Wednesday, January 21. 2009Perfection - Only Another Five Years AwayJohn Linton It is interesting, for me at least, to observe the huge differences between the 'mind set' that we had five years ago when we started Exetel with the objective of building the 'perfect' ISP and sketched out a three year plan to accomplish that and the 'mind set' we now have (having failed to build the 'perfect' ISP even after a two year extension on the original time frame) to take Exetel from where it is today to the company we would like it to be in three years time. We are still aiming at building the 'perfect' ISP but we now have five years of failure to do that to better advise us on how to go about it plus we have some of the worst economic times of the "industrial age" to take in to consideration. This crossed my mind early this morning when I was writing, for what must be the "thousandth" time, 'new' sales documentation for the sales force we have begun to recruit. I checked what I had written in terms of the advantages to the end user about a very simple Exetel product with what I could find on 7 other ISPs web sites. It's not for me to determine what is effective in 'selling' a product to a web browsing prospective user but what I saw surprised and, in a way, saddened me. I was surprised by the sheer 'appallingness' (or should that be 'appallingivity'?) of the vocabulary/grammar used in each of the 'product descriptions' I managed to find which was only matched by the unbelievable lack of truth in the few 'factual' statements I read. However, I suppose what 'saddened me' was the triviality and nonsense that presumably successful commercial companies thought was appropriate to use to present the advantages of their products to a prospective buyer. The wording of the triviality and nonsense was so similar by seven different companies a casual observer could be forgiven for thinking that it was written by the same person. Perhaps they just all copy each other's ideas and wording? There is a startling lack of originality in their 'blurbs'. I really have absolutely no interest in what or how other companies do but I was again reminded of how very difficult it must be for the management of these companies, much larger than Exetel, to control or even be aware of what their employees say to prospective buyers of their products if the written words on their web site are so very ill considered.....which lead me to the inevitable conclusion that growing Exetel beyond its current personnel levels would inevitably lead to a similar situation - if we are not extremely careful. At our current very small size it is possible for me to still write every word that appears on our web site and every word that appears in our sales documentation (or do a final check of what someone else has written) but it is already past the time that I can, and have, done that for our technical and some of our operational documentation. By the way, I am by no means saying that only my writing style/grammar/syntax/legal knowledge/etc is "perfect". What I am trying to say is that currently Exetel is still able to exercise extremely tight control over what written words appear describing any aspect of our business and products and services and processes. Very shortly that will be much more difficult than it is today. When we set out five years ago to build Exetel one of our key objectives was to base as much of our 'value proposition' on web site selling and total automation of all ordering, procurement and support processes and we have largely succeeded in that objective which, apart from delivering the highest possible level of efficiencies, also provides total 'quality control' over all written communication with customers. Now that we will switch a lot of our selling, and more of our support, to individual human beings that total control will continue to erode very swiftly and we will become subject to the whims and waves and frailties of human demands in what may be said and written to prospective and actual customers. So automating highly complex operational processes (which has cost us well over $A2 million and has taken five years) appears to be a piece of cake compared to putting in place the systems and processes required to deliver the equivalent perfect sales and support customer interfaces - at an affordable cost. I'm quite unclear how to go about this, currently, seemingly impossible task in any real detail but I talked with Steve yesterday about how we might make a start to what looks like a dauntingly long and highly complex set of processes. Perhaps it too will take another five years and more millions of dollars and I'm not sure that I will be able to play the same part in this process as I did in the last five years of driving the previous developments - the probable time frame is currently beyond my personal planning horizon. I very much doubt that any Australian communications company has got as 'pure' customer interfaces as we have developed (but of course I can't be sure of that) and I would be equally sure that no other Australian communications company has the same level of detailed plans to take wherever they have reached today to a level of excellence far beyond any designated 'perfection' that can be reached today. However, everything needs to be started before any real estimates can be made on just how long completion will really take and we have made a start by moving all of our sales and support documentation to one place and introducing a multi-peer ongoing review of each piece of 'writing' via a 'wiki" process. It's only a start and we have yet to establish just how we will ensure 'perfection' is maintained but we will do that over time if it is at all possible. Hopefully if we don't achieve perfection in this planning period we will at least go closer than any other ISP has been able to go to date. Trackbacks
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"What I am trying to say is that currently Exetel is still able to exercise extremely tight control over what written words appear describing any aspect of our business and products and services and processes."
What about your agent websites? As I am attempting to design my own agent site, I did a google search to see what other agents had done. Some sites I found had pricing from over 2 years ago, & had not been kept up to date. Comment (1)
That's a point I've never considered.
I'm not sure what can be done about such situations but you're right, it has to be addressed. Comments (11)
I'm slightly guilty of that - although I make an effort using page update monitoring on Exetel's site, etc. (Small changes like increases in quota are sometimes omitted for a while.)
Perhaps if Exetel's pricing could be published in an iFrame that agents could embed, that would help. (At present it's a laborious 'copy whole table, edit - replace HTML, change form fields, upload.) We already have the embedded agent code URLs, so perhaps there is some way to embed this in the 'order' buttons in said iFrame Up to the present, I've had my own independent ordering process as I still offer proxying of some payments for those who don't like any form of direct debits. I also supply a different range of modems. Comment (1)
Have you taken on board the creative use of "FREE" by sales people (aka marketing executives)? It never seems to mean to me the concept which my grammar teacher taught me.
Thinks... I wonder if teachers of grammar exist nowadays... Comment (1)
"Free" tended to dominate the information I was referring to.
The other predominant feature was the use of asterisks etc to heavily modify the words used to describe the service. Altogether it came across as a pack of lies written by someone whose education had stopped short of High School in Ulam Bator. Comments (11)
Hi John,
What exactly do you think you have failed at in the past five years? I understand it probably can't be summed up in one or two lines but was there major objectives that were never reached etc? Cheers. Comment (1)
Actually it can be summarised quite succinctly as:
The objective in setting up Exetel was to: "To consistently deliver the lowest priced communications services across ten service categories while providing those services at levels of reliability and speed equal to or better than the best provider in Australia." We didn't achieve that in several product categories. Comments (11)
But who is the "best" provider in Australia?
Certainly you are lower priced than Telstra and Internode and your network quality is near the top of the field? There are some very competitive companies offering more off-peak/peak bandwidth (perhaps than they can sustain without congestion), at what could be considered better costs to your own, but with less "value adds". ADSL2+ Various ISP's ADSL2+ plans allows a customer to utilise 100GB+ (up to 50GB+150GB offpeak) with no (claimed^) congestion for $80-100/month including line rental. Exetel's largest plan offers "only" 108GB for $90/month and only available via 'naked dsl'. With a phone line, this service may reach $120/month. So Exetel fall down in the large quota category, but excel in every other category I can see. (My suggested resolution is excess or pay-as-you-go off-peak data at ~$0.30-$0.40/GB - but only if/when such figures are sustainable) ^ An end user can't exactly check an ISP's congestion unless the ISP offers MRTG data. If a customer wants detailed information about their ISP's network - Exetel are the only ISP in Australia. (So where's Internode's MRTG, now that they've quadrupled all their capital city links?) Naked ADSL2+ However, in the area of (Naked) ADSL2+, show me a provider that offers 6+54GB data for less than $45/month! That's approximately half of what I'm paying right now and I would happily tailor my usage within those limits for the price! HSPA In the HSPA market, you are offering 5GB data/month for a bare minimum of $2.50 cheaper than 'large' providers (Vodafone, Virgin). This is not to mention Telstra's outrageous pricing, although comparatively the Optus 3G network needs a lot more work to maintain consistent speeds and stability from what I've seen, then again, I haven't actually utilised the Telstra 3G network due to the aforementioned cost. I don't consider "Three" Mobile (or even Vodafone) a competitor as their coverage isn't anywhere near "Australia Wide". I do admire "Three" Mobile's unique 12 month plan though. As a light usage (or ADSL backup) service, Exetel offer HSPA at $5/month, major providers have no plans cheaper than $15-20/month. In terms of value additions, paying $5/month for a HSPA service with 20 free included SMS per month? That's just brilliant - saving the customer up to $5 on Mobile SMS charges! Member Services Furthermore, Exetel have the only complete online "Member Services" in Australia - possibly the world, have you, JL, personally seen a better management interface for ADSL/HSPA customers? Have you seen the quality of iiNet, aaNet and other ISP's attempts at Member Services? (iiNet's hasn't changed since I first used them as an ISP in 2003) /starts writing an email to whirlpool requesting a question in next years survey: 'Regarding your ISP's online member services: a) Awful b) Does the job c) Beyond the call of duty' I already suggested adding 'HSPA' as a option for the aging 'Do you have a back-up (dial-up) account' question. Summary Customers whom are able to make use of Exetel's Naked ADSL2+ plans, HSPA plans, value additions - such as VoIP and SMS, Exetel are offering the lowest priced communications services in Australia, with a network near tip-top quality and the best online services possible. Comments (3)
I think your summary is pretty close to mine.
In terms of the User Facilities (thanks to five years of acting on customer suggestons and even accepting some customer coding) I doubt that ANY supplier anywhere gets close to the functionality and sophistication of what is now provided. So, we have a way to go but are closer than we were five years ago. Comments (11)
Spot on Lukian.
Comment (1)
Greg,
If you skip to page 2 of this blog and (re) read the 31 Dec 08 entry, the author goes into a fair bit of detail about the Perfection concept. David. Comment (1)
what is perfection -- its different things to different people.
perfection to me is the lowest price with --no shaping on speeds on the plan i purchase. to some the lowest ping time possible is perfection. to me when shapping aplies to my account -- its not perfection - but it still may be very good. john - why did you drop the gamers pool where the users that opted in -- expected the best ping times Exetel could offer. your adsl2+ plans are certainly worth signing up too but the adsl1 plans have lost value for an average user --- 56GB offpeak its smoke and mirrors. remember this exchange MEDOWIE (MDWI) -- John, can you send up some of the New invincble sales force to door knock our area so you have enough new customers to enable a new "EXETEL" adsl2+ exchange. Some how the new sales force reminds me of the movie "300" --- Im sure that it was not on your movies to see list, but maybe if the new salesforce watched it it may actually emphaisise the power of a well organised smaller force. Comments (5)
We defined perfection the way I set it out in a reply - it's also on our web site.
I understad that various people wil define "perfect" differently but we have our own aims and targets and they are across ten products (not just ADSL). I actually got a quote to run a backhaul to Medowie - the installatin cost for the cable was $A800,000!!! We dropped the 'game' preference list/pool when we 'perfected' the balance of the caches and the outside links - the service is optimaly fast on the network links we control at all times and has been for a fair while. In my 'time' I think I have a sensible claim to have built and run three of the best sales tams in Australia at their times and in their product areas - ceetainly the numbers achieved were a cogent argument that was the case. Comments (11)
oh -- by the way john -- you dont need to buy Medowie to put in a dslam --- obvious question here is what does it cost to put a dslam into a sydney exchange - where up to 5 other adsl2+ suppliers already opperate.
They have already wrung the profits out of an exchange like that. Medowie is still un-tapped other than by the totally inept Telstra -------- if you cant beat them you should not be in business. Comments (5)
Bill, I am sure you're a nice guy, but you're a bit like a dog with a bone don't you think?
Why on earth would ANY company spend a EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND dollars on ADSL2 infrastructue in a town with 3139 homes? If EVERY home bought a service the company would need to make $255 surplus per customer JUST TO COVER THE CABLE. If the more likely, but still optimistic, 10% of homes bought a service the surplus per customer required to break even would jump to $2,550. You need a reality check. When it comes to ADSL2 your exchange (and mine...) is not 'untapped' - it is UNPROFITABLE. Comment (1)
A back haul in a capital city is a trivial cost - becase of distance and the large number of exchanges along the path - ou can get a 1 gbps link for less than $2,000 a month.
The cost of, say, a 256 TU DSLAM is now well under $50,000 once off and the 'floor space rental' for the TEBA is less than $1,000 a month. Because only Telstra has back haul to Medowie (and all other regional/rural exchanges) the cost for 1 MEGAbps is extraordinary and the quote we got from a third party was the $800,000 once only cost I quoted. Comments (11)
Based on the figures obtained for backhaul to/from Medowie, it would be cheaper to put DSLAMs and all the associated equipment/backhaul/etc into all the major Sydney exchanges than that one exchange.
Comments (2)
John,
you know that to be considered to be an upper tier ISP you need to have some adsl2+ exposure. you already have an ace in the hole on the Medowie exchange . You cant action a new adsl2+ dslam on new business customers, .. you have to test it first - sort the bugs and use this as your first step in the adsl2+ market - you know the bugs need to be sorted first - before putting it up to business customers ---------- of course your going to choose the prime exchanges once your confident its all sorted ------ but you need to sort it first ----- dont take the quick step to go straight to the Sydney CBD exchanges -- you have always tested the waters and sorted the problems first. Realistically what is a worst case scenaro on testing Medowie first ------- Exetel has to my knowledge no experience with adsl2+ and you must check it first before letting it wild - you know this exchange has certain benifits - JL you hve always taken the cautious approach why vary a proven formula. You know I will help to the utmost degree -- plus you have an ironclad feedback source already in place. -- make sure the first step is secure -- before you make the big leap. youve got my email -- you know I will assist in any way. cheers bill. Comments (5)
How is Medowie's HSPA coverage? (and Optus' backhaul?)
"$A800,000!!!" is not an acceptable outlay for "testing the waters" of ADSL2+. At that cost (which excludes other costs), customers - or Exetel's future marketing dept could afford ~20,000 months of a ~$40/month 5GB HSPA plan. In perspective, that's 200 users for 100 months, 2000 users for 10 months or 20,000 users for 1 month (Is the population of Medowie even that large?). It'd make more sense to market (or poke Optus enough to extend their coverage and backhaul for) 'future-proof' 'wireless' products ($0 installation* - first month money-back guarantee? - although ~$40+$25 outlay is a small price to pay with 0 month contract) rather than running an $800,000 cable with unknown returns. * Does the national broadband guarantee extend to HSPA service (antenna) installations? I can only see the value in the HSPA market over the next 1-2 years getting better. I'm certainly looking forward to the day Exetel can offer their HSPA plans with 54GB off-peak quota ($90/month reducing to $45/month in years to come?). Got an dream date for that one, JL? Comments (3)
John ,
im sure tha you are aware that MEDOWIE - WAS ONE OF THE EXCHANGES THAT " THE OPEL CONSORTIUM " was going to enable for ADSL2+ -- why -- because it made the criterion of a PROFITABLE EXCHANGE... proof - http://www.adsl2exchanges.com.au/opel.php Scroll down the list for NSW. I would never have the knowledge myself to understand what is profitable and what is not in the shoes of an ISP.--- However im sure tha OPEL had reashearched enough to determin this. If it was good enough for OPEL why cant Exetel expect to make protits from the Medowie Exchande == Medowie ( MDWI ) . Its not fiction --- you need a test adsl2+ exchange . cheers bill Comments (5)
Personally, I am still of the opinion that our hesitation to 'invest' in ADSL dslams was and remains correct.
I will see what 'influence' I can bring to bear on Optus in terms of new exchange roll out. Comments (11)
Hi John,
While you are at it could you also mention Kirwan Qld. Regards, Comment (1)
No problem.
Comments (11)
Hi Bill,
Opel had $1,000,000,000.00 of government money to install equipment into those country exchanges - looking at the figures it could only be profitable if everyone in Medowie signed up! James Comments (2)
I just had a look at the Port Stephens Council site for the population figures-
Medowie number Population in 2008 - 9,098 Medowie number of Homes in 2008 - 3,139 It looks small on a map but there are alot of people living here. cheers bill Comments (5)
John, sometimes you have to let go, let someone else be the wordsmith for your web and sales blurb, trust others with your daughter!....trust others to bring her home safe...trust they won't have their way with her!....as always I guess any parent should also educate in safe "business" and apply some protection!...
Comment (1)
...but...I just can't do that...I don't want a web site that isn't so tightly interwoven into the whole 'fabric' of the business.
Comments (11)
Bruce: You've seen the "new" iiNet website right? I heard the tight deadline the developer was pushed to unleash that monster.
Those resources could have been better utilised improving the User Facilities - which seriously have not changed since 2003. But the content hasn't changed either, just the design of the website, imho, for the worse. I dislike browsing iiNet's website more than any ISP, except maybe Internode, which has 5 different ADSL sections these days? (and that's just Internode's residential section) The only actual content change? "Unmetered Xbox LIVE quota" (Unmetered Quota - pardon?) - At least it doesn't use the word "Free". Maintaining tight control over a website is a very good business decision. I'd hope other staff are able to edit Exetel's website easily - as there are quite a few mistakes to correct and other improvements to be made. It's simple enough to review or approve a suggested improvement/change by a customer or a member of staff. Comments (3)
(*Maintaining tight control over a website is a very good business decision. I'd hope other staff are able to edit Exetel's website easily - as there are quite a few mistakes to correct and other improvements to be made.
It's simple enough to review or approve a suggested improvement/change by a customer or a member of staff*) if you have a look at the Exetel forums, error reporting, suggestions and improvements are submitted regularly and many are actioned as per the feedback from end users, there are sections dedicated to this and the staff responsible for maintaining the site are active in those sections. Feel free to contribute if you have suggestions or corrections also Comment (1)
One the topic of keeping documentation correct....
Your "Thank you for choosing EXETEL Mobile" email still says "The billing date each month is the 15th." That hasn't been the case since July 2007. Difficult, isn't it! Comment (1)
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