Cumberland Connect Achieves +90 NPS by Transforming Broadband Operations and Member Experience, Named Calix ‘Giant of Operations’

SAN JOSE, CA—December 20, 2023—Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX) recognizes its customer, Cumberland Connect, as a “Giant of Operations” 2023 Calix Innovations Award winner. The award honors Cumberland for building a cloud-enabled operations infrastructure focused on strong communications between teams and delivering incredible broadband experiences for their members. As a result, Cumberland Connect has achieved exceptional member satisfaction metrics, including a Net Promoter Score℠ (NPS®) in the 90s and a CSAT rating of 98, while drastically reducing unnecessary truck rolls.

Leveraging the complete Calix broadband platform with the Calix Intelligent Access EDGE™ E7-2 and the visibility of Calix Operations Cloud and Service Cloud—both part of Calix Cloud®—Cumberland Connect’s support and operations teams operate with the highest efficiency. This dedication to world-class operations enables them to reliably deliver unmatched experiences—even in the event of a widespread outage.

“Back in March, a major storm ripped through our Tennessee community,” said Mike Neverdusky, network operations manager at Cumberland Connect. “More than 80 fiber mainline locations were damaged, and tens of thousands of members lost electric power—but, with the new capabilities of Calix Operations Cloud, we quickly identified the affected areas of our network and took action to restore service to our members and get them back online.”

The Tennessee-based cooperative—a subsidiary of Cumberland Electric Membership Company (CEMC) and a Calix customer of four years—is a broadband service provider (BSP) who has served rural members for nearly a century, first with electricity and now with broadband. Today, Cumberland Connect continues to add value to the communities they serve north of Nashville. By investing in an all-fiber, always-on broadband network from Calix, Cumberland Connect reliably delivers exceptional services and experiences that foster a trusted relationship between their teams and their members.

Committing to an exceptional connected experience for their members, Cumberland Connect has:

• Reached a +90 NPS in only four months. Operations Cloud has helped Cumberland Connect revolutionize field operations, a key contributor to an industry-leading NPS. End-to-end network visibility reduces repair times and significantly boosts member satisfaction. Looking ahead, Cumberland Connect plans to deepen their understanding of member needs by engaging with Calix Business Insights Services to further harness member feedback and uncover new opportunities to add value in their community.
• Received a 98 percent customer satisfaction (CSAT) rating. Proactively identifying and mitigating outages allows support and field teams to respond to critical information with breakneck efficiency and quickly resolve member issues. The results are more member loyalty, lower churn, and amazing member satisfaction. The CSAT is generated through methods such as surveys, feedback forms, online reviews, internal performance metrics, and other factors to gauge and improve overall customer experience.
• Increased truck roll efficiency to 95 percent. By improving operations with real-time insights delivered by Operations Cloud, teams are alerted to member-impacting events that enable quick action and issue resolution. Sometimes, the member is never aware there was a problem or outage in the first place. Further, this has reduced unnecessary truck rolls to only 5 percent.

“By using the Calix platform, we continue to reduce costs and mean time to repair while boosting customer satisfaction,” continued Neverdusky. “Driving our incredible NPS over 90 shows the power of the Calix broadband platform and reflects the value we provide to our communities. It is vital that we have the right tools to react quickly during a mass outage, allowing us to respond efficiently and effectively to the needs of our members—but it’s equally important to address daily issues that can affect their experiences. Calix covers both of those necessities.”

“The key to the success of Cumberland Connect’s member experience is leveraging purpose-built technology within a strategy designed to scale,” said Shane Eleniak, chief product officer at Calix. “This foresight allowed them to accelerate network deployment with the Calix platform, improve network visibility, and speed up member adoption of managed services. Further, the capacity to address member and network issues within the support and operations teams is reinforced by proactively identifying problems and being self-sufficient within their network. Cumberland Connect has clearly shown why they are the Calix ‘Giant of Operations’ with their dedication to member experience and innovation in the broadband industry.”

Learn how Cumberland Connect navigates outages in 3 Considerations To Successfully Manage a Major Network Outage while maintaining an operationally efficient team.

About Calix
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Net Promoter®, NPS®, NPS Prism®, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld. Net Promoter Score℠ and Net Promoter System℠ are service marks of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.