The Business of Broadband

As I talk with ZCorum’s Affiliates, all of which are independent broadband service providers, one of the most frequent questions I hear is “How can we get our customers to understand all the services we deliver?”.

What these business owners really want to know is how they can get their customers not only to understand the services, but to use them, value them and remain loyal to the service provider.

So if the ultimate goal is instilling loyalty in customers and retaining their business, how can service providers achieve that? There isn’t one quick-fix answer.

Doing the Right Things, Consistently
Achieving customer loyalty requires you to do the right things for your network and your business on a frequent and consistent basis, such as:

• Properly maintaining the network
• Tracking bandwidth consumption to respond appropriately to demand
• Maintaining friendly, courteous and helpful customer service teams
• Providing technical support in a manner convenient for customers
• Continually educating customers

(Tech) Tip Your Customers
If you’re doing the first four items on the list consistently, give yourself a pat on the back – you’re well on the way to keeping your customers happy and loyal.

Next, you’ll need to develop a customer education program. Why? Because customers that know how to get the most out of your service will find the most value in it. Those customers are less likely to be lured to a competitor.

Your program doesn’t have to be elaborate. Educating your customers doesn’t necessarily mean hosting seminars or classroom training events. There are a number of simple ways to educate your customers on how to use the services you provide:

• Include a Tech Tip on your monthly bills
• Send your customers a periodic Tech Tip email message*
• Add a how-to article to your customer newsletter (check out the June 2010 edition from Peoples Telephone Cooperative)
• Include step-by-step video tutorials for using your services on your website (check out this example from SRT Communications)

What Do Your Customers Need to Know?
Developing content for your customer education program isn’t difficult. Just ask your technical support representatives what questions they get most frequently. You can also take an inventory of the services you offer and see which ones get the least use. Perhaps if your customers knew how to use them, they would.

Here are a few ideas to get help you start brainstorming:

• How do I set up my ISP email account on my mobile phone?
• How do I modify my spam settings?
• Does my Internet account include personal web space and how do I access it?
• Can I change my password or add an email account through a control panel, rather than calling the office?
• How do I set up my wireless home network?
• Why should I be concerned about security on my home network?
• My computer’s running slow. Is it my PC or my Internet service?

Share Your Knowledge
Even if you personally don’t feel qualified to offer technical advice, there are likely several people in your organization that can help you develop educational content for your customers. Ask your technicians and support staff for guidance.

You can also drop us a line in the comments section below – we’d love to hear your questions and share in your successes with your customer education efforts.

* ZCorum Affiliates:
We now offer a pre-configured Tip of the Month email program. Participation is free and you (or your ZCorum Business Account Manager) can customize the message with your company name and contact information, and then send it to your customers via our Broadcast Email tool. For more information, log into the Exclusive Affiliate Center.