The document linked with this posting shows customer figures for August 2010, compared with August 2009. More telling would be the comparisons to the June 2010 figures, as this was the end of MI-Connection’s 2010 fiscal year. Using the pdf also provided in a previous posting of Mr. Boraks, the math is as follows: Basic cable customers are down by 45, Data customers are up by 145, Voice customers are up by 141, Customer relationships are up by only 5, and total RGU’s are up by 120. This works out to an average daily increase of only 3 RGU’s per day (2 months of 20 working days per month). This is a far cry from the thousands of additional RGUs that have been promised time and time again at recent board meetings.

Statistics on the issue of call response times are even more troubling than just the increase in time it takes to answer. Comparing the numbers of calls answered to calls offered shows how dire the situation is truly becoming. In May, 15 percent of calls offered hung up before they could be answered. In June, this increased to 19 percent of calls, July’s figure was 21 percent of calls, and in August the figure rose to 34 percent of calls! This means that 1 of every 3 callers in August hung up because they were tired of waiting for their call to be answered. The Board should be addressing this statistic much more critically than just the increase in waiting time for customers who do get their calls answered. Maybe the Call Center needs to be staffed up.

It’s worth noting with a chuckle that the MI-Connection budget contains $175,000 for “contract door-to-door salespeople.” It must be an inside joke, because the Town of Davidson has an ordnance prohibiting such solicitation within the town limits. This being the case, these salespeople cannot even solicit business within the existing customer base.