Ramp up your residential fiber internet strategy with ease
Demand for multifamily homes made large builders, portfolio managers, and consultants headily optimistic about the future. However, the market is soft—primarily due to volatility in the industry—which has somewhat eroded confidence, according to the Building Product Outlook forecast from Zonda. Even so, fiber national account managers are poised and ready for the challenges ahead.
The discussion around which amenities builders should put into their various projects is intensifying. That choice, of course, is highly localized, and depends on the type of community, market conditions, geographic factors, and budget. Getting the mix of amenities right is critical. Otherwise, you’ve wasted both money and opportunities.
National partnerships can be essential to large multifamily properties
The logistics of choosing and managing fiber suppliers across large multifamily portfolios is complex. Top builders and consultants are simultaneously building thousands of units across multiple markets, giving them lengthy supplier lists to manage. They must be diligent in ensuring high quality and uniformity across these scattered properties under development. But this is difficult because they often work with local suppliers unfamiliar with their business operations and who don’t grasp their (frequently unwritten) expectations.
Why some partnerships stand out
As a dedicated group within Quantum Fiber, the National Account Manager (NAM) team is on a customer-centric mission to get each multifamily community builder or owner the best connectivity services possible—tailored to their needs. They cut through red tape by establishing mutually agreed-upon contractual and implementation processes. They help ensure Quantum Fiber and its clients work in lockstep, making it simple to do business together. Whether that means helping design connectivity for a new complex, delivering the highest-speed fiber connection possible, or providing managed WiFi that extends throughout your community, our NAMs help clients every step of the way with true white-glove service.
NAMs elevate the experience to new heights for a critical amenity like the internet. To illustrate how, we interviewed Aileen Kramer, manager of the National Account Management team.
1. What differentiates the Quantum Fiber NAM team from other internet providers?
Our people. We have highly experienced fiber NAMs with outstanding communication skills who have forged win-win partnerships with builders and consultants. We have outstanding follow-up strategies for every step of the buying and deploying lifecycle, along with deep knowledge of their accounts’ businesses.
Our account managers work directly with their assigned builders and consultants. They focus entirely on their clients’ needs over the long term. If that client takes on a new development, our specialist is there, with all their acquired knowledge and experience. It’s a completely different kind of relationship than other suppliers have with their customers. Perhaps most importantly, unlike other account managers, our NAMs’ compensation is not tied to sales. That’s not their job description. Instead, building partnerships is their top priority. Over time, this enables our NAMs to be eminently trusted, as our history of transparency and collaboration strengthens these long-term partnerships.
2. What is the scale for a NAM, and what’s the value of working with one?
Clients who manage or construct at least 3,500 new living units a year get assigned a NAM. We also work with national consultants who manage property portfolios of at least 5,000 living units annually. These national builders and consulting firms have unique operational needs and working with a designated NAM streamlines their contractual and implementation efficiencies. The net result is that clients get the right services and save considerable time and money in the process. Our experts understand the connectivity business inside and out and “get” the sense of urgency our clients have when it comes to delivering high-speed internet to their communities.
3. What NAM activities deliver the most value to clients?
Acting as a single point of contact is the biggest one. National account managers guide the intake of new projects, do the job costing, create proposals, and manage the contracting. As liaisons between the client and our internal teams, they are an integral part of the project from start to finish and can “direct the traffic” to ensure they involve the right team members at the right time. This helps boost net operating income (NOI) by minimizing the downtime that can stop projects dead because of poor coordination of contractors, saving time and ultimately a lot of money for developers and builders.
4. What about cybersecurity? Is that a concern that NAMs hear?
People are very concerned that their data remains safe when they access the network, and that they’re protected from malware, hackers, and other online threats. Quantum Fiber, a Lumen Technologies brand, takes cybersecurity very seriously. Our national account managers can educate clients on all the measures we take to protect their investments. We carefully monitor and sniff out threats across our 350,000 route miles of fiber, and our network is designed for global visibility. Our network is an active defense platform that blocks malicious outsiders before they reach your residents and their devices.
5. What are your future plans?
We, the Quantum Fiber Connected Communities team, are an always-ready partner by our clients’ sides offering tailored solutions and property value opportunities. We grow and adapt with our clients through ever-changing economic shifts, technological advances, consumer trends, offering intelligence from our many years of expertise and being a Tier 1 provider. We are dedicated and looking for long-term partnerships and success. And with the rapid pace of technological advancements, we are adaptable. Ultimately, we are ‘committed to next’—meaning we are always optimizing, always looking toward the future for our clients and their residents and homeowners.
Contact the Connected Communities national account team to learn about connectivity solutions tailored to your multifamily community.
Check out these related resources:
- Master planned communities can dream bigger with Fiber Multigigabit capabilities.
- FAQ: Who will support my project?
Contact a Quantum Fiber Connected Communities expert to learn about connectivity solutions tailored to your multifamily community
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