The classic call-center experience may often elicit a sense of dread, with angry customers and no face-to-face interactions. But when you’re offering support for fiber optic technology, that all gets flipped on its head, Ginger Lane said sitting down with us for an interview.
For many years, Lane worked in collections — settling bill payments and plans — until she heard about different folks being transferred into broadband support, working with customers using fiber-to-the-home. It didn't take long for her to hop on the train and make the transfer.
“I’m so glad I did,” she reflected. “It is not micromanaged. We have all the support we need. It's like going from the dark side to the light side. I used to literally dread going to work every day. It was just a fight to go to work. And now, I like it. I like my job, which is huge.”
According to Lane, part of what makes the work so much more enjoyable is thanks to fiber being such an outstanding technology.
“I've discovered what a quality product fiber is. Seriously, even though I’m trouble shooting, 95% of the time, I’m like, ‘Have you tried rebooting the modem?’” she explained laughing. “Because it is such a great product."
Of course, occasionally the company she works for must dispatch help for needed maintenance, but she emphasized that most of the time, the problem is a simple restart.
From Lane's perspective, the broadband industry is full of more opportunities than many understand — and they're not just jobs to get by. They are unionized jobs with good pay and benefits.
“A lot of people don't realize a lot of broadband companies are unionized, and that there's really good pay. It’s not just, 'This will do for now until I can find something better.' This is a place you can come and stay," she said. "It's a place where you can stay and have roots and start building a life.”
‘My only traffic is a chihuahua’
For a long time, the image of working in a call center likely included rows of cubicles — everyone armed with headsets — but since the pandemic, that’s changed.
The position of working in customer broadband support is now typically fully remote.
“My only traffic is a chihuahua,” Lane explained. “I absolutely love being able to work from home.”
Remote work in some companies brings a degree of distrust resulting in more pressure for productivity from management. But Lane’s workplace gives patience and space for helping each person — however long that may take.
“It's great that there's no criteria of how long I can talk to the person. I can take all day to help the person if that's what it needs. And that's just such a breath of fresh air,” she told us.
"And because they're so happy with the product, the customers are really nice,” she added. “Ninety-nine percent of the time, they just leave really happy.”
In some ways, her role functions as the first level of troubleshooting for people with fiber-to-the-home. This requires her to be creative and flexible when sorting out customers' problems.
“Wherever you are, you have to be able to adapt to using different systems and thinking outside of the box,” she urged.
In the few scenarios where the issues persist beyond what she's able to help with, she can dispatch technicians who can take a closer look, troubleshoot and fix the network.
Making the interactions positive for the customer relies on learning about the context of fiber technology, how it works and the in-home installation process. Especially since the interaction is over the phone, it rests on customers describing their fiber set up — and that can be a challenge.
"I'm 53, and I've been doing payment arrangements for 20-plus years, so the learning curve has definitely been a little rough for me,” she noted. “There's all kinds of terminology that I'm just not familiar with. And just getting up to speed on that has been a bit of a slow process... It’s like another language.”
Still, the learning curve of the new role has also been a relief and joy for Lane. Her old job was “the same thing over and over and over every single day... this is always different,” she recalled.
“There's a new opportunity to figure something else out and lots of [issues] are mysteries, besides rebooting the modem," she said.
Availability vs. affordability
The Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program has provided unprecedented funding for the expansion of broadband infrastructure in under and unconnected communities.
But counter-productively, the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) — a $14.2 billion initiative providing low-income households with internet bill assistance — is coming to an end, with dismal outlook in near-future replacements.
Access to the technology is one piece of the puzzle, but affordability is an equally important component of closing the digital divide. The support of the ACP has been critical in making that possible.
Lately, the shifting reality of the ACP has been one of the toughest aspects of Lane’s job.
“We're having people that didn't realize that [ACP] was something that was gonna go away, and now they're in a position where they can’t afford their service, cause they’re very low income,” she explained. This is one area where she feels helpless.
“The powerlessness of that, you know, and not being able to help them because Congress is backwards,” she expressed. “The other piece: people calling wanting to get the service and it's not available in their area yet, because they might live in a more rural [place]. Not being able to have that available to them is frustrating as well.”
In those realities, she is only able to level with what she knows, such as BEAD’s push for fiber rollouts. But Lane says otherwise, she loves being able to offer help and genuine positivity in peoples’ days — rather than a stereotypical call-center experience.
“We are actually able to help customers and not just be like, ‘Sorry, we gotta disconnect your service,’” she said.
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