Brad Feldman – Director of Video Product Strategy

Brad Feldman has watched Cablevision Systems, and the entire industry for that matter, transform from a one-trick pony delivering analog video service to a multi-product digital purveyor offering a diverse mix of products and services. The evolution has created some challenges, but “we have a wonderful team and we all work together to make sure we provide an excellent experience at the best value for our customers.”

As director of video product strategy, Feldman is responsible for evaluating and implementing Cablevision’s video-product strategy. While his responsibilities lie in the video division, he works closely with other departments “because it’s not just TV anymore,” he said.

Feldman is responsible, among other things, for overseeing the changes to the iO: Interactive Optimum service, including the addition of new linear and video-on-demand channels and international offerings, as well as the expansion of the company’s high definition offerings. And every decision he makes affects other parts of the company. That has resulted in more inter-department partnering and cooperation, he said. “We work with other departments on a daily basis.”

The correlation between video and online offerings is not hard to fathom. But there are also connections between the video product and digital voice. For instance, Cablevision is working to integrate caller ID on the TV screen.

“We’re always evaluating our content and services. We collectively determine which services to add because they all have an impact on other parts of the business,” he said. “We are a multi-product provider through and through. We were the first to understand that the applications on different platforms can provide and complement different products.”

Moreover, as Cablevision’s customers increasingly embrace the digital products the company offers, the units will work more closely together “so our digital products will continue to evolve,” Feldman said.

“We want to make sure we are ensuring our customers have a positive experience with us every time they tune us in,” he added. “Clearly, our jobs have changed since the days when we all we had to offer was analog video. But hopefully, a year from now, we will be doing the same thing we are today: seeing our customers embrace our family of services.”

The most challenging aspect of Feldman’s job, he said, is staying on top of all the changes in technology and product offerings. An eight-year Cablevision veteran, Feldman started out as manager of video pricing.

“Ten years ago, all we had was analog,” he said. “And look at all the things we offer our customers today. That isn’t going to slow down either, I don’t think. It’s all about value and what we can offer our customers.”

Kathy Filosa – Manager of Direct Marketing

The slogan “Reach Out and Touch Someone” may have come from the old Ma Bell days, but Cablevision Systems takes the concept very seriously and makes a point of contacting everyone in its service footprint at least twice a month. That means sending out millions of direct-mail pieces, e-mail blasts and electronic newsletters every year. And one of the key staffers making sure that all goes smoothly is manager of direct marketing Kathy Filosa.

Filosa has been with Cablevision for almost eight years. She oversees all aspects of the direct-mail marketing department. Upgrade and acquisition materials are sent out each month, as are e-mail messages to welcome new customers or to announce new products or special deals. In addition, she and her staff craft a monthly electronic newsletter, which is sent out to all Optimum customers. That vehicle is meant to be used as a retention tool, she said.

Filosa is also the sole Cablevision contact with outside marketing and ad agencies when it comes to brand management. “We have to ensure we have a standard, cohesive feel and look when it comes to our brand,” Filosa noted. “At one point, all our services looked different, but with the Optimum brand, we have been able to make it feel like everything comes from one company. We also have to make sure that when we are working with ad agencies, they use the same brand. Sometimes they will start jazzing it up and that won’t do. That has copyright implications and we always want to make sure we maintain our brand value.”

Cablevision aims to make contact with its 3.1 million customers, as well as the 1.5 million residents it doesn’t already serve in some manner, at least twice each month. Like other areas of the marketing department, sales pitches surround the company’s triple-play offer. However, the look and feel of those materials will vary depending on the target audience. Cablevision has tailored a number of direct-mail pieces to mirror or identify with the myriad constituency groups it serves. The company will regularly send out messages in several languages including Indian languages, Spanish, Chinese, Korean and others. Each is also tweaked to take into account demographic and socio-specific preferences. The direct mail pieces may also target single- and double-service customers with the third leg of the triple play they don’t subscribe to, Filosa said.

“We also reach out to our customer-service reps and ask what them what kind of questions they are getting from customers. We ask them what customers say they want,” Filosa said. “For instance, the reps kept getting questions about how they could reduce their monthly bills so we took that and put it in our marketing materials. 'Here’s how you can lower your bill…’ We work closely with all the other department heads to make sure we are sending the right messages all the time.”

Bob Lee – Vice President of Inside Plant

As a 33-year veteran of Cablevision Systems, Bob Lee has watched the company grow from a small, analog-only cable operator to one of the nation’s leading media conglomerates offering customers a plethora of voice, video and high-speed-data products.

Lee started his career at Cablevision as a line technician in 1973. Today, he serves as vice president of inside plant, responsible for the management and oversight of Cablevision’s plant and headends. He’s been closely involved in the transition from straight analog video delivery to multiproduct digital services, and from service delivery to customer homes to managing the network from corporate headquarters.

While both cable as a business and its underlying technology have become more complex over the years, the goal of Lee’s department is to keep things simple so they’re easy to monitor and repair.

“We knew six or eight years ago where we needed to be today when it comes to technology, so we began standardizing our headends,” he said. “We operate as one big system, which has its advantages. Every hub looks the same and we have a standard architecture. We have three master headends and more than 60 hubs, and they are all wired exactly the same way.”

The master headends were built to support one another and Cablevision owns its own transport, which gives the company complete control of its network, Lee said. Lee and his team also brought in people who understand the complexities of the network plant and worked with them to create manuals and guides in a simplified language that they can understand and use effectively. Cablevision was ahead of the curve when it came to some technological expertise and advancement.

“When we first were doing our rebuild with analog, we had a two-way plant before other MSOs had two-way,” he said. “We always maintained the plant as two-way, which gave us a leg up because we knew we would eventually need a real-time return path. By maintaining the up and down streams from the beginning, it paved the way for the introduction of new services.”

Cablevision also planned for the future. All the headends have room for growth and none are at capacity yet, Lee said. His biggest daily challenge is reacting to any alarms that pop up “and reacting to it the right way the first time,” he added. “We make sure we try to react to any problems before our customers even realize there is a problem at all.”

“We are a 24/7 company but we don’t want to interrupt our customers if we need to do any plant maintenance or repairs,” Lee said. “So when we do have to do anything that affects the plant, we do it in the middle of night, when we’ll impact the least number of customers.”

Cablevision has always worked closely with its vendors to make sure it has the right mix of equipment in easy-to-operate configurations. That way, when new products and services are launched, it’s a seamless transition, according to Lee.

“Besides adding more services and refining our monitoring of the plant,” he said, “we are constantly refining what we react to and how we react.”

Martha Lurch – Bilingual Supervisor, Customer Service

Martha Lurch came to the United States in 1993 knowing little English and with no job. But not for long.

A teacher in her native Dominican Republic, Lurch knew she wanted a job helping people. She found the perfect match as a customer-service representative with Cablevision. Lurch has happily worked for the cable operator ever since, rising to the position of bilingual supervisor of customer service in the New York City borough of The Bronx. Her call center deals with mostly customers with video questions or issues. Most calls deal with billing issues, particularly those where a promotion has ended and prices go up.

“I can usually deflect those by explaining the value they are getting and reminding them of the quality service they are receiving,” Lurch said. “Cablevision had a job fair and I was immediately drawn to the idea of being in customer service. Being a teacher requires patience and a desire to help people. That is what being a customer-service rep means, too,” she said. “When you connect with a customer, they need care and help, just like a student. The job fit like a glove.”

Lurch’s patience, affability with customers and willingness to learn the business quickly propelled her to her current position, but she has little desire to move much higher in the chain of command. She likes working closely with customers and, like the teacher she is at heart, gets satisfaction from knowing she has helped train others as they move up the corporate ladder.

She currently oversees a crew of 18 bilingual customer-service representatives. She not only monitors her team, she also involves them when a call is pushed in her direction.

“My job is helping my staff and helping customers,” she said. “Sometimes I can help guide a rep through a difficult call. But if the call is transferred to me, I still keep them in the loop.”

As in the classroom, follow-up with both the representative and customer is paramount to success in the call center, she said. Lurch keeps a notebook of who she has talked to, what the problem was and when she promised she would get back to them. Keeping a promise is very important to her — and a key to her success in turning unhappy callers into happy customers.

“It’s easy to forget things sometimes,” she said. “I focus on keeping my promises. Customers are more forgiving if you do what you saying you’re going to do. Even if I can’t resolve their problem, I call them back when I told them I would.”

George Scarpias – Residential Account Executive

George Scarpias is a people person. He isn’t cowed by the thought of knocking on someone’s door, getting to know them and what they want and then providing it. More often than not, after spending a couple of hours with him, you may find yourself inviting him to your wedding or your next backyard barbecue.

Scarpias is a residential account executive with Cablevision and is charged with winning back customers who’ve defected to the competition. He’s very good at his job, according to company executives, generally luring one or two former customers back to Cablevision every day.

Scarpias starts his day by checking to make sure the customers he’s signed up for service are happy with their installation services and product mix. Then he goes about mapping out his day — literally. After researching where former customers live and why they left, he uses Mapquest to find the homes he expects to target that day on Long Island.

“I may knock on 40 or 50 doors a day and talk to about 15,” he said. “My goal is to sign up at least one person every day. It’s a very personal job. So we’ll actually try to get know them so we can sell them, the right product mix the first time. I try to treat everyone like they are part of my family. I’ve been invited to weddings and parties because I’ve taken the time to get to know them. I become part of their family, too.”

About 80% of Scarpias’ win-backs are Verizon FiOS customers. “They may not have been Cablevision customers before going with Verizon,” he said. “Many were [direct-broadcast satellite] customers who went with Verizon when FiOS became available. It’s not necessarily easier to convert a FiOS customer than a DBS customer, but it’s a different sale because it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison like the FiOS product.”

Verizon FiOS customers are already aware of the benefits of the triple play, he said. They are generally sold on Cablevision when he explains the cable operator can provide its triple play of products cheaper than the telephone giant and provide exclusive content like local-news channel News 12 Long Island.

Satellite defectors will say they switched to get a specific channel or group of channels, Scarpias said. With the constant tweaking of channel lineups coupled with the savings and convenience of the triple play, DBS customers are often easily wooed, he noted.

“I never tell people they made a bad decision to go with another competitor,” he noted. “I do tell and show them how going with Cablevision is a better choice.”

He is also careful about when he knocks on someone’s door. His door-to-door sales efforts start at noon and end generally around 9 p.m. “We are very respectful of their time. I always ask if I am interrupting anything like dinner because I am knocking on many doors during the dinner hour. I will ask when it would be more convenient to talk to them and generally they aren’t offended. They simply tell me when I should come back.”