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To be honest, I've been lukewarm on cable TV ever since I set foot in California 20 years ago. Maybe it's just a cultural thing, but it always seemed overpriced, with too many ads, and not enough substance. Although the way the History Channel could make 20 minutes of real content fill an hour segment was really quite breathtaking, in a way...
So, we just did it, we finally pulled the plug on cable. Our service providers triple play became a double, just the phone and a fat data pipe. And then we dropped the phone service too. Why? Because as soon as I dropped the TV service, they wanted to charge me $45 a month for the phone!
Now here's the irony. We're getting calls and emails from the cable TV company. It wants to get our feedback on our recent encounters with its customer service team. And those encounters have been great! (Not everyone's experience I know, but thankfully it has been mine). I spoke to Debbi when I called to cancel the TV service. She was delightful! True, she was still trying to find an angle to sell me TV service. But, that aside, we had a lovely conversation, couldn't have been nicer. A few days later my wife returned the set-top box to the store. The people she dealt with at the store were fabulous - helpful, happy, smiley people.
But, never once during my 20 years as a customer did the cable TV company actually ask me what I thought of the core product. Did I like the mix of channels on offer? Did I think it was good value for money? What else could they do to improve the product? Not. Once. And yet, the truth is the pricing model has stuck in my craw from day one. The fact that I (used to) have to pay for a boat load of TV channels that I don't want, just to earn the privilege - yes, the privilege - to pay for the channels that I do...breathtaking - and not in a good way. But, that's what you can get away with if you have a virtual monopoly on audio-visual entertainment. Which the cable companies once had. Now, with a growing number of alternatives available, cable TV looks like the overpriced, outdated product that it is.
So, enough about cable TV. There's a note of caution here for industrial companies too. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is causing many companies that traditionally sold products to think that maybe they should be selling a service instead. This isn't a new idea - Rolls Royce coined (and trademarked) the term "power by the hour" over 20 years ago. GE do something similar with its jet engines, and also with turbines and generators used in power generation. Kaeser Kompressoren is just one example of industrial suppliers planning to use IIoT data to "servicize" their products.
There's certainly merit in this. For the customer, the cost can be tied much more to the value delivered. And, responsibility for maintenance shifts from the customer to the supplier. That, in turn, means the customer should receive a more reliable, consistent service, backed up by a service-level agreement. Of course, one of the benefits for the supplier is that they become more entrenched in the customer's business. So, it's a win-win, potentially.
But, in the rush to servicize a product, suppliers need to be sure they don't forget about the product. Because, how ever well you servicize it, the core product still matters. If the reliability is poor, it will cost you. If the performance lags behind its competitors, it will ultimately cost you. If a competitors product becomes more flexible, it will cost you. So yes, please think about how you can move along the spectrum from product to service. Just don't forget about that big metal thing that actually underpins it all.
So, we just did it, we finally pulled the plug on cable. Our service providers triple play became a double, just the phone and a fat data pipe. And then we dropped the phone service too. Why? Because as soon as I dropped the TV service, they wanted to charge me $45 a month for the phone!
Now here's the irony. We're getting calls and emails from the cable TV company. It wants to get our feedback on our recent encounters with its customer service team. And those encounters have been great! (Not everyone's experience I know, but thankfully it has been mine). I spoke to Debbi when I called to cancel the TV service. She was delightful! True, she was still trying to find an angle to sell me TV service. But, that aside, we had a lovely conversation, couldn't have been nicer. A few days later my wife returned the set-top box to the store. The people she dealt with at the store were fabulous - helpful, happy, smiley people.
But, never once during my 20 years as a customer did the cable TV company actually ask me what I thought of the core product. Did I like the mix of channels on offer? Did I think it was good value for money? What else could they do to improve the product? Not. Once. And yet, the truth is the pricing model has stuck in my craw from day one. The fact that I (used to) have to pay for a boat load of TV channels that I don't want, just to earn the privilege - yes, the privilege - to pay for the channels that I do...breathtaking - and not in a good way. But, that's what you can get away with if you have a virtual monopoly on audio-visual entertainment. Which the cable companies once had. Now, with a growing number of alternatives available, cable TV looks like the overpriced, outdated product that it is.
So, enough about cable TV. There's a note of caution here for industrial companies too. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is causing many companies that traditionally sold products to think that maybe they should be selling a service instead. This isn't a new idea - Rolls Royce coined (and trademarked) the term "power by the hour" over 20 years ago. GE do something similar with its jet engines, and also with turbines and generators used in power generation. Kaeser Kompressoren is just one example of industrial suppliers planning to use IIoT data to "servicize" their products.
There's certainly merit in this. For the customer, the cost can be tied much more to the value delivered. And, responsibility for maintenance shifts from the customer to the supplier. That, in turn, means the customer should receive a more reliable, consistent service, backed up by a service-level agreement. Of course, one of the benefits for the supplier is that they become more entrenched in the customer's business. So, it's a win-win, potentially.
But, in the rush to servicize a product, suppliers need to be sure they don't forget about the product. Because, how ever well you servicize it, the core product still matters. If the reliability is poor, it will cost you. If the performance lags behind its competitors, it will ultimately cost you. If a competitors product becomes more flexible, it will cost you. So yes, please think about how you can move along the spectrum from product to service. Just don't forget about that big metal thing that actually underpins it all.