In the past week, TOA participated in two big utility industry events: Smart Metering in London and Distributech in San Diego.
In attending these central industry events, we’ve realized that the same challenges that have been a staple of the many industries TOA currently serves are also becoming central to utility companies worldwide:
Utilities in many places are now undergoing a “Smart Revolution” – building “Smart Grids” and installing “Smart Meters” which replace the older mechanical metering devices. In fact, the European Union has mandated that all EU countries convert all meters to Smart Meters by 2020. Over 60% of these meters are inside homes behind closed doors – so this massive undertaking will take real cooperation and real-time coordination with consumers. This is something that Utilities don’t know anything about, as they have never depended on customers to do their job. They’ll find out that visiting customers at home on an appointment basis means having to coordinate an appointment and to make sure the customer is home. And that is no small feat.
For customers in the cable / satellite industry, there is a nice pay-off for the customer at the end of the ‘wait at home window’ – i.e. 5000 channels to watch or a really fast modem. But for utilities customers, the hardest part of this equation is that there is no real incentive to stay home and wait for the “Smart Meter Guy”.
And while utilities have invested a great deal of money in upgrading their infrastructure, they have spent very few euros or dollars on ensuring a positive customers experience. They just didn’t have to.
So “what’s in it for the consumer?” How will Utility Companies get consumers to cooperate with them as they execute their monumental task?
One answer: By making the appointment experience so smooth and so effortless, so customer-focused and so friendly, so devoid of friction – by making sure that consumers don’t need to sit at home endlessly and ‘wait without knowing’.
How? With the mantra that at TOA we have been repeating for as long as we’ve been around: Provide consumers with Real-time Communications; Choice; Freedom. Focus on the customer and everything else will fall into place.
I came across this piece in the NYTimes about the power of great customer service. Jay Golz highlights an electronics retailer in the Chicago area where “The answer is yes – to any reasonable request”.
Whereas bigger and more funded companies ended up falling by the wayside (see Circuit City, for example), Abt Electronics grew from $10M dollars revenue in 1970 to over $300 million today by focusing on two key ingredients – customer service and the core business rather than expansion – “settling” for 15%consistent growth per year. Pretty amazing what a little care and compounding will get you.
The number of articles and blog entries on the coming smartphone explosion this weekend was substantial – echoing some of my thoughts from a few blog entries ago…
Nightline had piece about this (sorry about the 30 second ad…it’s the blood of the internet. right?):
These smart investors and technologist agree – Android is huge and reminds us of the explosion of PCs in the 90s backed by the relatively open Windows platform and Microsoft’s rise.
Missing from this smartphone conversation? RIM’s BlackBerry…
“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
- Theodore Roosevelt
Tuesday night TOA Technologies was named No. 1 on Weatherhead 100 List. We were totally excited about being honored with a position at the top of the list of fastest growing companies in NE Ohio and Irad and a tableful of enthusiastic TOA employees were there to show that enthusiasm and accept the award, which was sponsored and presented by none other than Time Warner Cable – the company whose service in New York City lit the spark that became TOA. In his acceptance speech, Irad thanked TWC and mentioned to the 1000 person present at the awards ceremony that Time Warner Cable could still benefit from TOA’s service…and the crowd roared in approval.
Today I’m in NYC to attend a breakfast honoring Susan McLaughlin, our dynamic Vice President of Strategic Sales, who is being recognized as one of the 100 top women in cable tech. What an amazing achievement.
Susan is singlehandedly responsible for helping TOA introduce its service to the US Cable industry – she helped us win some of the biggest and best names in the industry as customers – Cox Communications, Bright House Networks, Suddenlink, Cablevision…and is no where near done. Susan is the best kind of professional: tireless, creative, engaging, always there for you and never willing to give up. She is always ready for another call, for one more trip, for one more strategic conversation into the night about how to move a process forward or dreaming what we can do to help a client. Susan is an indispensable part of TOA’s success.
Susan had just left Charter Communications when Irad and I were introduced to her. It was a true meeting of the minds. Susan ‘got it’ immediately, seeing the potential of what Irad and I had developed and what we had to offer when we were just two guys, a good prototype and computer and nothing else. From that first meeting at a cafe in St. Louis to today – to be named one of the top 100 Women in Cable Tech for her work at TOA by the industry magazine of record – is an amazing accomplishment and an honor that Susan truly deserves.
TOA has been blessed by many highly intelligent, visionary, dedicated and tireless employees who are our collaborators in the grand sense of the word. There focus on innovation and on truly caring about our customers are the secret sauce behind TOA. And I am sure Susan would agree that this honor that is hers today belongs to all of them too.
Congratulations, Susan, we could not have done this without you. Thank You!
"It's About Time" is the blog of TOA Technologies CEO Yuval Brisker. It offers Yuval's thoughts on customer service, customer experience management, mobile workforce management, software and technology, and other musings of a technology company leader
