Google Fiber (NASDAQ: GOOG) would like to get ahead of potential issues with its "Google Fiber Academy," a new training center designed to improve Google Fiber installation and support by Google Fiber employees and third-party vendors.
Google Fiber, which is located in Atlanta, said in a blog post that vendors will "send in-home installers from around the country to the Academy to take courses including how to provide high quality customer service, the best techniques for installing Google Fiber, and the most helpful ways to demo our product for customers."
Although Google may only serve a few thousand customers in the markets it currently operates its 1 Gbps FTTH service, it wants to avoid gaining a reputation of bad customer service -- something that traditional telcos and cable operators have become known for.
The service provider claims that visitors to its service centers are helped in under one minute on average, while call center hold times are just 33 seconds on average. It added that 96 percent of its install technicians are "on time."
Despite announcing its intention to penetrate new markets such as Irvine, Calif.; Louisville, Ky. and San Diego, Google Fiber is still only offering service in only a handful of markets with a few thousand customers.
Google Fiber is currently available in Kansas City, Mo.; Provo, Utah and Austin. Rollouts in Charlotte and the buildout of the Raleigh-Durham, N.C. market began in June this year, while Salt Lake City, San Antonio, Nashville and Atlanta are all listed as "upcoming" on the company's website.
A key challenge for Google Fiber will be in its ability to scale these customer service and installation capabilities as it enters into more markets and gains a larger group of customers.
Nevertheless, having a sound installation and customer service training center in place will be a handy tool as it builds a larger mass of customers across its proposed diverse set of target markets.
For more:
- see this Google Fiber blog post
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