Storyconnect The Podcast

The era of selling broadband based on speed alone is over. At Calix ConneXions 2024, industry leaders focused on subscriber experience and community connection to drive rural broadband success. From outdoor Wi-Fi innovations to strategic planning shifts, here’s what’s next for rural broadband providers.

Clark Public Utilities has been surveying its customers since the 1960s. How have the valuable insights gleaned from surveys helped the utility successfully serve its community? Customer Experience Manager Cameron Daline tells us on this podcast episode.

Hear how Power Eastern Oregon—an economic development summit bringing together regional legislators, nationally known speakers and rural Oregon's business community—has become a way for Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative to strengthen its community's story.

Hydromania may sound like a music festival in the Gorge, but it’s a free summer camp for fourth and fifth graders from Umatilla Electric Cooperative. Weston Putman shares the camp's origin story and how it is building the next generation of co-op members.

How much of the publicly-shared interactions with utility staff is trolling versus investigative reporting by concerned citizens who have a right to hold the utility accountable? We're talking to Ryan Hall about “Getting Out of the Gotcha Moments” at NWPPA’s Northwest Innovations Conference in Idaho.

How do you boost your take rates and cut churn after you've built broadband? OEC Fiber’s Erin McKnight shares her storytelling tactics, including a three-tiered marketing approach by zone and her subscriber stories series. Tune in for fresh ideas!

It's difficult to have happy customers if you have unhappy staff. Dr. Trish Holliday and Brent Baker of NES talk about the connection between the two and how to improve both.

We’re gearing up to celebrate the United Nations’ International Year of Cooperatives in 2025, so we’ve invited co-op cheerleader Adam Schwartz onto the podcast to help Utility Pioneers brainstorm how to tell our co-op stories in fresh, engaging ways.

Mountain Rural Telephone wanted to educate members about Wi-Fi, broadband and the capabilities they provide. So working with local businesses, they built a campaign around World Wi-Fi Day in June.

Dig into the psychology of marketing with Pioneer’s Sarah Lancaster to learn how using archetypes can help your marketing create more meaningful connections with your target audiences.

EWEB is one year into trying out Nextdoor as a communication tool, and they are seeing good results due to the platform’s focus on geographic filters.

With about two months to go before the Oct. 10 broadband label deadline, Dounia Chikhoune, from JSI, shares insights about on what she's seen big and small ISPs do to be ready.

SkyLine/SkyBest doesn't let the fact that they are a member-owned telephone cooperative in the North Carolina mountains stop them from fighting hard against big competitors in the search rankings. Edward Hinson shares examples of what they’ve done to move up in the rankings and why it’s worth it.

Employees at Columbia REA are allowed to bring their pets to work. CEO Scott Peters says it’s a beneficial policy as long as you “paws” to think about the guidelines first.

Storytelling is a HUGE component of broadband marketing. But how can you make a technical subject engaging and memorable for your community? Kelly Burns, marketing manager at CTC in Minnesota, tells us how Bigfoot and its own Gig A. Byte monster keep people interested and engaged in broadband services.

Speed is so 2020. To connect with today’s broadband subscribers you need data-driven storytelling, persona-based service tiers and the know-how to read digital body language. Calix's Naylor Gray shares insights from the 2024 update of Calix’s e-book, “The Definitive Guide to Subscriber Experience.”Link to the e-book: www.calix.com/forms/marketer/download/guide-to-subscriber-experience.html 

Flint Energies has started a matching grant program with artists and community groups to paint murals in towns around its service territory. In addition to adding beauty to the community, they’re seeing positive economic impacts.

Hear how a Kansas utility delivered 159 TONS of food with a branded van, school competitions and coordinated, consistent messaging over the last 10 years.

Want more people to apply for lineworker jobs? Show your story to high school seniors! Learn how Community Electric Co-op’s “Day in the Life of a Lineworker” student experience raises awareness of utility career paths and lineworker scholarships every spring.

Starting in kindergarten, the team at Oklahoma Electric Co-op offers educational programs to students throughout their school experience. Hear how the programs developed and why engaging children became a strategic focus for the utility over the last decade.