Time To Embrace a New Era of Personalized Services

This year marks my 27th year in broadband. Having worked directly for broadband service providers (BSPs)—and worked with them on marketing and business development—I know all too well the unique challenges BSPs face in bringing new services to market. In my experience, these fall into two categories: 

1. The Frustration Equation
   Before Calix, I was VP of marketing and sales at a mid-size BSP. We wanted to expand our service portfolio with a connected home camera solution, like Arlo, but could not find a vendor who would work with us. Even with 20,000 subscribers we were relatively small, rural, and therefore unappealing to potential big-brand partners. We trawled the market for the right fit, only to find—after a time-consuming and costly due diligence exercise—the deal would effectively make us a reseller. No value-added subscriber experience, no brand equity, and no margin. It made no sense. Bringing new services to market shouldn’t be this hard. 
   
   
2. The Honeymoon Trap
   Despite these monumental efforts, BSPs inevitably find themselves in a “honeymoon trap.” Two years post-launch, a service is no longer shiny and new. With no proactive outreach to nurture the subscriber relationship, BSPs revert to being bill collectors. BSPs need to continually demonstrate the value of the service they’re delivering. Blocking just one virus a month saves on hefty Best Buy bills to debug computers. Keeping kids safe online offers priceless peace of mind. The secret lies in ensuring subscribers understand the problems you solve for them.

The Holy Grail for BSPs

Almost three decades later, I’m thrilled to see Calix SmartLife™ addressing these challenges. BSPs finally have that golden ticket to meet the needs of all their subscribers. No more lengthy evaluation, financial modeling, and endless negotiations. No more piecing a solution together. SmartLife offers a genuinely differentiated experience that meets an array of subscriber needs, whether they’re at home, in a small business, or out in the community. For BSPs, it’s the holy grail: reducing time to market, cutting costs, adding new revenue streams, and increasing customer retention. This is a milestone—a holistic solution for subscribers that adds value, not just Mbps and Gbps, while reinforcing BSPs’ pivotal role as experience providers across their community. 

Delivering the Next Generation of Personalized Offerings

More good news: SmartLife comes with its own virtual product management team. Calix addresses every stage of the product lifecycle—pre-market, launch, and post-launch—so you don’t have to. For every SmartLife service Calix offers, we spend months researching socio-economic trends and scoping market opportunities. We vet solutions on aspects such as commercial viability and quality of service and support. Every service is fully tested and integrated as part of the Calix platform. We manage the commercial relationships, so you don’t have to worry about negotiating terms and you benefit from the economies of scale that Calix brings. We develop the business case and build suggested value-based offerings for you. And we help align your organization to ensure every function is prepared.

It’s up to you how much support you need for your SmartLife journey. Whatever you decide, Calix Success is here for you every step of the way: 
 

1. Smart Start for Managed Services offers expert guidance on how to plan, launch, support, and grow different SmartLife managed services—and deliver them with confidence. 
   
   
2. The Calix Market Activation program provides marketing tools, including access to the Electronic Content Builder (ECB) with customizable creative assets for wow-factor marketing at a fraction of the price.
   
   
3. Calix Success consults on your go-to-market strategy and planning from branding to building differentiated value propositions to marketing campaigns—ensuring long-term success.

As we enter a new broadband era, I’m confident past go-to-market challenges will disappear. Calix enabled BSPs to shrink service launches from two or three years to a matter of months or even weeks, and we’re helping extend—or even demolish—the honeymoon trap with marketing strategies that demonstrate phenomenal value for subscribers. Doing so will allow BSPs to differentiate themselves in a competitive marketplace and avoid the “race to the bottom.”


To learn how Calix Customer Success can transform your go-to-market, schedule a consultation today.