CDE Lightband Case Study

Since adding Plume-powered solutions, CDE Lightband has seen:

A case study

How CDE Lightband cut churn to 1.7% with Plume's SaaS experience platform

1.7%

Churn rate, reduced from 3.3%

44%

Increase in WiFi subscriber growth since Aug 2020

85%

Current customer satisfaction score

Background

Since 1965, MCTV has served more than 55,000 US homes and businesses in Ohio and West Virginia with advanced broadband products, including high-speed internet, digital TV, and dedicated fiber-optic connections. MCTV is one of the 60 largest cable TV companies in North America but regardless of their size, the company is closely tied to the communities they serve and works hard to deliver on their commitment to same-day troubleshooting and problem resolution.

“In discussions with our CFO, he shared his concerns over how many Plume devices we were ordering initially. But as they were deployed—and he saw the increased revenue from the services—he indicated that he was pleased to see the incremental revenue source for our internet services.”

Christy Batts

Broadband Division Director, CDE Lightband

Christy Batts

Broadband Division Director, CDE Lightband

“The true value of Plume is the added operational efficiencies to the installation process. We are now spending a shorter amount of time in a customer's home, and in some cases not doing an install at all thanks to an easy self-install process. This has enabled us to do more installations per day, resulting in shortened wait times to get CDE Lightband services inside the home.”

CDE Lightband highlights

Tennessee, USA

Headquarters in Clarksville, TN

135

Years of service to the community

Began offering Plume HomePass solutions in August 2020

August 2020

Serves more than 25,000 broadband households in the city of Clarksville

25,000

Access to CDE Lightband’s network increases home values by up to 3%, according to the Fiber to the Home Council

Plume helps CSPs improve service, reduce operating expenses, and increase their capability to upgrade and deploy new services.

Plume, HomePass and Adapt are trademarks or registered trademarks of Plume Design, Inc. Company and product names are used for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners. Copyright 2021 - Plume Design, Inc. All rights reserved. www.plume.com

The solution

The outcome

The challenge

The outcome

Churn has always been a challenge for CDE Lightband because a large segment of the market it serves (military and university) is inherently nomadic. But since partnering with Plume, the company has reported a churn rate of 1.7%, down from 3.3%. Some of this decrease is no doubt due to military subscribers moving around less because of Covid-19. That said, stability means nothing if the product isn’t where it needs to be. Retention is now at an all-time high, which indicates that the new Plume-powered offering is performing well and discouraging subscribers from switching providers. Its latest customer satisfaction score is an impressive 85%. Plume’s SuperPods also contributed to the high customer satisfaction score. Taking the guesswork out of which router to choose, CDE Lightband customers now have the best choice in devices for high-performing, consistent connectivity. From the ease of installation to the seamless, reliable WiFi—even with the Covid-19-related increases in demand—CDE Lightband’s Smartband service is attracting subscribers. Within the first five months of launching the service, the number of new Smartband subscribers increased by 44%. By January 2021, Smartband subscribers grew by another 31%. Right now, 12% of CDE Lightband customers are enjoying the Plume-powered experience. With install times shortened and fewer truck roles now that CDE Lightband has eyes on network performance, OPEX has substantially lessened. The company is now actively promoting self-installation of the services to increase operational efficiencies.

The challenge

Even with its high-speed, fiber-optic network offering, CDE Lightband was dealing with an unacceptably high volume of CIR and customer churn. A deeper dive into the customer issues revealed that 75% of the calls were related to customer-owned equipment. Too often, when technicians were dispatched to customer locations, it turned out that customers were using routers not appropriate for the speeds CDE Lightband was delivering. As for churn: in a military and university market, churn is always challenging. While shelter-in-place orders resulted in some reduction in churn because military subscribers were moving around less, these same orders saw schools and colleges requiring increased bandwidth, almost overnight. With 50% of students choosing online-learning options, capacity—and consistency of capacity—was more important than ever, as was parents’ ability to manage their kids’ time on the internet. Plume’s solution was the only one that could address all of CDE Lightband’s operational concerns, help it deliver during the Covid-19 pandemic, and keep its rates affordable and competitive.

The solution

With Plume’s help, CDE Lightband was able to launch Smartband, Powered by Plume HomePass, a new, premium internet offering to enhance its subscribers’ experience. Launched in August 2020, the new offering includes the full suite of HomePass Smart Home Services, all easily managed via the HomePass app. The app also makes self-installation easy—new customer networks can be up and running in minutes without the need for a technician visit. With full access to Plume's cloud-based SaaS experience platform, CDE Lightband now has end-to-end network visibility and the ability to leverage its suite of back-end applications and support tools to identify, troubleshoot, and resolve customer network issues in real-time. Being able to deliver Plume devices has also brought real value to CDE Lightband's new offering—each subscription comes with one SuperPod, with additional pods available as needed, depending on the size of the home. Before Plume, CDE Lightband recommended hardware but did not supply it. This resulted in a frequent disconnect between customer-owned equipment and the service CDE Lightband was providing. In order to improve the customer experience, CDE Lightband needed to ensure that its customers had the right equipment to deliver WiFi performance that lived up to its potential. CDE Lightband’s Chief Financial Officer, David Johns, had concerns about the initial cost of the outlay. These were quickly put to rest with the returns that swiftly followed the investment in Plume hardware—an increase in revenue and a lower churn rate.

Download the CDE Lightband case study