FMTC Discusses Multi-Generational CX and Valuable Resources

Data Driven World

Farmers Mutual Telephone Company has 5 regulated ILEC exchange areas and are expanding to serve the remaining areas in the four counties they serve with FTTH (Fiber to the Home). CEO of FMTC, Kevin Cabbage is a former “Rural Heroes,” winner and has made it his and FMTC’s mission to give back to their communities in Iowa. Cabbage sits down with Innovative Systems to discuss plans for expansion while leveraging efficiency and automation to help FMTC provide incredible customer experience.

“We’re a data driven world. We knew that we needed to have access to that data to make better informed decisions as we grow our company and grow our communities and serve our customers. We were at a point where we needed to make a transition to a new platform that could give us that reliable data as we want it, when we want it and how we want it delivered to us.” FMTC moved to eLation in April of 2020, fast forward almost three years, “Innovative [eLation] is our true company operating system because it is the foundation of everything we do.”

Valuable Resources: People and Time

Because of the powerful integration between the four different modules (Billing, Financials, Mapping and Provisioning) using that automation and being more efficient with employee time is paramount for the team at FMTC. “As we are growing, the most valuable resource we have is our people, right next to people is time. The Innovative Systems platform really helped us take advantage of both: the skillset of our people, and the opportunity to get more done in less time while providing superior service to our customers.” Cabbage explains that this wasn’t possible prior to eLation due to all of the manual processes that were in place. Automation has allowed FMTC to ramp up expansion while maximizing their employee resources and reach and automating those manual tasks to give employees more time to focus on the customers.

“We have to value their [the customer’s] time, it’s just as important or more important than ours. We have to make it very quick, very efficient and very productive for them.”

Kevin Cabbage, CEO FMTC

Cabbage discusses using Mobile Apps, and Apps that truly allow employees to complete the work from a tablet or mobile phone. Automating workflows and allowing employees to have greater insight into orders, installations and inventory is essential for efficiency. “With eLation’s Mobile Apps, all of that back-office work is done through automation. It’s truly in the hands of the CSR generating the service order, pushing it to the Technician, him picking it up in the field on his mobile device, and being in complete control of the whole installation by the time he arrives onsite. And the [technician] isn’t relying on someone else having to be available to help him in the field to complete his work. It empowers all of our staff to do the work using the automation within [eLation] to do the back-office programming to complete those orders.”

Delighting Generations of Customers

The team at Farmers Mutual Telephone Company understands that they have to be adaptable to how different people want to operate. To provide the best customer experience, the team needs to be able to make things like signup, installation, adding new services and trouble tickets convenient for customers of all ages. FMTC has decided to let the customer decide what works best based on their personal preference. 

Installations are a pivotal part of the customer/service provider relationship. It is important to FTMC to use software that allows employees to communicate effectively to ensure the installation process as smooth as possible. “It’s very important in the eyes of the customer that we’re efficient and effective while on their location.”

“That’s the challenge with many generations of people, how does the customer want to be communicated with?”

Kevin Cabbage, CEO FMTC

“We’re very good at the traditional methods [of customer communication]; people walking the door or receiving phone calls and completing paper documents for those who still want that want that type of interaction. To make it even more efficient we are utilizing all of the modern-day social media, text messaging and messaging portions of the Innovative Systems Apps to make it convenient for the customer. The team at FMTC understands that they need to offer multiple options to satisfy all generations of customers. When the customer is in control, and the customer can decide how they want to interact with their service provider, the customer experience becomes unmatched.