home are increasingly connected via Wi-Fi. If you do not own that experience, someone else will and we all know what happens when a fox gets into the hen house. This will jeopardize your current ability to take care of your subscribers and your future ability to grow. Calix is here to help. Learn more about the Revenue EDGE, which will help you to keep the foxes out, in our upcoming webinar, “Don’t Be Left in the Dark: Using data and insights to launch new services and drive revenue” on February 26, at 1:00 CST.