Cox's Mark Greatrex Talks Gigabit Internet at NCTA [VIDEO]

Gigabit Internet

Earlier this month, NCTA and CTAM, the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing, hosted a discussion with Mark Greatrex, Chief Marketing & Sales Officer at Cox Communications and Chairman of the Board at CTAM. He shared with us new research on how their customers engage with cable and broadband and how Cox is building stronger customer service relationships. He also discussed how Cox’s gigabit broadband service, G1gablast, is changing how customers are using the Internet.

Are you noticing that millennials and older customers need different things from the customer relationship?

Yes. When we market services to our customers, and discuss with them our products, we do actually have a segmentation framework. So we think about “single start-outs” differently than “trendy techies,” families and traditional seniors. They all like to learn about our products and services in different ways, buy them in different ways, and they value different things. So for instance, the concept of a video playlist – which, much like a music playlist, would be an electronic listing of programs that could be grouped by category, genre, network, or other attributes – does incredibly well among millennials. But the rest of our segments have less interest in that approach. So we see a lot of spikes when we’re working through innovation. We have to watch out that the averages do not obscure some real gems. TV Everywhere (TVE) is a great example of where millennials who are using a lot of “over the top” video particularly value TVE, because it gives them the kind of freedom, ready access and interface that they really value.

Can you tell us a little bit about your thoughts on a nationwide approach to cable WiFi?

In a very similar way that we’ve successfully created an industry-wide approach to streaming video with TV Everywhere, it would be really powerful for our industry to come together and have unified support of cable Wi-Fi, with a consistent Wi-Fi experience no matter what market you’re in. And with the amount of household moves among the service “footprints” of various cable ISPs and Wi-Fi providers, it’s tremendously important to have a concerted industry-wide effort. I think you can look for us to work on this going forward, particularly through the auspices of CTAM.

What can you tell us about Cox’s personalized customer service experience?

We’re trying to personalize and customize the customer service experience. So when you log into your account, for instance, we should have the ability to bring up to the top what is of interest to you now. As an example, depending perhaps on a call you may have just made to us, we’ll move relevant data up – or, after we’ve fulfilled a specific request from you, we’ll drop that module down. We’re trying to get more interactive, dynamic, and customer-centric in the way that we deliver customer service.

You’ve said you believe customers prefer the option of having four or five television packages over pure “a la carte.” Why is that?

We do a lot of quantitative research and put a whole lot of options out in front of consumers, including full a la carte. And consumers still tend to migrate to bundles. They want a level of convenience. There’s value in convenience. And that value and affordability can be addressed in packages of content, often in ways that are superior to just putting out there a simple list of channels that could be chosen one by one. Through our on-demand service, the increasing ubiquity of the DVR, and of course TV Everywhere, we’re bringing our customers better and friendlier choices in content, than they’ve ever had before.

Your company recently began building and rolling out one-gigabit broadband service that you’re calling “G1gablast,” and you’re touting this new hyper-fast broadband experience as “the Gig Life.” Do you think most G1gablast customers are seeing the benefits of gigabit broadband?

We see that demand for speed at a certain price is a bell curve. And there are consumers who want to be way on the leading edge, with G1gablast. But there are others that understand their own needs, and a 20 Mbps or a 50 Mbps connection may be right for them. What we emphasize at Cox is value-based selling – meeting the customer where they are, helping them understand what their needs are.

And on the topic of gigabit broadband, Cox is unveiling new spots promoting G1gablast and the idea that with 100 times the speed of some broadband services, anything you can imagine is possible, asking the viewers the question, how will you live the “Gig Life?”

Check it out below: