ANDRE WORRELL
Massy Communications is committed to its mission of being the premier provider of Internet and TV services to the local residential market. In an industry dominated by larger, multinational players, Massy has no intention of just showing up and participating: it wants to win.
The company's executive director and telecommunications industry veteran, Lisa Agard, is driven to offer the public an outstanding product and imbibe in her company's DNA a winner's mentality to be the best at what they do.
In an interview with the Business Guardian, Agard–a lawyer by training–along with company project executive Trevor Deane discussed Massy Communications commitment to excellence, how it intends to build out its presence in the Internet and TV space and why being a quality Internet service provider is in keeping with its overall philosophy of being a force for good.
Massy Communications, which is majority owned by the Massy group, has been providing high-speed Internet service to many corporate customers across the country as a player in the local ICT space for more than eight years. Since launching its Internet and TV offering in March of this year, Massy Communications–with its workforce of roughly 140 employees–has been quietly establishing its presence in the residential telecommunications space.
Utilising the most cutting-edge technology to offer "fibre-to-the-home" Internet and TV service, Agard said she was pleased with the rate at which people have taken to the company's offerings.
Commenting on its position in the market today, Agard said: "We are playing a very important role in the development of ICT infrastructure and broadband capability in T&T. For many years we offered our business clients high-speed Internet through fibre. In keeping with changes in the technological landscape, a decision was made that we should offer this same high-speed fibre-to-the-home Internet service to the residential market, and couple it with the most high-definition TV channels available from any operator in the country. We feel very satisfied with where we are today and where we're going."
Agard noted that since its launch in March, growth has been phenomenal.
"Though it started a little slowly–as one would expect with a new offering–the momentum that we've seen build up has far exceeded our expectations. Requests for our installations continue to exceed our manpower."
With so many players in the local telecommunication space offering what, on the surface could appear as an undifferentiated service, it's easy for consumers to get lost in the matrix of choices available to them.
Questioned about how Massy Communications carves out its unique space in the market, Agard noted the multi-faceted nature of its approach.
"Firstly, from a technological perspective, we have the most advanced technology available. But what really separates us, to a large extent, is the value proposition we have designed for customers through the very flexible plans we offer them. For residential Internet, we offer five packages that cater to the most modest of Internet users, all the way up to the more intense, heavy Internet surfers.
"On the TV side, our approach is similar whereby we have four packages that cover the spectrum of customers in the same way. We don't believe in forcing customers to take any service they don't want. We also offer add-on packages for customers who want a bit more out of their Internet and TV experience.
"Finally, we have very competitive prices that we feel, coupled with the level of customer service we offer, make our Internet and TV offering unbeatable."
Probed about its approach to customer acquisition, Agard noted that Massy Communications uses a number of different approaches.
"A key determinant in our decision to enter communities to offer our service is the population density of the area and proximity of the residents in the area to the Massy ecosystem. We also take into consideration how those areas have been served and who serves them to ascertain whether there is a market opportunity. We, literally, have field agents who go door to door and offer our services and sign up customers. We also did some signing up at the various Massy Stores in the areas that we entered. Additionally, we utilise the Massy infrastructure to do some telesales and outbound calling."
Commenting on customer service Deane said: "Customer service really is a key for us. We are smaller than many of the other providers so we take each and every one of our customers seriously. We try our best to meet and treat with any issues that will arise in the course of providing them service in the shortest possible time."
Agard added that as a key performance indicator, the company tries to resolve issues within a 24-hour period.
In the residential Internet and TV space, Massy Communications is a "start-up". Building out its presence in the space from scratch has been, according to Agard, nothing short of astonishing.
Commenting on its successes to date, she said: "The launch of this service, in the timeframe that we did, was totally amazing. Starting from nothing we were able to get this up and running within the space of six to nine months."
Going further, Deane noted that from his perspective what stood out was the effort from the team at Massy Communications to make the Internet and TV offering a reality.
"We have some really talented, driven and motivated young engineers that have stepped forward and worked really hard and embraced this initiative. Some have worked 18-hour days to make this a reality. They are really the heart of this organisation."
Commenting on some of the challenges facing the telecommunication industry, Agard noted that the issue of content dissemination is something that some major players have an issue with.
She said: "We feel pretty strongly about how content is distributed across the telecommunications space. In some instances, content is offered selectively and is not equitably distributed to players in the industry who would be more than willing to pay for the content to offer to their own customers. We feel that this is not just anti-competitive, but hurts the industry by restricting access to content that the customers want from their provider."
Outside of building out its Internet and TV offering, both Agard and Deane were quick to add that deepening the intellectual capital of locals in the telecommunications sector was something that not just Massy Communications, but the Massy Group felt strongly about.
Agard said: "Developing local talent in the telecommunications space is something that we are committed. At Massy Communications, and Massy in general, we feel very strongly about providing T&T nationals with the opportunity to grow and thrive. We've seen what our locals can do in the telecommunications space and, as a company, we want to continue to provide a platform for local talent to blossom."