Smooth Onboarding of New Internet Subscribers for Long Term Loyalty

5 Mins read

You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a First Impression with New Subscribers

One could argue that newbies are the most important subscribers for Communication Service Providers (CSPs). After all, on average, it costs $315 to acquire each one. That figure, known as the Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), takes a hefty toll on the CSP’s bottom line.  Think about it: investing in the CAC of a mere 3000 new subscribers costs the CSP almost a million dollars! But since subscribers are the lifeblood of the service, CSPs don’t hesitate to spend what it takes to acquire new ones. 

To justify the exorbitant cost of acquisition, CSPs need to hold onto these new monthly-revenue producers for two years or longer to make them profitable. 

Upon embarking on his new journey, the newbie is keen on justifying his churn, constantly comparing the new service with the old. If the new internet service doesn’t prove itself quickly, addressing the motivations that caused the churn in the first place, the newbie will just churn again. CSPs need to pay careful attention!

Veego Engage brings Decision Intelligence (DI) to Communication Service Providers. DI marries the breakthroughs of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning with automated business processes, decision support, and post-decision measurements. Veego Engage gives CSPs the tools and insights to segment and closely monitor the QoE of newbies from the very first days of their internet service and to guarantee their satisfaction, turning them into long-term, happy subscribers.

First cut is the deepest

To hold onto their fresh subscribers, CSPs must focus on the early impressions that these newbies gain from the internet service. The CSP must segment these new subscriber homes and:

  1. Closely monitor experience across all internet sessions in new subscriber homes 24/7
  2. Quickly spot problems
  3. Determine the root cause
  4. Remediate proactively
  5. Push alerts when quality falls below the standard of the CSP
  6. Promptly institute business processes that will improve the onboarding experience
  7. Remediate reactively when necessary, but much more efficiently than competitors
  8. Comparing the QoE with competitors

Continuous Monitoring

Residing in each home router, the Veego agent ceaselessly monitors the experience of every user in the home. It continuously scores the Quality of Experience (QoE) of each internet session in the context of what the user is doing and the device he is using. For example, lag in a competitive game is catastrophic while the same degree of lag in an audio stream is, at most, mildly bothersome and often unnoticeable. A bit of pixelation is certainly more noticeable on a 70” flat TV screen than on a 5” smartphone. 

Veego uniquely knows how to determine the appropriate QoE score of each session based on what the user is actually experiencing.  People feel the internet; Veego precisely measures what they are feeling.

Spotting Problems

Whenever the QoE score falls below a threshold (the user is having an unacceptable experience), Veego autonomously determines that there is a problem requiring attention. It sends all the data, with full context, to the CSP cloud for a permanent record and gets to work autonomously.

Determining Root Cause

Veego automatically looks for the root cause of the problem end-to-end. Is it in the WiFi?  Is there a defective device affecting the whole home network? What about the router, is it positioned effectively? Is the app server exhibiting difficulties? What’s the condition of the WAN? The last mile?

Veego checks all of these possibilities to pinpoint the location of the problem and to determine its root cause.

Remediating Problems Proactively 

Veego enables proactive remediation in several ways:

  • In certain cases, Veego can fix the problem directly. For example, it can automatically switch channels or bands, anticipating and alleviating the problem of the suffering user while being careful not to create any new problems for other users in the home. 
  • In other cases, it can recommend actions to users to fix their own problems through integration with marketing automation, CRM, or other core systems. For example, Veego can send messages like, “Your WiFi coverage is poor. Move your device closer to your router/extender.” or “Your Netflix server is having problems. Change servers to enjoy better streaming.”

In all cases, Veego continues to monitor the effects of changes to make sure that the problems disappear and that the new-subscriber home is enjoying optimal internet service. 

Pushing Alerts

Veego enables the setting of personalized alerts based on configurable thresholds. It automatically notifies when new subscribers are not experiencing sufficient internet quality. The alerts are enriched with the context and reasons for the unacceptable level of service, supporting appropriate business decisions that will improve the situation.

Improving Business Processes

There are many cases where Veego Decision Intelligence leads CSPs toward permanent improvements in their processes. Here are two:

  • Veego notices that 60% of new homes are suffering from coverage issues. Something must be wrong with the technician installation process (if home networks are installed by technicians) or in the setup instructions (If subscribers install their own networks). Thus, Veego helps the Internet Service Provider improve the onboarding process by spotlighting a technician training issue or the need for clearer explanations in the unboxing instructions.   
  • Veego observes geographic pockets of slowness in certain newbie homes and pinpoints network issues as the culprit. Veego helps network analysts identify sources that affect network bandwidth and latency, and facilitates network optimization, quantifying the effects of the changes on the before-and-after experience of these new subscribers.
  • Upon noticing that a certain type of “old” device that uses 802.11b mode is slowing down home WiFi networks, Veego notifies the CX Department who use the Veego dashboard to quickly fetch a list of impacted homes and initiate outbound calls to resolve the issue before it causes frustration among new (and other) subscribers.

Improving Reactive Customer Care

There are problems that are beyond the ability of Veego to remediate. These are likely to result in dreaded calls to Customer Care which account for more than a third of reasons for churn as they are especially grating on the nerves of many subscribers. But Veego improves even these experiences.

Veego automatically furnishes all of its relevant knowledge about a faulty internet session to Customer Care. The information is already at the fingertips of the Technical Service Rep when the subscriber calls. Instead of having to ask a lot of bothersome questions and making the subscriber turn on and off the router several times (how frustrating!), the TSR can get right to the heart of the problem. 

“Ma’am, in your home, you have so many internet sessions going on simultaneously. May I offer you a more suitable broadband plan that will keep up with all the internet your family is using?”

Veego’s contribution to reactive Customer Care also addresses unnecessary – and expensive – truck rolls and CPE replacements. If the root cause of an intermittent problem is not associated with the home router, why replace it? When truck rolls or CPE replacements must happen, Veego automatically measures their effectiveness from the subscriber-experience point of view and reports results immediately to the CSP. 

Comparing QoE

The CSP can analyze the Veego data to know where the internet service stands in relation to competing services. For example, how is my gaming lag relative to other services? How many  suffering streamers do I have relative to the competition? What is my percentage of people who work from home relative to others?.  

New Subscribers Stay Loyal and Spread the Word

With Veego on their side, advanced Internet Service Providers can segment and closely monitor their new subscribers in real time while continuously optimizing the quality of their internet experience.

New subscribers become loyal, long-term subscribers –  and they tell their friends!

Related: Audience Segmentation: the first step to personalized subscriber experience

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