How Smaller ISPs Win: Service Excellence and Smart, Local Marketing
- David Gray
- 8 hours ago
- 7 min read
Last week, I spoke at the MACTA Fall Forum, hosted by the Mid-America Cable/Telecommunications Association. Since 1958 that organization that has promoted
collaboration and professional development among independent and regional telecom providers in Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Texas, and Louisiana. Members include Allo Fiber, HyperFiber, Vyve Broadband, MediaCom, Conway Corporation, and other ISPs. The purpose of the annual forum is to recognize a number of outstanding individuals and teams for excellence in terms of customer service and marketing programs over the last year. Before the awards were distributed, I was asked to address the group and to focus on the strategic importance high quality service delivery and cost-effective marketing programs. At a time of intensifying competition and slowing broadband growth nationwide, it’s more important than ever for smaller and regional providers to ensure that they attract and retain satisfied customers, and that precious marketing dollars are being used efficiently and impactfully.
The conversation resonated with the audience and prompted a number of pertinent follow-up questions. Some highly relevant insights and themes emerged which merit broader discussion, so I’ve addressed them in greater detail in this blog post.
What Distinguishes Great Service Organizations from Good Service Organizations?
In my experience, good teams are focused on execution — they get things done and meet most of their goals (which is, of course, very important). But great teams have something deeper: a shared sense of purpose and a genuine commitment to the customer. They’re curious, collaborative, and not afraid to challenge old ways of thinking when it leads to a better user experience. When people feel empowered to innovate and they keep the customer at the center of all that they do, that’s when you see teams really elevate their performance.
Great teams don’t just happen – they require committed and invested leaders. I have more than 30 years’ experience as a marketing and sales leader in the cable and telecom space; my first two decades in the business were spent in a series of seven Time Warner Cable operating divisions, based in markets that included Boston, Albany, Milwaukee and New York City. Because of how the industry was established, at the time the company was organized into 37 standalone business units, each with its own subscriber growth and EBITDA targets, and also with very limited shared services. This meant that each operation was responsible for its own marketing, customer care, technical operations, HR and other functions. Suffice it to say that in these days there were some high-performing operations which consistently hit financial targets and which also achieved high customer satisfaction (CSAT) benchmarks – and then there were others which did not.
Early on in my career I had the good fortune to be placed in a couple of extremely well-run operations which routinely attained their targets as well as CSAT objectives. I learned the fundamentals from excellent operating executives who were also extremely capable people leaders. They had high expectations and they developed and shared a clear vision of a consistent, high-quality customer experience – and they challenged all of us to do our part to make that vision a reality. These leaders built and nourished a culture which featured at its core a relentless pursuit of an ever-improving customer experience. Certainly the service quality we delivered was not always perfect, but the CSAT results of these operations well exceeded those in most of the other divisions.
How to Create a Culture of Excellence?
Building and sustaining a culture that prioritizes excellent service begins with senior leadership. When a leader models a clear sense of purpose and consistently connects how every team member’s work impacts customers and the business, it sets the standard for the entire organization. Their commitment, especially in celebrating and elevating front line contributions, is essential to embedding a true culture of service.
The Division Presidents I worked for during my early years were, of course, different people with different backgrounds, life experiences and personalities. But they shared a common passion to continuously find ways to improve the quality and level of service provided to customers. They empowered their teams to collaborate, to innovate and to rework the status quo to deliver a better experience.
About 12 years into my career the company relocated me to the midwest in order to turn around the entire marketing and sales program in a division operation which was failing. The operation had lost subscribers two years in a row (which was practically unheard of in those days). Several members of the previous senior management team had recently been dismissed, including the Division President. Those senior leaders who remained, while highly capable, had previously lacked clear direction and there hadn’t been a high degree of alignment across the organization, which led to a variety of execution problems.
While my boss was focused on addressing those issues, for the first month that I was in that operation, I embedded myself with managers, supervisors and among front line employees. I regularly sat with agents in call centers, took part in ride-alongs with direct sales reps and installers, and conducted skip-level meetings with each of the teams. I asked all of these people why they thought things weren’t working, and if they were in charge – what would they change? Pretty quickly I gathered a good sense of who was motivated and who just
didn’t care, and who was coachable and who was not. I knew we’d need to bring in some
new talent into the leadership ranks (which we did), but I was pleased to discover a good number of “keepers” as well. These were individuals who had seen that the operation wasn’t working, but that little urgency was previously placed on fixing what was broken. After all, if their boss, and their boss’ boss didn’t seem to care about addressing the problems, why should they care? At the time I joked with my boss that many of the employees I’d encountered across the organization were like the patients in the 1990 film Awakenings – they had suddenly emerged from their catatonic states and were now enthusiastic champions of change and entirely focused on refining our execution.
It took more than a year to really turn that operation around. It required a lot of long hours and hard work. But because the team was now singularly focused on improvement, and aligned around core metrics, and getting all departments focused on execution, there was clarity about what was starting to work and which areas still required more focus. We celebrated our wins and we acknowledged the contributions of individuals and teams. The Division President routinely showed up unannounced to department meetings, call center floors, and payment centers in the field to recognize important achievements and accomplishments. She’d hand-write thank you notes, which employees proudly displayed on cubicle walls and on bulletin boads, and she recognized individuals and teams in employee newsletters and at all-hands meetings. I was consistently impressed by the durability of these simple acts of gratitude and how they helped to foster and reinforce pride and ownership across the organization.
In the end the hard work paid off. We managed to get the business back on track and not just stop the losses, but also to grow the subscriber base by more than 7%. The company's CEO recognized the division with a special Most Improved Operation award, and the experience led to a number of us being promoted into larger roles in the company.
How Can Smaller Operators Innovate in their Marketing – Even with Limited Resources?
In my work with small and midsize FTTH providers I’ve met some really smart marketers who
are making a big impact. They generally have small teams with constrained budgets, and they’re up against some big players and other platforms, including fixed wireless competitors. Despite these challenges, some rise above the others in terms of their marketing impact. They’re not relying on big expensive advertising buys, and they lack the budget to send direct mail 2x - 3x per month. They may be doing some paid search, but not as much as they'd like to. What’s impressed me is how some marketers so effectively leverage their status as a local company, and use that as a competitive advantage. They establish an authentic and meaningful local presence — they show up at local pancake breakfasts, have a booth at farmer’s markets, at Little League games, and high school football games.
Local providers who effectively embed themselves in the community can substantively engender brand awareness and affinity and promote customer loyalty. It can be quite be difficult for large cable companies and telcos to accomplish the same across their massive footprints. (“Don’t try to out-local the locals,” my former CMO used to caution me when I was overseeing localized competitive strategy later in my career.) Some strive to win as many "Best of" local service awards as they possibly can, and when they do, they then include in all of their advertising and promotion materials, which can be highly effective.
Some ISPs have adopted a robust and highly organized approach to localized social media –
they’re leaning into being part of the local community and they’ve become highly effective storytellers about it. Some post at least three to four times each week on multiple platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok and LinkedIn. They feature a standard rotation of local/community posts, product education posts, humorous/seasonal posts, and customer testimonial posts. Some have found that it can be quick, easy and cost-effective to develop compelling and relevant video content as part of their strategy, producing and posting two minute videos as part of their approach. Examples include “day in the life” videos with sales reps or installers in the community, or they may feature the head of engineering explaining the process of preparing for a new construction phase. Others have captured drone footage of recognizable local landmarks, or place GoPro cameras on company vehicles, all with an eye toward reinforcing the company’s connection to community.
At the end of the day, ISPs need a solid GTM plan that makes sense; pricing, promotion and marketing tactics need to be sound and well executed. But often, when a local brand effectively establishes itself as an authentic part of the community, and that resonates with consumers, this can become a true difference-maker.
Conclusion
Sustained success in broadband today demands more than solid execution — it requires intentional leadership, a culture centered on the customer, and authentic community connection. As competition intensifies and markets mature, the providers that will thrive are those that continually invest in their people, challenge old assumptions, and find new ways to deliver meaningful value. Whether through inspired teamwork, thoughtful recognition, or genuine local engagement, great service organizations never lose sight of what matters most: earning and keeping the trust of their customers every single day.