Customer or client referral business is about as good as it gets for consumer products companies. But it takes a lot to get to that point. Customers have to trust the product or service, they have to trust the people they deal with around that product or service and they need to see a track record of feeling good about their experience before most people will think about signing on to endorse something to a friend.
Perhaps Nomad Internet, the largest wireless high-speed internet provider in the United States, could write a book on the subject, given that a good chunk of their growth, and the strategy behind it, is dependent upon referral services.
Not the mention that the company’s new chief executive officer, Robyn Weber, was a client before she was the CEO.
Robyn Weber
The more intriguing element of those points mentioned above might just be Weber. How often does a former client of a product or service feel so strongly about it that they end up ascending the corporate ladder to lead it? Not often.
But that is what Robyn Weber did. Weber lives in a rural area, one that escaped the infrastructure expansion that more urban areas saw over the past 20 years as cabling and power capabilities brought high-speed internet to more populated geographies.
She was having issues getting a solid connection in her area and came across Nomad Internet.
“I was familiar with cellular internet from a previous profession, and then began using Nomad’s services,” Weber said. “After about a month as a customer, I decided I wanted to work there. I was hired as a part-time customer service representative and then worked my way up to customer service manager. Then I started dabbling in operations, and now I am here.”
As referenced earlier, most people take a degree of care before recommending something to a friend or family member, not wanting the recommendation to be a disappointment. And Weber is no different, taking a hands on approach to reviewing product and customer service matters in a way that she wanted them handled when she was a customer.
“I have been heavily involved since the beginning in product testing,” Weber said. Especially since we went to the fixed wireless access and the C-Band launch. I spent countless hours testing modems in situations where our customers would use them and am super proud of what we came up with.”
Imagine Tim Cook personally working through a new iPhone release to work out kinks or Jamie Dimon reviewing individual collateralized debt obligations from his bankers. It won’t happen.
But that is one of the reasons Nomad Internet is unique. While no longer a Mom-and-Pop shop, under Weber’s direction the company has maintained its high-end customer service and dedication to quality even as it has scaled.
Part of that is realized through the ethos of Weber and the roots of the company, but another element that is often present in business decisions also looms large: Their customer base demands it.
“Folks in rural areas, they’re very big on personal relationships and loyalty,” Weber said. “You want to find somebody at a company that you like and that you trust. And you call in, you always get that same person or that same team of people. They all know exactly what’s happening if you call in when you have an issue and then they send all their friends over.”
That isn’t to say that customers in more urban areas are less discerning (they are not), but a lack of options for high-speed internet in rural areas and the smaller population means that companies cannot disappear into a sea of options. They are exposed, both in positive and negative lights, and thus need to react to that exposure.
And that reaction can have large implications. Weber told the story of another Nomad Internet employee who was very happy with the service (she was, like Weber, also a customer) and ended up evangelizing it to those around her.
“Her name is Tiffany, and she has been here about as long as I have,” Weber said. “Before coming on board, she essentially ‘sold’ Nomad Internet to her whole neighborhood. We have a free Internet for life program where if you refer five people, you get internet for life as long as you keep five active referrals.”
While that is great for Tiffany, she also makes sure that her recommendation is paying off for her neighbors.
“She still makes house calls to fix the internet for her neighbors,” Weber said.
Whether by choice or necessity, the hands-on, customer-first approach Weber and Nomad Internet take to market is clearly paying dividends.
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