“Communication breakdown, it’s always the same” —Led Zeppelin
The Clifford clan recently spent a couple of weeks at the beach. I’m writing this on the drive home right now, my wife navigating and battling with our fellow travelers as we make our way back to cold reality a few hours away. The windshield time is giving me time to reflect, and I wanted to relate a funny and frustrating story in the hopes we can all learn a little something from it.
One of the first things we looked for during our check-in was the Wi-Fi password; some of us more than others (did I mention I have two teenagers and a preteen?). The SSID and password were placarded on the fridge and other common-sense spots around the house. The only issue was the range of the Wi-Fi router only covered the main part of the house. This place needed some additional access points. I poked around a bit and noticed Ubiquiti WAPs wall mounted around the entire property. This made no sense. Here we were, suffering lame signal and there was a decent Wi-Fi network sitting there in plain sight. I checked the network list and, sure enough, there was another SSID that looked like it had been custom-named to match the house (“the work of an integrator,” I thought to myself).
After fruitlessly searching around the house for some documentation referencing this better network, I texted the property management company. I suspected they wouldn’t understand the nuance of what I was asking. The texting call center passed my request along to the local office. I resigned myself to watching my query die a slow death.
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The next morning, I decided to drop in personally at the local rental office to plead my case. I was greeted by a smug young dude who made me aware of all the things they couldn’t do to help me. He finally offered to introduce me to the property manager who handled our house. After a few minutes she emerged and let me know the second network in the house was the private domain of the property owner since he worked for a large technology company. I tried my best to explain to her that the owner could have both his own network and a separate guest network, thereby letting everyone enjoy the wall-to-wall Wi-Fi. She thanked me for stopping by and said she would share my feedback with the owner. Once again, I didn’t hold my breath. I’m sure property management is a grind and they’re dealing with a constant stream of requests and suggestions regarding how to improve the property (my mother-in-law had plenty of these during our trip).
To my surprise I received a text later that day from the property manager saying that she’d spoken to the owner and there wasn’t a second system; maybe I was standing too close to the TV (which apparently causes Wi-Fi interference)? I politely pushed back, offering up the existence of the second SSID as proof that there was indeed a second network. After a day or so she relented and said the owner’s IT vendor would call me. I expressed my gratitude and waited for his call.
I had been nursing a theory that this second network had been ordered by the owner to deal with guest complaints about lousy Wi-Fi. The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on me, and I decided to stay in the fight — driven by a mix of curiosity, ego, and karmic justice. Sure enough, my phone rang a day or so later and I found myself talking to a fellow integrator. I ran my theory by him, and he confirmed what I’d suspected. “You mean they are still using the old Xfinity network?” he said. “You can’t make this stuff up,” I replied back. He told me that after the installation he’d given the credentials to the owner’s son, assuming they would make their way into the rental documentation. We both had a laugh and he texted me the password. I pasted it into my phone and “bam!,” I moved from 99 to 98 problems.
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I took the opportunity to chat up my new integrator friend. As it turns out he doesn’t like doing residential work and would love to refer opportunities to a CI business he doesn’t feel threatened by. I offered to look him up the next time I’m down at the beach. What lies down that rabbit hole? We shall see.
In the meantime, I communicated the proper SSID and password information to the property manager. She was very appreciative of my assistance, by now realizing that I hadn’t been wasting her time. I followed that up with a few suggestions, including the creation of Wi-Fi login QR codes that could be stuck around the house and the offer for Livewire to help them with any other issues down the road (or any of their other properties).
Why did I decide to relate this story to you, dear reader? If you’re an integrator, hopefully you’re smiling. This scenario plays out over and over every day across our great land. Why? One word: communication (or lack thereof). There are so many opportunities for learning here.
What could go differently next time? Should the next owner loop the property management company into the work being performed? Should the integrator have a better paper trail? There’s no guarantee that any one change would result in a changed outcome, but it’s certainly a good comedy of errors worth mining and learning from.
What are you doing inside your company to prevent dark comedies like this one from playing out?
Stay frosty, and see you in the field.
