HITT – Telarus Partner Experience and Operational Improvements Update

We are joined by a lot of folks today. We’ve got Julie Peoples, our chief customer officer along with Kayla Contaldi, Galen Hoxie, Justin Joy, Laurie, Laurie Mohler, and Krystian Wente from the Telarus team. We also have Preston Carpenter joining us from AT&T business. Julie, thank you for bringing everyone here today. I’m gonna go ahead and just turn it over to you.

Great. Thank you so much, Cassandra. I appreciate it, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for being here.

One of the things that I really value most about my role as chief customer officer is getting the opportunity to hear directly from all of you. And in our conversations, through your survey feedback, and really the work that you do every day with the teams, you’ve really helped me understand what matters most to you. So a few themes have come through loud and clear. You want us to execute quickly, communicate really proactively, keep you informed when we’re working through an issue, and most importantly, advocate for you when challenges arise.

Ultimately, you want us to be easy to do business with. So your feedback has helped shape our priorities and the improvements that we’ve made over the past year. And you’ve heard me say this before. We’re not only measurably more accurate, but we’re also faster than we’ve ever been.

And we could have not made any of these improvements without a team just honestly full of grit and determination. We have a ten year team of experts who have been really working hard behind the scenes to improve your experience.

And so today’s a little bit unique. I wanted to allow you to hear directly from this team so you can hear how passionate they are about delivering elite service experiences for you, and also so you can hear how they feel more empowered than ever to support your business. We’re also working more dynamically than we ever have been from an operation standpoint, with our suppliers to affect more seamless experiences for you.

And so I’ve also asked Preston from AT&T to join us, just one of our supplier partners, because I wanted you to hear directly from him how we partnered effectively to reduce friction for you. So everyone here has been very eager to share what’s changed, what’s been happening behind the scenes, and how that work is helping us to improve your experience. So I’m eager for you to get to hear directly from the group. So to get us started, please join me in welcoming Justin Joy and Kayla Contaldi from our partner experience team and Christian Wente from our cable team. A lot of these folks are fan favorites, so I’m sure you’ve heard these names before.

So to kick us off, I have a question for each of you. When you think about how we’re supporting partners today versus a year ago, what feels most different to each of you? So, Kayla, we’ll start with you.

Hey, guys. So I think the biggest difference is ownership. A year ago, it sometimes felt like we spent more time figuring out who needed to handle something. Now I feel like there’s more of a focus on just taking ownership and figuring out how to get it resolved.

We’re working more closely with different teams and suppliers instead of passing things along and hoping they get handled. At the end of the day, we want our partners to feel like someone is in their corner and actually working to get you guys answers.

Yeah. I I agree. I think you and the team have really embraced that ownership, Kayla, and are able to partner more dynamically within the groups. And it’s it’s… What it’s meant for our advisers is an improved quality experience, but also less rework because we are getting things done with that improved ownership. So thank you for that.

And, Justin, same question for you. How are we supporting partners differently today versus a year ago?

Hey, Julie. So I think we’ve made some meaningful progress in putting more structure and accountability around our internal processes, particularly from that initial ask through, you know, deal registration and pricing.

There are more checks and balances in place today, especially around communication and making sure requests aren’t just sitting there without visibility.

Behind the scenes, we have teams checking in with suppliers every day, you know, asking for updates, confirming requests were submitted, and when they weren’t, kinda digging in to understand the why.

Shout out to our escalation team as well, as they’re much more involved and can step in when situations need more of, you know, the additional attention or a heavy hand. At the same time, though, we know process improvements only matter if our pro… If our partners actually feel the difference.

That’s really where our focus needs to remain. So credit to, you know, you, Julie, and the team who from day one have set the goal of making sure being indisputably best in class is at the top of our objectives.

That’s what we strive for on a daily basis, not just the past year, but on a continual basis moving forward. We always need to look at being better communicating proactively, taking ownership, and eliminating the need for partners to repeatedly feel like they need to follow-up with us to know what’s going on.

So at the end of the day, you know, the partner experience to me has to be the measure of whether these things are actually working or not, you know, where communication’s proactive, ownership’s clear, and partners have confidence that when they bring something to Telarus, we’re actively moving it forward for them.

Yeah. Absolutely. And and you’ve been a great leader on that front, Justin. So thank you for all of your efforts.

I think we do have an improved communication. For folks who haven’t used our escalation team, I always encourage you to. They’re, they’re a very assertive…

Politely assertive group of folks behind the scenes who do a great job following up to make thing…

Sure things are getting done on your behalf. They work very effectively with a lot of our supplier partners, and they also work to make sure that they are moving…

Yes. Bulldog Central. I love that, Zachary. That’s it. Exactly. Might rename them that. But they’re a group of the most polite pit bulls that you’ve ever seen, and they they get the work done.

But there’s certainly an improved communication. So thank you for that, Justin. I appreciate it. And, Christian, same question for you. How has your ability to support partners today changed versus a year ago?

Great question, Julie. So I think what’s changed the most is how we have adjusted to make human intervention a core of the way that our teams operate. We set up our teams with the right tools and resources to be able to step in earlier and prevent issues from arising rather than being reactive to an issue after it has already caused a problem.

Yeah. That’s great to hear. And that is where I’m hearing from advisers. Your team picks up the call…

The phone. Your team is calling me. And that’s been really key, and I’m really appreciative that your team has embraced that responsibility, Christian, because, again, that’s shown that we have more accurate delivery for our advisers, measurably so, and a lot less rework. And when I’m talking about rework, that means for our advisers that less churn.

We’re not needing to ask questions. They’re not having to come back for us. We’re much more accurate the first time around, and that’s been key to shrinking a lot of our delivery time. So that human intervention has been so so important.

So thank you for embracing it, Christian.

And, Justin, you know, you you have a big responsibility in partner experience, and your and your… You and your team are often just on the front line. And so it’s so key to have great partnerships amongst the firm. And so have you had a recent interaction, for one of our advisers where you thought, you know, that’s exactly the kind of experience we’re trying to create?

That’s a good question. One interaction that I’m particularly proud of, I guess, isn’t necessarily a single transaction, but it’s more feedback we received from a national account, which are some of our larger kind of partners at Telarus, and specifically how the relationship has evolved over the past year or so. So we received feedback that they’ve seen, you know, just an overall improvement in the relationship and the national support experience. And from that, they’ve developed an overall increase in confidence in our support model as a whole.

You know, we created clear escalation paths. We maintain consistent points of contact, and worked across teams whenever the additional support was needed. But what really stuck with me personally was hearing that when members of the sales team had the ability to choose which TSD to send things to, they ultimately found themselves using Telarus more and more often, just because of that level of support that they experienced across the ops teams as a whole. So that ultimately is the measuring stick for me personally.

You know, are we creating an experience where a partner not only gets what they need but has enough confidence in the support behind them that it actually influences where they’re choosing to bring their next opportunity. I don’t know. So when you hear feedback like that, to me, it kinda just helps reinforce that the changes we’re making internally are actually being felt, externally with with you all.

I I totally agree. And and that’s something that we’ve really focused on and we’ll continue to is creating a more bespoke experience. And so getting to spend more time with our advisers, hearing your feedback, whether it’s, sharing information in this chat, emailing me directly, your survey feedback is very important.

We’re using that information to shape a different experience for you and to reduce that friction and ultimately give you time back. So that’s very helpful. Thank you, Justin.

And, Kristen, we talked about it a little bit, but we have really focused on being a lot more proactive and more personal. Can you think of a situation where someone on your team or or someone in the org picked up the phone and it changed the outcome for one of our advisers?

For sure, Julie. There’s actually so many examples I could point to, and, specifically, what they all boil down to is confirming details. Sometimes we’ll get a mismatch between information that comes in in Telarus hub versus something in email communication.

We all know that suppliers don’t operate the same way or need the same information. And if we don’t air… Verify these small details early on, we can accidentally go down the wrong path, creating delays and frustration. By picking up the phone and having that early intervention, we confirm that we get the right details to follow the right process from the very beginning, ensuring the smoothest possible experience.

It… It’s been a game changer for sure. And, you know, I think before…

Once upon a time, we probably were more apt to have a email communication. So maybe we’re missing a suite number or something critical, and we would go back and forth, and it would cause an unnecessary delay. And so for your team to either proactively try to find the suite number, which I know you all do differently this this year versus last year, but also just make a quick call and confirm it, get the information, get it off to the supplier, It’s helped with a lot of the speed and less friction for for all of our advisers. So thank you for that.

And, Kayla, a question for you. Just as a part of the partner experience team, you you tackle a lot and you you juggle a lot. You work with a lot of different departments. But what’s something that happens behind the scenes that our advisers may not realize when they reach out to you for help?

Oh, I love this question, Julie. So I don’t think our advisers realize how many people can be involved in one issue. Sometimes what seems like a simple request can turn into multiple conversations with suppliers, engineers, commissions, and other internal teams. A lot of the work happening behind the scenes, whether it’s following up, tracking things down, or escalating where we need to, our teams got that. We like to keep the noise in the back of the kitchen and it’s been providing a seamless experience for our partners.

Yeah. You all have done a really great job with that. And, well, ultimately, we’ve reduced the number of handoffs internally pretty significantly because we we probably were moving things around too often. We’ve reduced that in a very meaningful way, But there is still work behind the scenes that we do to make sure that we’re taking care of things, particularly working with suppliers, ensuring that we’re not missing something with commissions. So everything’s seamless from the time of order entry to payment. Awesome. Thank you for that, Kayla.

And so as all members who really are kind of frontline with a lot of our advisers, what’s one piece of feedback that you’ve heard over the last year that’s really stuck with you? So, Kayla, we’ll go back to you again.

Yeah. Great. I think it’s when a partner thanks me for staying on top of something or making sure something doesn’t fall through the cracks. That really sticks with me because not every issue is going to have an easy or immediate fix.

But I think partners appreciate knowing that someone’s paying attention, keeping them updated, and continuing to push for answers. To me, that’s what ownership really looks like.

I I agree, and I I hear that actually from, advisers and from suppliers. Our suppliers have actually thanked me that we’re staying on top of things because sometimes if you’re a channel manager and you’re traveling or something, the team is so persistent in making sure that we get answers on behalf of our adviser that you’re prompting our suppliers for answers as well, and that’s paid dividends for us. So thank you, Kaelyn… Kayla. And then, Justin, just an… Same question for you. What’s one piece of feedback you’ve heard from our advisers recently that’s really struck struck… Stuck with you?

A piece of feedback that I’ve received is that sometimes what frustrates our partners most isn’t necessarily taking longer… When something’s taking longer than expected, but it’s just not knowing what’s happening while they’re waiting.

I had a partner who, you know, had a great experience with a supplier on their first deal and then specifically, as luck would have it, wanted to use them again on the next one. But on the next opportunity, you know, communication was poor. There weren’t really timely updates as to when we could expect the quote back, delays in getting, you know, questions from the quote answered. Just wasn’t what they came to expect from that first iteration. And what really stood out to me was kinda how quickly that lack of communication changed the partner’s confidence almost overnight.

You know, they weren’t just questioning the quote anymore, but they were starting to look at other suppliers as well.

That kinda stuck with me because it reinforced, just, you know, how important communication is in the partner I’ve been doing this now fifteen years, I think, in January, and I’ve been asked countless times about my opinion on suppliers in the past. My answer is always the same typically. You know, you’re only as good as your last install. That’s not meant to be derogatory in any way, but what I mean by that is we may not always control how quickly a supplier provides pricing and resolves an issue, but we can influence how well they communicate, you know, how quickly they acknowledge something, and whether the partner knows that they’re truly being advocated for. So I guess sometimes, you know, if you could say a simple update can make the difference between a partner feeling unsupported and feeling like the suppliers are actually in the trenches with them kinda helping push towards, you know, a resolution.

I I totally agree, and, thank you for articulating that so well. I think that’s something that I’ve heard from suppliers that they’re particularly appreciative of. We’ve changed how we deliver feedback to our advisers, and we have a very methodical way where we provide them with, a sort of report card where we let them know how they’re, delivering on quote speed, on deal registration, on commission responses, any trend issues, how many escalations are going to that group of bulldogs in our escalation team, and helping them understand the trends so that we can mitigate and, you know, stop recurrence of those issues. They’ve been really receptive to that.

And, also, they’ve really appreciated that we’re showing them how they compare against their peers. I like it because it’s made them a bit competitive, and they’re all, you know, trying to do the best so that they can reduce the amount of friction that all of you in in the audience are experiencing. So it’s been a great partnership with a lot of those suppliers.

Similarly, I will just say that not only do we give that feedback, but we request it from our suppliers. We ask them how we’re doing. We work to ensure that we are their best, most efficient operational partner. And I ask every supplier to provide us with that information, and all of them have told me that we are their most efficient, but we really dig into that to make sure that we’re not missing any opportunities to ensure that we’re reducing any friction.

We’re being the best partner to advocate for all of you and your needs with those suppliers, and we’re doing it in the most operationally effective way.

Awesome. And so, before we move on, I just wanna ask all of you one additional question.

Can you share just a moment where you really felt proud of how our team showed up for an adviser? Because just talking to a lot of the team, they are noticing that our group is just responding differently. And so I’ll start with with… Christian, please, if you could just tell me, you know, just that moment where you felt really proud of how the team showed up.

For sure. One moment that comes to mind specifically is a recent experience where I was updating some supplier information, and I needed information for the partner specifically. Rather than having to chase down a partner and take time out of their day, I was able to go to their dedicated PEA and coordinate with them. They were able to provide me all the information I needed, and we were able to get all the documentation updated for the supplier. And that’s something I don’t think partners realize is that we try to step up in the background and support them without them ever having to even know we were doing it.

Yeah. I love that example. Thank you. Alright. And, Kayla, how about for you?

I think I felt proud when we had a partner issue that wasn’t an easy fix, but the team kept working at it instead of just accepting the first roadblock or the first no.

We continued reaching out to the suppliers, talk… Talking with other teams, and looking at different options to see what we could do for the partner. I think those situations really show the value of what we do. We may not always have the answers right away, but we’re willing to keep digging, work together, and do what we can to get the partner resolution.

I I totally agree. It’s a team of… I use the words often, grit and determination, but also just tenacity. And I think you all have worked to hold each other to new standards as partners, and that’s reflective in some improved experiences for all all of our advisers. So thank you.

And, Justin, we’ll end with you on this segment, but can you just share that moment where you felt really proud of how the team showed up?

Yeah. We spoke about them multiple times already, but one of the ones that really stands out to me involves our escalation team. We had a Canadian partner whose customer was disputing a fairly significant SMS overage with a UCaaS provider of ours.

You know, the credit request had already gone through the normal channels and was actually denied twice. So it would have been very easy at that point for us to kinda just put our hands up and say, hey. You know, we’ve exhausted the process. It is what it is, but that’s not what our team did.

The escalation team got involved and continued advocating for the partner and the customer, working with, you know, the billing team and pushing to make sure all the different information, any additional circumstances were all kind of taken into consideration.

Ultimately, at the end of the day, the supplier determined that the overage kinda wasn’t on their platform. But because our team continued to work the issue, they agreed to a onetime credit as an exception.

That’s a moment that kinda made me proud, because we weren’t necessarily fighting an obvious billing error, but more so, I think, we’re advocating for, like, a fair outcome. So to me, that’s kind of what showing up for a partner looks like.

You know, sometimes ownership means continuing to ask the questions even after the first answer is no and just making sure the partners know that we’re willing to stand beside them, you know, whenever something gets difficult.

Totally agree. You and your team have done an amazing job with that. And when I think about how we work with our suppliers on behalf of our advisers, you all are truly fierce advocates.

The most polite fierce advocates out there in the channel, I will say, but we are advocating, know, very effectively for those types of items that are more low hanging fruit. So thank you, Justin, and and thank you, Christian and Kayla. I appreciate it. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your grit and determination and for helping us affect a lot of the improvements over the last year.

And so we’ll we’ll move on. And another area where we’ve really focused and made some tremendous progress this year is just strengthening, strategic supplier relationships from an operational point of view.

And these stronger relationships really matter because they create better outcomes for all of you, not simply just for the sake of the relationship itself, but because we know that working this way reduces friction, etcetera. And one person we’ve been working really closely with is Preston Carpenter. Preston is the national channel director for AT and T. Preston, thank you for being here today.

For having me.

Absolutely. And our relationship with AT and T, it goes really well beyond just supporting individual opportunities.

You and I and and the rest of the team, we spent considerable considerable amount of time just working to identify operational challenges and improve the adviser experience.

It’s been pretty effective, but can you share some examples of how that collaboration is driving some meaningful improvements?

Yeah. I think it was this time last year we sat down together, and we looked at some of the efficiencies that were going on between Telarus and AT and T and established that, you know, quote time frames were too long, contract placement was too long, and so we kind of labeled 2026 the year of accountability and efficiency in trying to fix things. We have reduced pricing down to four hours turnarounds unless they’re ICP that is involved in that. Order placement has gone from a week to twenty four hours. We we continue to look for ways to automate and implement that. And the way that Telarus is doing that moving into 2027 is they are the only TSD that will be, pioneering the launch of AT and T inside Cable Finder where you can quote and place orders in Cable Finder by the end of this year. So you’re pioneering that project, which I which I think speaks volumes about what you’re trying to do.

Yeah. Thank you for that, Preston. We do try to stay very effect, very involved in a lot of pioneering, a lot of beta testing, etcetera, behind the scenes initially without impact to our advisers because we do want to be that voice to help shape delivery of these new tools. And, we’ve been more and more involved in that over the past eighteen months or so, and we’re finding that it’s very beneficial to the end adviser experience. So thank you for allowing us to participate and for helping us find a lot of those efficiencies and opportunities.

And when an when an adviser brings an AT and T opportunity to Telarus, what, from your point of view, should give them confidence that they’re working with the right team?

So Telarus offers a full suite of AT and T support and resources, including both the wireline COE and wireless COE expertise.

With this comprehensive knowledge base, I believe that they’re able to handle a partner’s problems from start to finish as to where some of the other TSDs really only do pricing and placing as to where you really offer the full suite. And I think that that is a big difference for Telarus is the fact that you do offer that back end support after the sale is done. It’s a differentiator.

Okay. Awesome. Thank you for sharing that. And and so to close, if you were an adviser pursuing an AT and T opportunity today, what matters most, to you about having Telarus in your corner?

So I have a very unique perspective of this because I get to see all of the intertanglement between the TSDs. And the one thing that I can say is that if I was to pick a TSD, I would look at Telarus, and I would say trust.

I trust in the fact that… And I see it on a day to day basis that you’re always working for the advisers to get what they deserve or to get what they… What protects them to build a long term business. So to me, just working with somebody that I feel has my best interest at heart, that trust factor is a major value to me.

Awesome. Listen. We we appreciate that and everything that you’ve done. You’ve been a terrific advocate for Telarus and our advisers. We appreciate the partnership. So thank you, Preston.

Thank you for having me.

Absolutely. Alright, folks. So we’ve talked about stronger supplier relationships. We’ve talked about some of the front of the house team, but another important period…

Part of your experience is just making sure that you’re paid what you’ve earned. And there’s a lot of work behind every commission payment, checking the details, looking into discrepancies, and following up with suppliers when something doesn’t look right. And our goal is always to do as much of that work proactively as possible, behind the scenes so you can spend time chasing less answers and really focusing on growing your business. And we’ve invested a lot in this area, and I’ve been really eager to hear directly from some of the experts so you can help understand a bit more about how robustly we are working behind the scenes to protect and pay your revenue.

So please join me in welcoming Lori Mueller, director of partner compensation, and Galen Hoxie, director of commission success from our commissions team.

And they’re going to give us just a little bit of a closer look on what happens behind the scenes and how our team is working very robustly to identify and resolve any missing commissions out there.

And so I’ll start out with this. Most advisers see the final commission payment, but they don’t see everything that happens behind the scenes before the payment reaches them. And, Lori, that’s where your team is very actively involved. Can you help us understand just what happens between the moment when a supplier payment arrives and ultimately when an adviser gets paid?

Yeah. Absolutely. So at the beginning of every single month, we start receiving those statements and payments from, multiple statements and payments from each of our 350 ish active paying suppliers that we that we have right now. My team, the processing team, we begin to review, reconcile, validate all the information to ensure that commissions are tagged accurately and to the correct orders.

So as those payments and statements come in, any that are received by the twentieth of the current month, we try and always get into that commission cycle. If there’s any issues, it might push it back. But, also, anything that received after the twentieth usually, gets moved into the next commission cycle. So throughout the month, we work closely with suppliers to ensure the information that they have sent us is complete, accurate, and then we’re also resolving any discrepancies throughout the month that come up. All of this work happens behind the scenes to ensure that commissions are processed correctly and ready for payout by the twenty eighth of every month.

Super helpful. And and I will just say that your team does a great job when you’re when you’re talking about everything that you received on the twentieth. Everything in good order where there isn’t questions, your team will ensure, and they stay, and they work into the late night. They do whatever it takes to make sure that anything that we’ve received that can be paid is, and then those payments happen on the twenty eighth. So super helpful, Laurie. Now when a commission comes in, but there’s no Telarus hub order to match it to, that’s sometimes where we get some of that confusion or some of those delays. So can you just tell me a little bit of what happens behind the scenes there?

Yeah. So when new commissions come in and we can’t locate an order to attach the commissions to, the team immediately begins researching with the suppliers, you advisers, any other available resources to get those commissions assigned.

This is one of the biggest reasons it’s so important to enter your orders or send your order information to Telarus as soon as possible. It helps prevent any delays and allows commissions to be processed more smoothly and timely.

We know how important commission payments are, and we’re committed to seeing every commission pay. So in fact, after all of our research efforts throughout the month, less than 1% of imported commissions actually remain unassigned.

So we continue working monthly with with the suppliers and you all, including any internal teams for at least consistently for the next six months to ensure commissions are properly assigned and paid.

If an order is identified after that time, the commissions are still assigned and paid to the appropriate adviser as soon as those orders are created or becomes available. At the end of the day, we’re focused on making compensation easier to understand and ensuring you feel confident in how your commissions are processed and paid.

Yeah. That’s super helpful. I know that’s been a point of confusion sometimes for our advisers, and so I just wanna mention that again. Less than 1% are unassigned. And even with that, your team continues to really focus on on finding those funds. It’s work that continues over time. Thank you.

Alright. We are… We’re getting down a little bit on time, but let me ask Galen to jump in real quick. And just one thing… Something that impresses me a lot, Galen, is just how proactive our commissions teams are.

How… Can you give me a high level view of how your team spots commission issues, identifies patterns across counts, and really helps for co… For revenue that may otherwise be missed?

Yes. Absolutely. So I’m I’m very excited about the direction the team has been headed in. We’ve we’ve been utilizing data in the system to identify trends so that we can resolve broader issues as they’re as they’re surfaced.

That data is a product of everything that our processing team, our revenue assurance team, or our…

And our inquiries team are are performing each month. And so recently, just two high level experiences that we’ve had, that data has surfaced, some errors with supplier rates on, with a specific supplier where we may have one or two commission inquiries. But through the data and all of the resources that we had on hand, we were able to bring a larger discussion to the supplier and correct the entire rate structure for all of the items. This resolved the issue for all technology advisers whether they knew they had an issue or not.

Another way that we use the data is when we start to see cases that surface disproportionately for one month over another month for a specific supplier, we really start to analyze those questions to see what question…

What questions need answering, and we can drive conversations with the supplier if there’s an actual issue that is being surfaced through that high influx of commission cases associated to them.

So these are areas that we’re using data. We’re looking for those trends to make a better experience, and our hope is that we’re looking for those answers to questions that the technology advisers don’t yet know to ask.

Awesome. Thank you, Galen. And, yes, I think we’ll become more and more dynamic and, find additional opportunities and commissions to continue to reduce the number of reasons that you will all even have to send in an inquiry.

But it is time for our segment to wrap up. I just wanna thank you all for joining us today, especially those who were kind enough from the home office to share perspectives. I hope you all have heard through today’s conversation. We’re paying attention. We’re listening to your feedback. We’re learning from our experiences, and we’re making changes on that. So the feedback that you’re giving us is really helping us shape how we work with suppliers, how we’re handling the details behind the scenes.

We’ll continue to focus on being accurate, efficient, and keeping things moving for you… Forward for you. And and truthfully, we’re just getting started. We have some exciting things that we’re planning to do in 2027. And so just as we close, you’re seeing some comments, just a few of many that many of you shared this last quarter in our adviser survey just in regards to how we’re supporting you. So thank you for your partnership and your feedback, and I hope you all have a great day. Thank you, Cassandra.

Oh, thank you. Big thank you to Julie and the entire team for walking us through those improvements. We appreciate the work that you’re doing and, of course, making it easier for our advisers to do business. So thanks for being on the call.