Acumen Solutions Makes e-commerce Easy-Commerce for RCN

That partnership “came with Acumen [Solutions] providing overall project management but also some key expertise in design,” said Konczal. “Sterling is very good at designing an e-commerce presence; Acumen [Solutions] had a little bit better. They had a professional servicing-and-beyond perspective that complements what we do very well.”

Combined, the three-headed beast developed a system and a consumer interface that is “a good example of a major change that’s happening within the industry ... especially the cable industry, around moving to more self-care models,” said Konczal.

That, said Bullotta, is what Acumen Solutions is all about: helping companies with complex product portfolios make buying decisions so simple that any consumer can do it without talking to a customer service rep. If everything’s done right, that means saving time, money and manpower and freeing up the CSR for more important troubleshooting and customer handholding. It is, he said, a space where companies like RCN, looking to pull customers away from incumbent providers, need to be just a step ahead of the pack.

“The No. 1 goal online for the carriers is to reduce the cost of the sale,” said Bullotta. “And No. 2 is, they want to give customers a channel that they’re comfortable with.”

As the company’s product portfolio morphs and offerings become more diverse, it’s important to take a look at how those products and services are presented to the customers and, in turn, how easy it is for the customers to get them and start paying for them. At the same time, the service provider needs to better understand its customers.

“Now they need to know more about the customer and think about what the customer’s experience is going to be. [They] need to design [a service] from the outside in,” he said.

That’s why, he said, there is an element of customer feedback involved in the system as well.

“You have to measure how well things are going, if transactions are failing, what customers are feeling and get their feedback,” he said.

That, of course, is even more important for RCN, which can’t afford to alienate any customers because, more than likely, it’s trying to draw those customers who already are dissatisfied with an incumbent. Keeping customer acquisition costs low is a priority, of course, but making sure those customers are more than satisfied trumps even penny pinching as a way to bring in new revenue.

“The old system we had ... wasn’t as flexible as we needed it to be and didn’t really cater as much to the end customer as we would like,” van Roten said. “The current solution that we rolled out is much more dynamic, much more flexible and heavily integrated with our billing system. There’s a lot of complexity that goes on behind the scenes but that’s not evident to the end users.”

Customers, of course, don’t care about complexity — unless it’s impacting their buying and Web browsing experience; then complexity can be a killer.

“With our current e-commerce system, prospects can come to RCN.com and through the online shopping cart buy cable, phone and Internet services,” van Roten said. “It’s specific to new customers now but you can get any variety of new services that we offer ... as well as the appropriate add-ons and customizations that you would expect for those services.”