Did I lock the front door? Did I turn off the lights? Is my child home from school? Is the dog staying out of trouble? These are some of the common thoughts people have that cause stress whether they’re at work, on vacation, or even running a quick errand. Shuvankar Roy is on a mission to bring peace of mind to individuals who ask these questions—and more. As vice president, Xfinity Home, the total home security and home automation solution from Comcast, Roy is responsible for developing and leading the operations strategy to continually improve installation and customer experiences, which have helped to grow this cutting-edge business.
Xfinity Home allows users to manage and control many connected devices in their home such as door locks, thermostats, garage doors, cameras, and lights from its easy-to-use mobile app. Users with cameras can see in real-time what’s happening outside their front door or inside the family room, as well as set alerts to receive texts and/or emails when there is activity or motion.
In addition to having remote access to control these devices, the Xfinity Home platform also allows users to create rules or a string of customized commands to automate daily lifestyle scenes. For instance, with one tap, users can customize and schedule the “good morning” scene to automatically turn on all bedroom lights, turn off in-door cameras while everyone is getting ready, and disarm the security system. Xfinity customers can also manage their home security system and control connected devices on the touchscreen, online portal, or via the X1 voice remote.
Roy and his team work diligently to ensure that Comcast’s home security solution is different from similar products in the market. Although there are many home security services available to consumers, Roy believes the Xfinity Home solution disrupted the market when it premiered in 2011 as it offers consumers a unique, connected experience at a better value.
Xfinity Home combines the best of home security and home automation into one simple experience so that customers can look after their home, family, and pets from anywhere, any time. The service includes 24/7 security with professional monitoring and battery and cellular backup in the event of a power outage.
“If you think about it, for the past thirty years, buying a home security system involved a bunch of inconveniences,” Roy says. “You had to talk to somebody on the phone, then you had to schedule an appointment in your home for a consultation, then you had a to schedule another appointment for someone to come and install it. That long process interrupts your life several times.”
Instead of taking these multiple steps, Comcast’s customers who are already talking to a customer service representative about TV or internet service can also discuss purchasing home security services—a one-stop shop to buy essential home services and receive technical assistance as needed.
To further decrease the installation time and improve customer satisfaction, Roy and his team embarked on months of research and held several focus groups among Comcast’s more than one million Xfinity Home customers. This candid feedback found that customers were overwhelmed with the many features and weren’t sure how to take full advantage of their service.
Due to these new insights, Roy and his team made several innovative changes to improve Xfinity Home customers’ experience. They began implementing new training for Comcast’s technicians to teach customers how to use their home security and home automation system. After the installation, technicians take their time to show customers how they can use it daily to enhance their lifestyle. They also began pushing alerts to customers’ Xfinity Home mobile app when there was an issue, such as the need to change the battery in a sensor and make it easy for customers to purchase batteries right from the app.
Roy and his team also added live chat capabilities in the Xfinity Home mobile app allowing customers to connect with a specialist to ask questions about their service or get tech support. Additionally, he and his team added short videos that teach customers how to use many features such as remotely arming/disarming their home security system; adding a smart home device to the Xfinity platform; or setting up rules or a string of automated tasks. They also developed self-help articles for customers to review at their leisure to better understand all the innovative features and how to make their home do some of the mundane tasks such as turning on lights, locking doors, adjusting the temperature when no one is home, and more.
“We want our customers to be able to easily manage, monitor, and control their smart home from anywhere and make their home work for them,” Roy explains. “That only happens when they know how to use the many automation features we offer and how to use their Xfinity service.”
Comcast is one of the leaders to help consumers turn their home into a smart home, and the essence of having a smart home is having one platform to easily control many connected home devices.
“To a parent, we’re offering peace of mind and the comfort of getting an alert when their children are home after school,” Roy says. “If a customer has an elderly parent or a pet at home, then we are offering the ease to check in on them. We’re providing a level of security that makes our customers feel like they’re at home, even when they’re not.”
“We’re providing a level of security that makes our customers feel like they’re at home, even when they’re not.”
Roy and his team continue to focus on customers’ satisfaction with the service and finding ways to improve the Xfinity Home platform. To ensure his team is staying connected to this mission, Roy orchestrates quarterly evaluations with his team to discuss whether their current strategy and the smart home offerings are still serving customers. And if it isn’t, Roy is ready to course correct and make changes so that customers continue to receive high-quality customer service and the best experiences with the service
According to Roy, Comcast is focused on driving mass market adoption of the smart home and ensuring their customers are able to seamlessly use the many available connected smart home capabilities offered with their Xfinity services. Roy and his team will keep listening to customers’ feedback and innovating customer experience to help make it easy for consumers to turn their home into a smart home.