In 1997, MediaOne began examining installation and service metrics for its High-Speed Data (HSD) product. During this examination, it became clear that its HSD business was seeing a larger installation failure rate then its core business counterparts. One of the explanations for this was because HSD deals with the additional unknown of the subscriber's personal computer. More specifically, one main reason the HSD rate was so high was because we were attempting to install our service on personal computers that did NOT meet the minimum system requirements of the HSD service. In fact, this type of failure represented between 3%-9% (depending on the region and the month) of all HSD install attempts! Why is this number significant? Because it is preventable. MediaOne believed if it could eliminate the wasted time and effort on failed installs, and allow those trucks/personnel to focus only on qualified systems, it could increase the number of successful HSD installs by upwards of 5%.

Do the Math

Improvements, such as the one given above, are difficult to realize or translate into a number that is meaningful for any MSO. The following could be used by any MSO to come up with a reasonably accurate assessment of their costs to install HSD on non-qualified personal computers:

• Assuming you could increased your yearly customer adds by an average of 5%
• Assuming the lost 5% customers were spread out over the year, (note only five months are used to calculate the lost revenue as a majority of customers are typically added late in the year).
• Assuming each failed truck roll costs $125
• Assuming you charge $39.95 for HSD service
• “potential” customers: 5% * projected customer adds for year
• LOST REVENUE: “potential” customers * 5 * $39.95
• EXPENSE: “potential” customers * $125
• TOTAL yearly IMPACT = LOST REVENUE + EXPENSE

As an example, I’ve plugged in MediaOne’s projected 1998 numbers to give you an idea of what kind of impact as little as a 5% increase in installation efficiency can have.

• Assume MediaOne planned to add 30,000 HSD Two-Way customers in 1998 (conservative).
• Assume the same 5% or 1500 additional subscribers will be impacted by the PC minimum requirements issue.
• Assuming these lost 1500 customers were spread out over the year.
• LOST 1998 REVENUE: (1500 * 5 * $39.95) = $ 299,625
• 1998 EXPENSE: 1500 * $125 = $187,500
• TOTAL 1998 IMPACT: *Note: The impact numbers DO NOT take the following into account:
  • Today the sales rep must take time to manually determine if a customer's PC meets the minimum specifications. This means longer talk times and thus less time available to close additional sales calls.

If MediaOne’s numbers are similar to your own, the result of a 5% increase in installation efficiency would amount to a savings of $16,237.50 per 1000 projected customer additions for the year. Put another way, each 1% increase in installation efficiency would amount to a savings of $3.25 per projected customer addition for the year.

A Possible Solution

A possible solution to this dilemma would be to allow a potential customer to automatically pre-qualify his or her own PC. This proposed application would examine the user's PC in a non-intrusive fashion, and then compare the results against the known requirements of the various MediaOne HSD product offerings for an applicable region. This application could eventually be delivered to customers via the Internet, e-mail or through promotional media.

The idea would be that BEFORE we roll a truck for installation or service call, the customer could run a simple, easy to use application. This application (currently known as The System Qualifier) would clearly state if the computer was capable of running the MediaOne HSD product the customer desires (two way, one way, etc). The result of the analysis would be one of three possibilities:

1. The computer "passed" the test! Therefore an install can then proceed with confidence.

2. The computer "passed with a warning". In this case the system met the minimum requirements for a service BUT NOT the recommended requirements (like in the case of free hard disk space). In this case the install could proceed, but the user AND the MediaOne staff (Sales, Support and Field Service teams) would know that a potential situation exists. Knowing this for example, additional quota time could be allocated if required.

3. The computer "failed" the test! In this case, the application would state why (lack of memory, disk space, etc) and make recommendations as to what the user could do to remedy the problem and thus eventually have our product installed successfully.

Notes:

- In the case of the third possible result ("failed"), MediaOne could give the name and number of a local computer supplier to help the customer resolve the problem. This was done to demonstrate that if desired, the eventual application could potentially GENERATE revenue! This could be accomplished by selling this "advertising space" to suppliers as we see fit.

The prototype developed by MediaOne divided up the problem of system qualification into four phases. The first phase (Figure 1.0) mainly explained to the customer what this application does and how to use it.

Figure 1.0 MediaOne System Qualifier Prototype Instructions

Here it was determined that customers would like to know what the system qualifier does and what they should expect to see once it completes. This directly led into the next phase where the customer’s residence and desired service is also qualified. Since Broadband was (and still is) not available everywhere instantly, it was necessary to determine where the customer lived. Figure 1.1 was our first attempt at resolving this problem. Note however that we found that you can’t base this off a customer’s state or zip code – you actually need to ensure that HSD is available for the customer’s dwelling or address.

Figure 1.1 MediaOne System Qualifier Prototype Residence and Service Selection

Selection of the State and Service options enabled the system qualifier to then begin a detailed system check. The results of this system check are displayed in Figure 1.2. This phase determined if the customer’s personal computer met minimum requirements needed schedule installation of HSD service.

Figure 1.2 MediaOne System Qualifier Prototype Checks

Once these checks were complete, the last phase of this process evaluated if the customer’s personal computer was capable of having MediaOne HSD installed on it. If it was capable, the customer was congratulated and given a code they could provide to MediaOne during signup (see Figure 1.3). This code would speed MediaOne’s data entry during the signup conversation. If it did not pass, the customer was allowed to view the results in more detail – which indicated where discrepancies exist.

Figure 1.3 MediaOne System Qualifier Prototype Results

Although a single individual at MediaOne developed the system qualifier prototype, the concept of an application that could make MediaOne’s HSD installations more efficient was enthusiastically supported by all. However, the system qualifier provides only a small piece of what HSD customers need in terms of self-help applications. What is actually needed is a suite of tools or a self-help toolkit.

Self-Help Toolkit

The need to expand the customer base along with the need to cut expenses and reduce the number of service calls require better equipped customers. Self-help tools abound on the Internet. From IP-switchers to speed checkers many Internet sites are providing a growing number of FREE services. For example the following link:

http://www.computingcentral.com/topics/bandwidth/speedtest.asp

Personal computers are also becoming more broadband friendly. For example, new personal computers come with simple wizards to configure Internet services along with the ability to save/restore multiple configurations. As a result, the personal computer is better able to adapt to the type of broadband access available in the customers’ area. Short of full-fledged broadband ready personal computers that will completely set up your network interface and IP address settings, these improvements represent significant progress towards a more efficient and trouble-free Internet installation.

Summary

Armed with a self-help toolkit, customers can do things like test the speed of their Internet connection, send/receive test emails, run system/diagnostic tests, and even troubleshoot localized problems. MediaOne’s system qualifier prototype demonstrated tremendous potential for selling advertising space within self-help tools. The availability of this highly “customizable” advertising space along with the growing number of self-help tools will enable these tools to reach and increasing number of broadband customers. Currently there seems to be a few different approaches to providing self-help tools:

· Standalone application based approach – Self-help products that consist of standalone application(s) that can be executed on a customer’s personal computer. This approach is capable of performing detailed diagnostics of the computer however is limited by not being able to change with the times (new operating systems, advertisers, requirements, etc.), is typically suited for only one type of broadband access (ISDN, xDSL, or HSD via CATV), and must be updated manually.

· Internet based approach – Self-help products that are accessible via a web site. This approach is less capable of performing detailed diagnostics on computers to the point where it may not be able to pre-qualify the computer, however it is extremely flexible, able to work with all types of broadband access, and is able to keep up with changes in software, hardware, and advertisers.

· Combination – Self-help products that attempt to leverage advantages of standalone and Internet based approaches. This approach can be extremely effective in offering a wide variety of self-help tools to customers, however it typically comes with a price tag and does not allow you to reap the benefits of making deals with vendors wanting to advertise to your customers.

Can Birds-Eye.Net help you or your Company? Receive your Birds-Eye.Net articles and white papers hot off the presses by adding our RSS feed to your reader.