The pandemic created several challenges which Dandnaik met head on. He ensured his team had the tools and support to work remotely, collaborated with field operations to create a system for contactless installations that kept employees and customers safe, and used government programs to help low-income families stay connected. Despite the challenges, Dandnaik generated three years’ worth of customer growth at Mediacom in one year. He’s currently focusing on rolling out WiFi Pro 360, which improves in-home connectivity and allows customers to use more devices simultaneously. Also on his to-do list is diversifying Mediacom’s operations and revenue stream so the company is less dependent on its broadband customers. That’s not the only kind of diversity on his mind. “Being an immigrant and in a position of leadership, I recognize the benefits of a diverse workplace. I, along with my direct leadership team, embrace diversity and look to build a supportive workplace that puts the work first without it feeling like another initiative or burden,” he says.
How have you been a champion of diversity, equity, and inclusion?
1) Being an immigrant and in a position of leadership, I recognize the benefits of a diverse workplace. I along with my direct leadership team embrace diversity and look to build a supportive workplace that puts the work first without it feeling like another initiative or burden. 2) I look for diverse backgrounds in my team that allows critical thinking on ways to solve business and customer issues. 3) I look for the uniqueness in people and what they bring to the table. Often people are looking to break away from a pre-conceived mold of what they can and cannot do and that drives their hunger. 4) People love recognition and that is something very important to me. The ability to be recognized and showcase their talents is important regardless of diverse backgrounds. 5) 65% of my corporate team is diverse, and 60% is female. 6) Helen Bertona – leader of my Voice Operations group is a woman who started out as an Analyst. She just hired a young kid. Manvinder Singh – a rising star and an immigrant who started out as intern is co-leader of our Data warehouse operations group which drives reporting and analytics for the company
What’s been the most dramatic change in your sector of the business today vs three years ago?
1) The role technology plays across the entire operations and the rate of innovation has been amazing. Mediacom has accelerated technology investments which has allowed us to be the first company to roll our 1 Gig speeds across our national footprint, improve reliability through tools and data science as well as build robust self-service platforms for eCommerce, our online web portal, an SMS digital assistant, and our mobile application leveraging a common technology layer also used by employees to support customers.
Technology in the Customer experience – 2) I think the most dramatic change versus three years ago in customer care is using technology and channel diversification to make it easier for the customer to transact with us. By leveraging digital assets and the common service layer we have built outside of billing and operating systems, we can deliver more self service capabilities, and simplify/automate complicated cases. We can now meet them in their service channel of choice whether online, mobile app, messaging, social media or on the phone. Customers do not have to rely on a call center agent to get answers and when they speak to an agent, the answers are consistent as agents also leverage this common service layer. So for example, we can solve pain points expressed by the customer on the ability to get an exact ETA on when a tech will arrive, or offer standby appointments instead of making a customer wait several days during busy periods. We use messaging to relay outage information, the status of credits, usage data, or when packages will arrive and respond in channel for follow up questions. Simple tasks such as getting an order confirmation, a receipt on a payment, or an exact breakdown of bill charges are easily delivered in multiple channels. Complicated tasks such as placing an order online have been simplified so a customer can do it themselves instead of requiring an employee to navigate a closed billing system. Automated tasks such as ones to prevent and clear out service calls that were entered as the result of an outage, provide real cost savings and avoid poor customer experiences. All of these innovations together result in better service at a lower cost. More than 65% of monthly customer interactions are now automated.
Technology to support Employees and Customers – Allowed us to pivot quickly to remote work, adjusted install processes to incorporate contactless install and service, and integrated new products to support customers. 3) COVID Response – COVID reinforced the fact that broadband is an essential service for the customers and communities we service. In order to make sure our network continues to remain ahead of the demand curve, we completed six-month’s worth of network maintenance in just six weeks earlier this year. We also recognized this pandemic created financial, employment, health care and educational challenges for our customers. It became imperative for us to create a strategy to help our customers through this unprecedented event, so we swiftly made adjustments to our business operations to help them through the difficult months ahead. Specifically, we began pausing data allowances, waiving late fees, providing complimentary access to Wi-Fi hotspots, and offering flexible contract terms to businesses. The pandemic has also exposed a “homework gap” that prevents many students from participating in remote learning programs due to the fact that their household lacks an affordable broadband connection. Since March 2020, we have worked aggressively to expand broadband opportunities for low-income households through programs including the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, ABC for Students, Connect2Compete and K-12 Bridge to Broadband. Through these plans, Mediacom has been able to help over 15,000 families close this digital divide by providing desperately needed broadband services for little or no cost. From a customer-facing and internal employee perspective we quickly shifted to a remote working world by supplying agents and field techs with laptops to work virtually. Simultaneously, we addressed our customer’s needs for products and self-installation instead of home visits. In addition, we have disseminated many customer emails listing the different precautions we are taking during COVID to protect them as well as our employees in the field. We have a great ecommerce site set up for digital interactions with customers. This proved to be very beneficial once the pandemic hit and drove a need for providing everything virtually. Our customers were very thankful for our coronavirus response. We received numerous messages directly from people grateful for how we helped and relieved some of the burden of having to work from home, assisting children at home doing school work, and keeping in touch with family, friends, and co-workers across the country.
My best advice for fostering open, honest communication…
1) Be honest and respectful – open communication requires honesty from everyone involved. 2) Check-in regularly and have an open door policy. 3) Ask for feedback and suggestions (anonymous if it helps get better feedback) – to drive change you want to be able to get a feel for what is going on at the lowest levels of your organization. It is important to get yourself out there in front of people, explain your decisions, and be open to feedback or negative impacts of those decisions or find ways to make it better. 4) If you ask for suggestions, make sure you follow-up and act on those suggestions. 5) Getting out there creates an environment to connect with your employees and build trust. 6) Use the opportunity to discover employee goals and aspirations. 7) Encourage risk taking and not pushing failure.
