bbpmag.com - Broadband Properties

Working with
Property Owners
BBP: When you first started
marketing FiOS to MDU owners,
some of them were dubious about it.
What were the major sticking points,
and how did you address them
EC: Their main concern was, “Am I going
to be out of service for a long period
of time Because I don’t want you disturbing
my rent revenues.” But what
they’re seeing now is good world-class
customer service end to end, providing
a competitive choice to their residents.
They’re also seeing that they’re not the
first ones to get FiOS in their buildings
– there are a million living units wired
with FiOS. We have deployed FiOS services
in developments owned by many of
the largest real estate companies in the
country to some of the smaller, regional
builders and with the owners of low- and
moderate-cost properties. The feedback
has been positive, the analyst reports are
good, and people believe Verizon has listened
to its customers and has made the
necessary changes or improvements.
When property managers told us
the single-family ONT was too large,
we came back with a smaller unit and
an integrated power supply. And when
we installed Peter Cooper Village [with
11,000 living units] in record time, that
catches the attention of other property
owners. Having account managers from
the marketing team on the premises on
a weekly basis, as a single point of contact,
also really makes a difference.
We hold conferences where we bring
customers in, and they tell us what’s
working and what’s not. At our first
conference Verizon got beat up, but at
the most recent one folks stood up in
the audience and said Verizon is doing it
right, they listen to the customer.
BBP: What’s the secret to working
effectively and efficiently with property
managers during a deployment
EC: We use a “net promoter score,” which
shows how many customers are willing
to be promoters versus detractors, and
we hold our employees accountable for
making every experience a promoter
experience. Our portfolio manager is
responsible for making sure that what
was sold is what was implemented. They
can bring in the functional resources
responsible for providing the best customer
experience.
The portfolio manager’s job is to lay
out the implementation plan for each
day, week and month, and do reviews
on a weekly basis, constantly communicating
with the property managers. It’s
clearly helping the property managers
to understand that they’re not in this by
themselves. They have got a single point
of contact, a liaison to get whatever resources
are necessary to deliver on the
job. We host cutover meetings where
we bring our engineering, construction
and operations people and the property
manager brings their team in – the more
you communicate, the better the project
goes at the end of the day.
We’ll ask when is the certificate of
occupancy date, when do we want the
Customers have complained about the big size
of the cabinet, and we like to put one in every
living unit – we prefer to take the signal all the
way into the home when possible – so we worked
with manufacturers to build something as small
as the size of a modem box. We are testing an
ONT prototype that looks like a modem and
sits on a desk in the office.
I like that I’m coming in as a new entrant.
Competition is a good thing. We believe in our
product – a differentiated product is a powerful
proposition. We’ve never had a problem
competing as a service provider in this industry.
tenants in – we won’t jeopardize those
crucial dates. We’ll wire one building
first and make sure it’s right before going
forward with the rest of them. In 2008
we created a sales engineering function –
I call them the interpreter between engineering
and sales. They talk to the building
owner, put the drawings out there,
and make sure we’re all talking the same
language. It helps us scale the business.
We’ve got a five-point playbook to
make sure every property gets the same
level of communications. Six to nine
months after we finish building out, we
go out there and refresh the marketing
campaign. We show the owners how
FiOS can help them increase their occupancy
rate and bring in incremental
revenue. Some of the owners that have
flipped their buildings are loving it, because
when they resell their property, it’s
at a higher dollar amount.
BBP: Property owners have told us
their tenants are now demanding
a choice of providers. Is it more of
a challenge to deploy, market and
operate FiOS services when there
are multiple providers in a building
EC: I like that I’m coming in as a new
entrant. Competition is a good thing.
We believe in our product – a differentiated
product is a powerful proposition.
We’ve never had a problem competing
as a service provider in this industry. I
like to see media reports of the CFO at
Comcast saying Verizon is taking market
share from them.
In the past, many people saw us as
the telephone company. Today we’ve
gone in a short time from a telco to a
broadband and entertainment powerhouse.
I’m in a happy place because of
the product that we have to offer. I like
the fact that it’s fair and open competition.
People are looking for value when
they spend money on products and services,
and we can strongly deliver on
that need. BBP
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 45