A startup called Veego is pitching an end user experience service to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to help providers offer better tech support to customers. The service includes two main components:
- A software agent that runs on the user’s home router and monitors performance of applications and devices connected to the home network
- A SaaS-based dashboard for ISPs that gathers and displays user performance data and analytics for customer support teams
Veego says its app can collect metrics including device performance, application use and performance, Wi-Fi signal strength, and more. By gathering such information and sharing with customer service teams, the goal is to help ISPs more quickly diagnose and solve customer complaints.
For example, a bad Internet experience might be due to weak Wi-Fi signal between a laptop and a wireless router, not the provider’s service. By collecting, analyzing, and displaying such metrics to customer service teams, ISPs can better understand customer problems and provide helpful advice to solve them. In the above case, the solution might be to move the laptop or the wireless device to a better spot, or use a less-crowded channel, or perhaps invest in a mesh or repeater to boost a signal.
Veego also offers a self-care app for consumers that runs on smartphones. The app collects the performance metrics from the agent on the router. This app lets users monitor their home networks, and can offer easy-to-understand information to help fix problems. ISPs can offer this app to their own customers, or deliver their own branded app while accessing remediation information from Veego via API.
By offering a self-care app that lets customers diagnose and solve problems on their own, ISPs can reduce the number of support calls they have to handle. “The goal is to prevent phone calls when Veego can fix the problem, or shorten phone calls because Veego can help,” says Amir Kotler, Veego’s CEO and co-founder.
He says a common fix for customer complaints is to just provide a new router, but many of these replacements aren’t necessary. By having a better view into customer problems, along with options for remediation, ISPs can reduce the number of truck rolls and router replacements, save money, and improve customer satisfaction.
Companies such as AppNeta, Catchpoint, and Palo Alto Networks offer similar solutions for monitoring the experience of remote workers. As with Veego, they rely on agents to gather metrics on devices, Wi-Fi, and network connections. The difference is that Veego targets ISPs, while AppNeta, Catchpoint, and others are selling to enterprise IT departments.
The Hurdles
With more and more households relying on an Internet connection for work and play, I think Veego has an interesting and potentially feasible idea. However, there are challenges.
First is the agent that has to run on the home user’s router. Veego has to convince ISPs to let it run its software on their boxes. And that software can not degrade the router’s primary function of shuttling packets back and forth as quickly as possible.
Veego says its router agent takes up about 1.5 percent of a typical router’s CPU and memory, but ISPs aren’t going to take Veego’s word for it. ISPs will want to run a battery of tests, and then figure out how to deploy the software to customers, manage it, update it, and so on–an operational burden ISPs may not want to take on.
Second, Veego’s business model assumes that ISPs are concerned about customer service. That may not be a good assumption, at least in the United States. The lack of serious broadband competition in the US limits customer choice and de-incentivizes providers from competing on service. Surprising and delighting customers with a great experience is not in an American ISP’s DNA.
If Veego is going to succeed, it has to make a business case to ISPs that there’s a compelling differential between the cost of the Veego service and any savings the ISPs will get from reducing truck rolls and replacing fewer routers.
