“Stop Chasing Rabbits, Start Solving Problems”—A Preseem Success Story

How AirBridge Broadband uses Preseem’s proactive platform to save thousands on hardware, reduce truck rolls and support calls by an estimated 20 percent, and improve the customer experience.

Founded on the principle that they’re in the “relationship business, not just the internet business,” AirBridge prides itself on maintaining long-term relationships with customers while delivering top-notch service. The company grows by focusing on efficient operations, delivering value, and offering a better customer experience than alternatives.

Challenge

Like many Regional ISPs, AirBridge found themselves taking a very reactive approach to their day-to-day network operations. Their small operations team used multiple monitoring tools, but none provided the insights or workflows required to detect issues before they affected service quality. This led to a growing number of service calls, unnecessary truck rolls, and increased operational costs.

“We were reactive. We didn’t know where problems were until customers called in, and we felt like we were going in circles, and chasing rabbits with each support call. Managing these situations, and operating the network with such a small team, was becoming increasingly unsustainable,” says David McKnight, Co-Owner at AirBridge.

Another challenge AirBridge faced was the inability to effectively monitor and identify customer churn risk. With limited visibility into why customers were leaving or switching to competitors, AirBridge struggled to identify the root causes of churn.

“We didn’t know if people were moving out of the area, or if competition was building out in certain regions, leading to losses. We didn’t have the data to understand why customers were leaving,” says Elijah Zeida, Network Engineer at AirBridge.

Solution

In an effort to streamline network operations, AirBridge hired Preseem. The decision to adopt Preseem came after recognizing the need for a platform that could provide real-time, proactive insights into network performance. “We really see Preseem as part of our team – a virtual employee,” says McKnight. Preseem’s proactive access network and subscriber management capabilities enable AirBridge to detect issues at both the customer and network level, often before the customer even notices a problem.

Preseem’s Platform made integration with AirBridge’s existing systems simple, and its user-friendly interface made things easier for team members – even those without deep technical expertise – to access, collaborate, and act on network performance data.

Results

Preseem had an immediate and transformative impact on AirBridge’s operations:

• Estimated 20% reduction in service calls and truck rolls: By identifying network issues proactively, AirBridge identified and fixed issues before customers experienced major service disruptions.
• Optimized resource allocation: AirBridge was able to identify under-utilized access points and reallocate equipment, saving thousands of dollars in equipment costs on a single site alone.
• Improved customer experience: AirBridge has the insight they need to troubleshoot and fix issues before they impact customers, taking any element of potential churn risk off of the table while delighting their customers.

“We’ve been able to reach out to customers before they even knew they had a problem. They’re impressed,” Zeida explains.

The overall result? AirBridge increased efficiency without needing to hire additional staff. “We’ve added customers and improved the customer experience without hiring more people. That’s a huge win for us,” Zeida adds.

Advice for Other ISPs

For ISPs considering ways to improve network management, McKnight offers clear advice: “Preseem should be your next hire. The insights Preseem provides have saved us thousands in hardware costs and helped us optimize our network without hiring more staff. It’s an essential tool for any growing ISP.”

The proactive insights Preseem provides help smaller ISPs punch above their weight by improving customer experience, reducing operational costs, identifying churn risk, and enabling growth. As McKnight says, “With Preseem, you’ll stop chasing rabbits and start solving problems.”