Callers to MI-Connection Communications System support lines had longer-than-usual waits this summer as operators dealt with issues related to a switch in computerized billing systems. System officials told the MI-Connection board Thursday the conversion is now largely complete and most issues have been resolved.

The company, which is jointly owned by the towns of Mooresville and Davidson, serves about 15,200 customers in the towns as well as Cornelius and parts of north Mecklenburg and south Iredell. The company sells standard and digital cable TV, high-speed internet access and telephone service.

Information about the call waiting times was in the monthly operations update that system General Manager Alan Hall presented Thursday morning to the board, which is composed of citizen volunteers from Davidson, Mooresville and Cornelius.

Also Thursday, the board reviewed a tally of planned 2011 spending on marketing and advertising, agreed on an approval process for capital expenses above $10,000, and reached a consensus on a plan to carry out a proposed “community campaign” that would seek to enlist local community groups and organizations in helping to spread the word about MI-Connection’s services.

Mr. Hall also told the board that the company’s total number of customers in August was up 24 from a year ago, to 15,217, driven mainly by sales of internet and phone services. There was some improvement in the ongoing loss of cable TV customers, he said. Although MI-Connection lost 298 TV customers from a year earlier, it lost just six in the month of August, he said.

The total number of service lines sold, known as revenue generating units, was up 1,386 from a year earlier, to 24,885, he said.

BILLING SYSTEM CHANGE

Mr. Hall told the board that the number of calls to MI-Connection’s technical support and customer service lines spiked during July and August as the system went through a change in billing systems. In some cases, the calls concerned connection issues that resulted from the switch. In other cases, customers had account questions.

MI-Connection did not add staff to handle the pickup in calls, but asked employees to trim lunch breaks and work overtime.

Before the billing system change, MI-Connection was meeting its goal of answering phone calls within 1 minute. The high volume of calls boosted call holding times for tech support from an average 33 seconds in May to 3 minutes 57 seconds in August. Customer service call-waiting times rose from 44 seconds in May to 2 minutes 25 seconds in August.

“That’s a significant deterioration in call response times,” board chairman Jon Kasberger of Mooresville observed.

Board member Rick Howard asked when the call times might be back under 1 minute. Stacey Bright, an executive at BVU, which operates the system for the two towns, replied: “We’re close to that right now. We’re close to back in under a minute.”

ADVERTISING BUDGET

Mr. Hall also spent time at Thursday’s meeting going through the system’s fiscal 2011 advertising budget with the board. The company has budgeted $775,556, or about 4.4 percent of its projected revenues, on marketing and advertising.

The board had requested details on the budget line. Mr. Hall said the largest expense right now is sales commissions to contract door-to-door salespeople ($175,000). Another major expense, at $115,000, is “door fees” and revenue sharing.
That’s money that MI-Connection (like other TV providers) pay to apartment complexes and other housing developments for exclusive deals to provide TV and internet services.

MI-Connection also will spend $102,000 on newspaper advertising this year. Mr. Hall pointed out that the budget includes nothing for TV, billboards or radio advertising. He said it’s not part of MI-Connection’s advertising strategy. Because MI-Connection serves a small geographical area, some forms of advertising that target the wider Charlotte market don’t make sense, he said.

Several board members asked Mr. Hall to take a closer look at marketing costs and develop an additional report evaluating the return on investment (ROI) for the expenses.

COMMUNITY CAMPAIGN

Last month, MI-Connection officials held a public meeting in Mooresville to kick off what they called a “community campaign” to promote sales of its trio of services. The campaign came with some big goals: boosting sales dramatically over the next 12 months to help the money-losing system reach profitability.

At last month’s board meeting, board members asked MI-Connection officials to spell out specific plans for carrying out the campaign. The effort would send local officials to make sales pitches to community groups and businesses, and would enlist citizens to refer new customers in exchange for cash rewards or donations to their favorite charities.

On Thursday, Mr. Hall reported that the company has begun talking to community organizations and developing relationships that could lead to new business. He proposed – and the board agreed to – hiring a new part-time “campaign leader” who would spearhead the effort.

Mr. Hall said he wanted to pursue an idea that the board suggested, of “finding someone with a campaign orientation and background to come in and work on a part-time basis, and help us above and beyond usual business, to help us drive awareness and keep this top of mind with all of the stakeholders,” Mr. Hall said.

The campaign would ensure that MI-Connection’s existing commercial salespeople could focus on growing that side of the business.

Mr. Hall repeated his belief that such a campaign could help swing MI-Connection’s losses (projected to be $6.5 million this year) to an annual surplus of $2.5 million that could be reinvested or returned to the towns. This year, both Mooresville and Davidson are providing subsidies to make up the deficit in MI-Connection’s budget.

DOCUMENT

MI-Connection August operating report (PDF), as presented at Thursday’s board meeting, CLICK HERE>

Comments Disabled To "Billing system switch disrupts MI-Connection"

#1 Comment By Andy Stevens On September 23, 2010 @ 9:12 pm