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 A house call from your family doctor has become a rare occurrence for most of us, but there
is still one house call that is common place and it is costing cable operators worldwide on
average $50 to $100 U.S. per truck-roll. This is a wonderful service to offer subscribers and
the costs are trivial when the visit is associated with installing and upgrading revenue
generating services such as high-speed data, HDTV, on demand content, and voice. However,
costs do become an issue when the house call involves diagnosing and correcting problems
following an installation or upgrade of service.
No service presently on cable’s agenda has more rigid performance requirements or is more
vulnerable to post-installation operational issues than cable digital voice service or VoIP (Voice
over Internet Protocol). Subscribers expect Voice communications to be real-time and to
perform at the same if not better quality than land line telephony. A delay of a few seconds
in data transmission for a VoIP service renders the system
unacceptable to users and can dramatically impact subscriber
experience, satisfaction and ultimately, subscriber churn.
Largely driven by the lower cost of VoIP services versus
traditional telephony, Cable operators are aggressively
expanding their VoIP footprint. The accelerated pace of
deployment, however, has resulted in a need to reduce
installment time or to depend on outside contractors to handle
the volume. This, in turn, increases the risk that problems will
arise after the installer leaves the subscriber’s home.
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There are two major issues that stand in the way of cable operators’ ensuring triple-play high
quality performance and thus avoiding post-install truck rolls and fully realizing the revenue
potential of voice, video and data services. The first has to do the traditional manual testing and
measurement done to examine all potential problems when installing cable services. Simply
put, it is time-consuming and provides few clues as to the source of a detected problem.
Moreover, manual measurement and data entry are open to error and a questionable baseline
for troubleshooting problems in the future. The second issue is related to the fact that
contract workers used for service installs are typically paid by the number of jobs completed.
This combined with a manual system of performance verification often leads to a less than
rigorous installation process. |
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The solution lies in automating the installation
process and utilizing real-time data collected
from the customer premise devices and the
cable network and ARRIS Assurance Solutions
HouseCheck does just that. HouseCheck is a
solution that integrates the ServAssure and
WorkAssure products to automatically collect
critical device and network performance data
associated with the particular service at the time
of installation. HouseCheck ensures that these
parameters are immediately made available to
the installer via standard hand-held devices, and
forwarded and stored for on-going access by
customer service representatives, dispatchers,
engineers, and the network operations center.
 HouseCheck tabulates comprehensive analysis of network and
device performance across all household cable outlets. This process
simplifies the identification of in-home problems, sets a standard for
repair of problems during installation, and provides a reference base
“birth certificate” for use in future trouble shooting should the need arise.
The degree of granularity in the provided measurements not only assures that the installer
has covered all bases in assessing service performance before leaving the installation site,
but also ensures that he has the information he needs to determine whether he can fix a
problem on the spot or needs to request additional assistance from a network operations
or IT technical unit.
One of the most noteworthy benefits of HouseCheck is how it
impacts an operator’s bottom line. The industry average for newly
installed subscriber requiring a repeat call within 30 days due to
faulty installation is 10 – 15% and rising. These repeat calls can be
avoided by ensuring proper installation quality during the initial
installation using the HouseCheck solution and its complementary
birth certificate feature.
HouseCheck can reduce the time spent by installers on each job,
saving money and ensuring a higher rate of quality service delivery
during the initial installation. It also significantly reduces, if not
eliminates, costly post-install trouble calls, increasing customer
satisfaction and retention.
For more information on how your organization can benefit from an automated, quality
focused, world-class installation verification solution contact ARRIS Solutions, Inc.
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