Giving customer support agents a better toolbox

Delivering broadband network technology is incredibly complex. From the hardware and software that form the network’s infrastructure to the router that sits in the end user’s home or office, there are countless opportunities for glitches that can interrupt the consumer’s experience. And when they do happen, it often falls on the shoulders of an ISP’s customer support agent to troubleshoot and fix the issue – fast! That’s a heavy burden. 

AXON Networks has designed the new user interface (UI) for its AXON AnyNet^TM Orchestration Platform to give those support agents the most relevant information they need in the easiest-to-understand way, along with the guidance to diagnose and fix the issue quickly. Or, in the words of David Hallas, AXON’s Solution Director and Product Owner of AXON AnyNet Orchestrator, to “give customer support agents a better toolbox.”

David Hallas

Solution Director 

“Our orchestration platform has been designed to ingest and intelligently analyze more than 25,000 data points per device at any given moment, present relevant diagnostics information to the agent in a guided way, and recommend actions to fix an issue,” he says. “In other words, tell the agent, ‘Here’s the problem, and here’s what to do to fix it.’"

David says the amount of data the platform is processing isn’t as important as its intelligent interpretation of that data and the suggested fixes it presents to the agent. Then it’s the job of the UI to help guide the agent to a solution for the customer. Together, the platform and the design of the UI can reduce the time the agent needs to analyze a support case and troubleshoot an issue.  

Flexible views and flows

The AXON AnyNet Orchestrator UI is a modular responsive dashboard. The dashboard has been designed and customized to match ISP workflow and the data it wants to track. Instead of requiring an ISP and its customer support agents to conform to a static UI dictated by the platform, AXON provides a dashboard tailored to what its support agents are familiar with.

That’s accomplished using modular construction and customizable widgets, with easy-to-understand graphics and highlighted text that calls out potential issues and suggests solutions, all with the goal of helping the agents resolve user issues quickly, reduce call times, eliminate unnecessary truck rolls, and increase customer satisfaction.

“Flexibility and scalability are key to the power of AXON Orchestrator,” says Duncan Chase, Creative Director at AXON and designer of the UI. “Most CPE management platforms don’t have as much data integrated into their management platform – agents have to actively search for some of the data they need – and they haven’t been designed to be as user friendly. Giving our customers’ agents flexible views and flows helps them do their jobs better.”

Duncan Chase

Creative Director

That flexibility and customization even apply to the features and level of detail provided to an individual rep. What and how much information an agent sees are customized to their personal technical expertise based on their log-in credentials. For example, a Tier 1 rep might be a newer rep with less technical experience. They’ll be shown a simpler dashboard. A Tier 2 or 3 rep might have deeper technical knowledge and be presented with more raw data from the CPE. Either way, the rep is given the tools they need to provide the best level of support to the customer.

Another strength of the AXON Orchestrator UI, according to Duncan, is the agents’ ability to receive data and intelligence from end users’ routers, regardless of whether those routers are AXON routers or devices provided by a third party. That gives the agent a more holistic view of the platform and the CPE it’s monitoring. Other providers’ solutions tend to focus on analyzing data only from their own devices.

Smart CPE management

“Being able to provide access to so much real-time, integrated data – as well as the insight to act on it – in such a unique and customized way isn’t something you see in a traditional CPE management platform,” says David. “We see our AXON AnyNet Orchestration platform and its easy-to-use UI as part of the evolution of CPE management. You could even call it a new product category, the ‘smart management platform’.”

As the platform continues to evolve, there will be more machine learning and intelligence built into it, David says, along with an app that can alert the end user directly if an issue arises. Think of that as ‘proactive customer service.’

David says the platform is perfect for smaller and medium-sized ISPs looking for deep, actionable insight into their devices. The new customizable UI will be rolled out to all AXON customers later this summer. It’s been in testing as a demo platform with some existing customers and the feedback has been very positive.

“One of our customers told us that previously, almost 98 percent of their truck rolls came back with non-defective routers,” said David. “In other words, those truck rolls didn’t need to happen. By giving a support agent fast, easy access to the information they need to diagnose and fix a customer problem – versus staying on the phone and talking through the issue with the customer and eventually scheduling a truck roll anyway because they couldn’t find a solution – we’re helping the ISP improve the quality of experience for the customer and, ultimately, reducing churn.”

For more information, visit: https://axon-networks.com/

Media Contact:

John O’Malley
The Guyer Group
585.261.5899
john@guyergroup.com