Why ISPs should evolve into experience providers—and who can help

On this episode of Connected Nation, we talk with leadership from Calix – a company that “helps broadband service providers simplify, innovate, and grow.” 

Learn how the company is shifting the focus from being a service provider to a “experience” provider, what exactly that means, and and how the unique approach is actually aiding in the response to natural disasters in the U-S. 

Recommend Links: 

• Bridget Watkins Linkedin
• Calix website

Chapters

• 1:48 Bridget Watkins introduction
• 5:55 Bridget's journey in Marketing
• 9:17 What is a typical day for Bridget
• 11:29 The transformation of broadband experience providers
• 14:41 The challenges of that transformation
• 20:30 Advanced support technologies
• 23:26 Women being in the broadband industry
• 26:33 Where Bridget sees Calix in the next 5 years

Transcript

Jessica Denson, Connected Nation (00:00):
This is Connected Nation, an award-winning podcast focused on all things broadband from closing the digital divide to improving your internet speeds. We talk technology topics that impact all of us, our families, and our neighborhoods.

On today's podcast, we talk with leadership from cx, a company that quote, helps broadband service providers simplify, innovate, and grow. 

Learn how the company is shifting the focus from being a service provider to a quote experience provider. Find out exactly what that means and how the unique approach is actually aiding in the response to national disasters across the us. I'm Jessica Denson, and this is Connected Nation. 

I'm Jessica Denson, and today my guest is Bridgette Watkins, area Vice President of Customer Success at Calyx. Hi Bridget.

Bridget Watkins, Calix (00:59):
Hi. Thanks for having me join you today.

Jessica Denson, Connected Nation (01:02):
I'm excited to talk with you today. Uh, am I saying Calyx right? I'm, I, I'm looking at it. I'm like, does, does that look right?

Bridget Watkins, Calox (01:09):

It's actually Calyx, um, kax. yep. But you are not the only one to do that.

Jessica Denson (01:15):
Yeah. Well, I figured there's usually one thing I don't pronounce right In every podcast. It's, I swear, it's like <laugh>. It's either someone's name or the name of the company or their, their favorite dog that they had when they were a child. Something I get wrong, but, um, CX so, uh, just for the note for everybody in the audience is cx, right?

Bridget Watkins (01:34):
That's correct.

Jessica Denson (01:35):
Okay. Um, I like to begin our chats on here by learning a bit about each of the guests before we dive into the topics. So I'd really love it if you're okay with that, Bridget, if you'd share some educational and professional background.

Bridget Watkins (01:48):
Oh, absolutely. So I've been around the industry for a while. Um, this is my 27th year in the broadband industry, although, uh, at the time it was more a dial up industry as opposed to broadband <laugh> throughout that time, working for service providers as a consultant. And now of course at cex. Um, I do consider myself a lifelong learner. So I pursued my MBA while I was working as a consultant, and then I've had the incredible fortune to be able to participate in, uh, formal executive education and leadership programs to honestly make sure I'm just always challenging the things, the things that I think I know,

Jessica Denson (02:34):
The things you think, you know, <laugh>. That is definitely something that I think all of us go through and we're sometimes get a little egg on our face and we think we know something. What are some lessons that you have learned through that?

Bridget Watkins (02:47):
Absolutely. You know, I've <laugh> I would like to think, um, you know, that there are certain lessons you don't have to learn yourself, but I, I can honestly say there are a lot of things I have learned the hard way. <laugh>, we could probably do a full discussion on that topic. Um, but I think probably the most important lesson I've learned, and the one that's honestly served me well over the course of my career is, you know, in the words of one of my favorite people, Ted Lasso, uh, oh, I love him. 

Be curious, not judgemental. And I think it's one of those things that, you know, I've tried to always actively seek out other people that I know have different opinions, come from different backgrounds, or have different perspectives than I do, because inevitably I learned something. And this has really helped me be open to new and different ideas and has opened up both personal and professional opportunities for me. So change can be super, super scary, um, but inevitably it's what allows us to grow.

Jessica Denson (03:49):
And speaking of growth, you've really moved from marketing and sales to VP of customer success. How has that been, um, for you? Is it, has there just been steps where you've done the extra education or you put in the extra work? How would you describe that journey for yourself?

Bridget Watkins (04:07):
You know, it's interesting. It's almost at this point, I've kind of come full circle. I started working for a software company shortly after graduating with my bachelor's, and they were purchased by a telecommunications company. And so that was kind of my entry into the industry and my introduction to this service provider world. And then from there, um, had the opportunity to become a consultant and, you know, kind of learn and grow and share. 

And this is when I started working on my MBA because I wanted to be able to challenge myself. Um, one of my clients, um, hired me from there to come and kind of build and restart kind of a marketing and sales program from them. And it was just an incredible opportunity for growth. And then, um, actually candidly, I became a grandma and I was too far away. So, uh, moved. And actually that's how I ended up with cx. I had been a former customers of theirs and, uh, it was just a tremendous opportunity to still stay in the industry, but be able to contribute in a different way.

Jessica Denson (05:18):
Well, before we move on to calx, I, I do wanna ask you one more thing. 'cause I did look up some, I did do some little, my research. I, and looked you up on LinkedIn, and if I may quote you, you wrote, passionate, authentic leader of crazy smart professionals and amazing humans committed to creatively helping others succeed, as in how you describe yourself. It is really interesting wording and really caught my eye. Um, it would be somebody I think people would be drawn to to wanna work for. So talk about what you mean by that. Crazy smart professionals, amazing humans. <laugh>.

Bridget Watkins (05:55):
You bet. So you what, uh, marketing is in my blood, it is definitely something that I love, but the wording is very deliberate. Certainly part of Cox's culture is being authentic and bringing all of who we are and what we do to this work. And I know people will say, oh, the word passion is so overused, but I feel it literally when I am interacting with my peers and our customers. And it is this true and deep belief in the difference that we make every day for our customers, for their subscribers and the communities that they serve. So it gives us permission to challenge each other when I throw the word crazy in there, because no idea is too crazy, you know, let's, let's talk about things and let's look at things from a new angle to help each other grow. The people are hands down. The thing that I love most about what I do,

Jessica Denson (06:51):
It, it's interesting when you talk in any kind of industry, especially now, innovation and growth and crazy ideas is where that really comes from, don't you think?

Bridget Watkins (07:01):
Oh, without a doubt. I, I think without a little dose of crazy things are pretty mundane, <laugh>. Um, and, and you don't get in an environment where you get people with different ideas who are willing to speak up and challenge the status quo. And it's so incredibly important if you're, if you're trying to grow or differentiate.

Jessica Denson (07:22):
So let's shift the focus now to CX itself, and what is the company's focus? Is it global? Is it national? And how would you describe its mission, for lack of a better word?

Bridget Watkins (07:34):
Yeah. Uh, our mission is global, you know, truly and quite simple. We are trying to help service providers of all sizes transform their business and deliver exceptional experiences to their subscribers. Um, service providers have been providing a pipe to the side of the house for a very long time, but what we've tried to do is build a comprehensive platform that makes everything more simple for them. It combines hardware, cloud, software, managed services, all of it designed in a way for a service provider to bring all the pieces of their organization together, grow, operate efficiently, and continue to elevate what they do for their subscribers. 

So as the industry evolves, as technology involves, we are strategically focused on that to make sure we think, keep things simple and try to automate providing them insights, building tools for them that make their lives easier, and then driving their growth, um, by using data and best practices to help make them more efficient. But really everything that is the core of what we do is when, when they thrive as a service provider, their subscribers and the communities they serve thrive, they serve thrive as well. So it's not just about delivering technology. We truly partner with them to make sure that they're successful at every stage along the journey.

Jessica Denson (09:04):
Well, in your role as area vice president of customer success, how does that look within the frameworks, uh, framework of CEX is, what is a typical day for you?

Bridget Watkins (09:17):
Okay. Yeah. You know, a as my title would suggest, I'm part of our success team here at cex, and success teams in this industry are, are not super common. But ultimately, my job is in my, is in my title. My job is to help our customers be successful. My team specifically is aligned to different parts of our platform, but we have deep expertise, not only in CEX solutions, but actually in the business domain areas across the service provider organization. So we engage with our customers to make sure we understand what their goals are, and then help them successfully launch new services, drive revenue and growth, share and implement best practices. 

And that can be from everything from how they're running their network to troubleshooting or marketing campaigns and driving efficiency in that. But on a typical day, I, it's a combination for me. I'm working with people across calx with our customers, all of it focused on making sure we understand what their challenges are and what they're trying to accomplish so that we can evolve and create programs that help them be successful. And this continuous continuously shifts, as you might imagine. So everything that we do is create, learn, evolve, learn, evolve, repeat, repeat, repeat. Because every time we interact with a customer, it helps us learn and shape our best practices and our customers. We just, you know, it's something throughout my career that I've had the opportunity to work with a lot of service providers, um, and they're fantastic collaborators. You know, they share their thoughts, their ideas, their needs, and that really helps us help them most effectively.

Jessica Denson (11:13):
Well, that kinda leads into my next question. Um, when your team, uh, when I was talking to them that the, they pitched the idea of transformation of broadband service providers into broadband experience providers. Is that kind of what you're talking about? Or is that a whole nother, whole nother ballgame?

Bridget Watkins (11:29):
You know, it, it's, it's related, but really I think what we mean is, so, you know, if you think about this industry, a lot of the companies started as something else. They were a telephone company or a cable company, or an electric company. And that's not everybody, but there's a good chunk of those. And they have had to adapt and reinvent themselves to deliver broadband service. However, most of these companies at that time were potentially a monopoly in their market. You know, it wasn't a strong marketing thing. So what happened is when we launched broadband, we treated it like a commodity. We started off selling when my, in my career, we started off selling 28.8 kilobits per second internet, which of course is dial up. And then we gradually increased the Ks, and then we hit megabits per second. So we, we got to the s and we started continuing to grow that number.

(12:27)
And over time, consumers learned that the higher number typically provided them a better experience, but they still had absolutely no understanding of what a kilobit or a megabit was. And then we made it even more confusing because we moved to gigabits per second or g and they were immediately confused because they had maybe 500 megabits per second before. And now we were trying to sell them a single gigabit, and that made no sense to them. And at the same time, the cellular or mobile industry came out and said, oh, we've got 5G. And so the average consumer thinks, oh, well that's the same thing that I can get from my local service provider. So, you know, it's kind of that moment from an evolution standpoint where you go, what in the heck are we doing? 

There is nothing about this process selling KS and Gs and M'S that talks to what the needs of a subscriber are and how they might actually use the services you're providing, how it makes their life better, easier. And if everybody's offering the same thing and it's something that the consumer doesn't understand and is just at a different price, they're gonna choose the lower price, which is the pure definition of a commodity market. So what a broadband experience provider or A BXP is, is a company who recognizes they're probably gonna fail if they continue to try and sell a commodity, and they're somebody who's ready to move beyond speed to create offers and differentiated experience. So they that demonstrate they actually understand the needs of their subscribers so they can start to delight them.

Jessica Denson (14:14):
That makes a lot of sense. And actually, it's, you're just leading right into my next question, which is, it's no secret that technology is evolving at incredible rate. You, you mentioned the change and the speeds and how things are, um, not what they were necessarily five years ago, three years ago. How can broadband organizations keep up with that, not just in the experience side, but just transform as they need to?

Bridget Watkins (14:41):
Oh, it, it can be overwhelming, truly. Um, and I think that's why, you know, when you think about this transformation has to be at the core of an, it can't just be, you know, like it 20 years ago where we say, oh, well, we're providing phone service or cable service or electric service, and we think we should do broadband. Now, it can't be these big events that happen. It has to be a constant process. 

You know, this, the modern broadband industry and landscape demands this continuous transformation because of new competitors coming in. And that's where we can honestly help with our platform and managed services approach. We're doing everything we can to make the innovation and transformation easier and a lighter lift. Because honestly, you know, when I was even trying to do this probably 10 years ago, if I was considering looking at launching a new product or technology or service, it would require 18 to 24 months of research to evaluate the options, look for solutions, conduct our due diligence, build financial models, and it's just not realistic today at the speed of evolution.

(15:52)
So we've tried to take all of that complexity for our customers and make it easier for them to evolve on a constant basis. But the thing it requires is also this mindset or culture shift for a service provider where they are making a conscious decision that is a vision for what their future looks like. They've gotta keep the organization tightly aligned to what they're trying to do for the communities that they serve. But this is also where our success team comes in, because our, we don't expect our customers to know how to do all these things. We are here to guide them, show them how, or in some cases do it with them or for them if they need us to every step of the way

.Jessica Denson (16:36):
I, I was told that's the ability to evolve and move forward and work with your success team as well as, and tailor. I I, my understanding is that you're really tailoring what you guys give to each customer, depending on their needs as well, while also telling them, Hey, look at the needs of your community. What are they, they may not be what's over here. Um, so that's kind my understanding of it. Do I have that right? Am I absolutely. Am I absolutely Stepping aside, <laugh>? No. Um, so, so you're helping them evolve in a way that works for their community and stuff. And I was told that's one of the reasons that, uh, Cox's customers are playing some critical roles in some natural disaster recovery efforts because they can evolve and, and adjust. Uh, can you gimme a few examples of that?

Bridget Watkins (17:28):
Oh, absolutely. You know, late last year, um, when Hurricane Helene hit, so tragically, several of our service providers were able to leverage aspects of the platform, the CEX platform that they already had in place, along with our smart town solution, which is essentially a solution that allows wifi access in, in broad areas across communities. But they were able to use this connectivity for residents so they could reach loved ones and vital emergency information while everybody was focused on disaster recovery. So while it didn't necessarily mean they could immediately get power and broadband to every home, it allowed them to stand up places where they could get that type of connectivity. But the reason they were able to do that is because they already had the platform in place and it allowed them to quickly pivot and provide this connectivity at a really critical time.

Jessica Denson (18:26):
Um, I, I had the privilege of going to one of your conferences about a year and a half ago in Vegas. Oh, wow. And they had the smart town set up out there. So I, I talked to some of, uh, the reps with that. And so I will include a link to that podcast in the description of this podcast. It was very interesting. Uh, I also talked to, um, one town that had, uh, connected the football stadium. So if people needed access that it was just, it was very innovative to just even think about that. But if you grew up in a small town, I grew up in a small town, in a small rural town, um, in my, in my high school years and the football stadium that I, when they said that, I was like, yep, that's the place <laugh>, that's the place to connect.

Bridget Watkins (19:10):
Well, we, one of our customers in rural Kansas, they have communities where there's no cell coverage and they have teachers who drive into the community to teach every day, and they have no connectivity when they're there. And so they stood up smart town in that community. So as soon as you come into that community, you've got wifi across the whole town now. So while not, you know, directly related to any kind of emergency situation or disastery recovery, it could be, you know, for those individuals that live there, having that ability to connect, um, in areas where previously they couldn't, it's tremendously pro powerful to, to build those communities and give them that type of connectivity.

Jessica Denson (19:57):
Yeah. And nothing, if there was anything good outta the pandemic, it taught us the importance of making sure everybody has some sort of connection, uh, part of your Yeah. Let's dive internally a little bit again. Yeah. If, if we may, uh, part of your approach, uh, I'm quoting your team again here is quote, advanced support technologies to enhance survi, uh, I can't say it subscriber experience. What are some of those advanced technologies? Can you, I, I don't, I don't want you to give any way proprietary secrets, of course, but are there any, anything you can tell us about that?

Bridget Watkins (20:30):
Absolutely. Well, you know, when, so when we talk about experience, people can get very focused on, it's what I'm offering my customer. It's all about the go-to-market strategy. But it's so much bigger than that because part of the experience a service provider delivers is actually around delivering on the promises you've made them. So it's those individual touch points that happen throughout the ordering process or installation process or on a troubleshooting call. And every single one of those touch points has the ability to be a great experience or an awful one, which we've all experienced those. But basically this is what our cloud platform is designed to do. It's designed to help service providers transform from being reactive to proactive. So without getting deep in the weeds, basically getting notified when there's a potential problem. So they can start troubleshooting maybe even before the customer notices there's something going on.

(21:31)
And then of course, the way that you support cus your customers during a time of an outage or some type of issue can be an incredible differentiator in a competitive marketplace. In fact, our, uh, business insights team has found that actually touch points with the support team improve NPS for customers when they are handled well. And so it's just that constant drumbeat of how we're here to help you, that is reinforced by using solutions that allow you to be proactive instead of reactive and waiting for that customer to have an outage, and then give it a little time to see if it resolves before they have to reach out and pick up a phone and wait on hold and wait to talk to somebody and potentially repeat themselves. So it's really trying to improve that overall experience, not only for the subscriber, but also for the teams who are responsible for delivering it.

Jessica Denson (22:29):
Let me tell you, a collective cheer went up everywhere because <laugh>, there's nothing worse than being like, oh, what's happening? Oh gosh, I'm gonna have to call customer service. Right? And be like, uh, operator. Operator <laugh>. Yeah. Yeah. So having a customer service Yeah. Having something, tell me first that would be glorious if you could implement that across all industries. Um, I, I would, I would invest <laugh> I'll put it on my to-do list. Yeah, do that. If you could, you probably go <laugh>. Um, well, March is Women's History Month, and, um, I, I would be remiss if I didn't ask you, um, as a, a woman in leadership at a co at a tech company, you know, that deals with tech. What are your thoughts on women in tech and what can we do to get more women involved in these industries, whether it's in marketing or whether they're out in the field working on broadband. Um, from your point of view, what do you think that we can be do? We could do

Bridget Watkins (23:26):
Yeah. You know, I, I one agree, you're absolutely right. We, we need more women involved. Actually, in my last role, I was so, uh, pleased that I was able to hire female service technicians. You know, we had young women in the community who were interested in going down that path and wanted to make sure we were providing an opportunity to nurture and grow that, because it is can be so male dominated. But a as you know, there are so many great organizations around women in tech that provide great resources. But for me, honestly, I think it's about reaching kids when they're younger to build that interest and paint a picture of opportunities that this career path opens up. I'll, I'll give you a very personal example. So I have a granddaughter who loves to play in my office and sit at the desk and do all the things. And one day she asked me, so what do you do? Are you like a doctor? And this is coming because of both of her parents are in the medical field

Jessica Denson (24:25):
Mm-hmm

Bridget Watkins (24:25):
<affirmative>. And I said, well, actually I'm a vice president. And she immediately was said, Ooh. And proceeded to Curtsy and I <laugh> I started laughing. I said, well, there's definitely no curing involved. And she said, well, what do you do? And I tried to explain it in a way that a 6-year-old could understand what we do. And finally she looked at me and she pointed at the gigo fire that sits behind my desk and said, oh, you make the wifi work. And I thought, wow, what a perfectly succinct way of saying that for a young person to understand. But she was so impressed by that, like it had never occurred to her that that was something you would do sitting at a desk while you're quote working. And so I love that thought, and I think interest starts like that with young people. Um, my husband teaches high school and a couple times a year I visit his classes. And rarely is there a young woman in that classroom that raises their hand when I ask about their thoughts about career paths and technology. It's always men that are raise young men that are raising their hands. But I hope they're leaving those conversations with a spark in their mind about taking this path. So I think it's something that all of us can do to help build that interest, um, with young people.

Jessica Denson (25:50):
I think that's great that you're going to the classroom. 'cause sometimes just seeing that someone like you or someone from, you know, a woman, another woman is doing it. Yeah. That, oh, I never thought about that for myself. Um, you know, we all get, we all get caught up in stereotypes and um, that's wonderful for you to do. Plus, I can't imagine <laugh> your, what's your granddaughter's name?

Bridget Watkins (26:09):
Mila.

Jessica Denson (26:10):
Mila. She sounds great. <laugh> uh, uh, things kids say, oh, <laugh>. So look, let's look at, I won't keep you all day, but just a couple more questions. Uh, looking ahead, what new technology or new projects for do you see for, uh, CX that you're excited out about in the next year or five years, even down the road?

Bridget Watkins (26:33):
Yeah. Well, so as you know or may know, uh, Calex has a quarterly release cadence. So we bring, try to bring new things to our customers every quarter. And it may be feature enhancements as opposed to bringing new services. But one of the things I'm working on right now is what we're calling a sales acceleration program. And this was born from feedback from our advisory boards where we had customers saying, we really need you to help us build and grow this type of culture within our company to help us make a shift to becoming an experience provider. So it touches on a lot of the things we've talked about today in regards to culture and mindset, but it also includes very tactical steps to building a sales operation, making sure you're hiring the right people or cross-training your people effectively and enabling these teams to stay fully focused on the complete experience that you're promising and delivering to subscribers. So honestly, I I, it's something I'm really excited about and I think it just brings tremendous opportunities for our customers.

Jessica Denson (27:39):
You could tell you're excited about it, just, just in the way that you deliver every line, every, everything you say about it. There, there's, there's, there's excitement in your voice, which I think is probably one of the reasons that you're in customer success. Because even if I feel like, oh, there's a problem, I don't know how to deal with this. Having somebody who's positive and excited about it can change that mind, shift that mindset, don't you think?

Bridget Watkins (28:04):
Oh, I think so, for sure. And you know, I I I think it's one of the things that, you know, comes back to the way that I describe what I do. Um, the people that are on this team have, have worked at service providers, they have experience in other industries. They've, they've been in the same position where things can feel very overwhelming. And knowing that all you have to do is reach out and tap somebody who is just as passionate about your success as you are, um, is a really powerful feeling.

Jessica Denson (28:35):
Well, that's, that's such a strong statement that I almost wanna leave it there, but I always like to give everybody a chance to bring up something that maybe I didn't touch on that you wanted to address. Was there anything that, uh, you'd love to add about, uh, calx that we didn't mention?

Bridget Watkins (28:50):
Yeah, I, I think one of the things that we didn't really talk about, but it, it's this, this notion of time, um, ever since I started in this industry, there have been things like registry or regulation and legislation and funding issues. And it's really easy to get wrapped up in the minutia of that. But when we think about running a business, uh, we say control the controllable. And one of the things that they can do, regardless of all that external pressure, is focus on delivering an experience to survive in a competitive market. You know, I, I hopefully you've felt my love for this business and the impact our customers drive, but you know, I, I know that, I know how Calex made me feel as a previous customer, and it is one of the reasons I came to work here. And we are very focused on making sure we understand all the shifts that are happening in this industry and making sure that we're building platforms and solutions and technologies that make this easier for service providers so they can continue to innovate and grow for many years to come for the communities that they serve.

Jessica Denson (29:59):
And that is quite the review to go from the customer to, to an employee that you, you think, oh, I really love that company. You know? Yeah. Yeah. So what is the one thing that you hope our listeners remember from our conversation today?

Bridget Watkins (30:13):
You know, I, I think it's really that the time is now. You cannot deprioritize a focus on delivering an experience because not only is there current competition in the market, there will be absolutely disruptors that come in and completely disrupt the market. So building those relationships now, you know, um, and building that sense of experience and loyalty, it, it's happening at a very critical time, but they are not alone. We are here to help them every step of the way. So all they have to do is ask.

Jessica Denson (30:52):
Fantastic. Well, I'll include a link to the company's website so they can ask. So I really appreciate your time today, Bridget.

Bridget Watkins (30:59):
Absolutely. It's been my pleasure.

Jessica Denson (31:06):
Again, we've been chatting with Bridget Watkins area Vice President of Customer Success at cx, and she wants you to contact her. So I will put her link, the company link on the website. As I just said, I'm Jessica Sen. Thanks for listening to Connect to Nation. If you like our show and wanna know more about us, head to connect to nation.org or look for the latest episodes on our iTunes iHeartRadio, Google Podcast, Pandora, or Spotify.