This leader is more than a cable guy: Time Warner Cable division president Terence Rafferty oversees TV, Internet and phone services

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A sweet corner office and a sweeping view of the Rochester skyline were supposed to be Terence Rafferty’s when he moved to Rochester two years ago.
The division president’s office is at the end of Mahogany Row, the term employees use to describe Time Warner Cable’s richly decorated executive corridor, whose large double doors separate management from operations.
Approximately half of the employees at Time Warner’s Rochester division are at its headquarters on Mount Hope Avenue. The number of employees has grown in recent years by roughly 70 annually to slightly more than 1,000.
Rafferty’s appointed office is largely empty, except for the stacks of half-filled boxes and stray computer equipment. There is no sign of him in there.
His real office is half the size of the original and plopped at the center of the company’s buzzing call center, far from Mahogany Row.
Rafferty, 42, planned the move shortly after leaving Time Warner Cable New York City to come to Rochester in January 2006. But nobody believed he would do it, says Lara Pritchard, public affairs and production manager at Time Warner.
Rafferty carved his office out of the call center, which teems with hundreds of employees whose voices rise and fall throughout the day. Clearly practiced, the volume of his own voice rises and falls accordingly.
“When he says open-door policy, he means it,” Pritchard laughs. “I compare it to a deli counter. Take a number. People really do feel free to come in.”
Other members of Rafferty’s management team have followed his lead and left Mahogany Row to move back into their departments. Rafferty says he likes to have managers on the floor to hear about the issues they might not otherwise hear and, just as importantly, break down the perceived barriers between departments.
The executive team consists of approximately seven vice presidents. Rafferty says he has replaced some members.
“I would say we’re rebuilding our senior leadership,” Rafferty says. “There have been some changes there. I think we’ve done a lot more team building from a managerial perspective, so that philosophically we’re all in the same place.
Employment levels at the Rochester division have been quietly growing, he says. How much they will grow in the future is uncertain.
“It will vary on numerous business factors, so I do not feel comfortable in providing a go-forward number, other than to say that we are growing, which leads to expansion in staff,” he says.
Most of the new hires join customer service, since the Rochester division responds to more than 90 percent of local customer calls. The company did not release the number of its local customers.
By providing phone, cable and Internet services, the company’s offering is so expansive it can serve as the customer’s sole connection to the outside world. As an imperative, customer service needs to be fast, easy and local, Rafferty explains.
The flat black cable box next to the television is a computer, he says. The converter box communicates constantly with outside sources but, unlike personal computers, does not get rebooted regularly. The demands on that dusty box are intense; expectations are high.
Rafferty’s job is to analyze and tighten the processes behind the box to keep it the most overlooked piece in the living room.
“As a company, we’re doing so many different things from a technology standpoint in terms of new products and features. We always seem to be doing something,” Rafferty says. “I would say there is not a night that goes by that we’re not scheduling some sort of work on some part of our system or equipment. It’s a constant effort of communicating that across various departments and planning the logistics of it and fallback plans if it’s not successful.”
Time Warner Rochester is the leading local provider of video and high-speed data services, Rafferty says. In its residential and commercial phone service, the company has just begun to build a niche, where Rafferty says there remains market share for Time Warner to win.
“I can’t give percentages, otherwise I would give away what our market penetration is, but I also think there is still a fair amount of opportunity for video and high-speed data market share as well,” he adds.
The Rochester division, Rafferty says, is working hard to become an active part of the community here. One way is through new services, some of which look to help individuals here assert their own presence in the community-and introduce a whole new way of using television.
The concept is called uTV, which invites locals to submit their homemade videos to air on Rochester on demand Channel 111. People can post videos they have produced-interviews with locals or coverage of local events-or just their home videos for family to watch.
The company is asking for videos under 10 minutes and plans to start marketing the new feature shortly.
Pritchard, who heads the Channel 111 team, says the feature is free and available 24 hours a day. A team at Time Warner will review the content and post it for viewers.
She has been in talks with local schools and colleges with media departments to encourage students to submit their videos.
“This is a way for them to really embrace the technology, wrap their arms around it with us,” she says. “We’ve been dabbling with our school partners to see how they can integrate it in their curriculum.”
Already, Time Warner is offering Sports Net, based on the same principle. Launched one year ago, the feature telecasts local sports: professional, college and high school.
Available on Time Warner Channel 26, the concept is catching on, Rafferty says.
“It’s still a young channel, so it will take some time for people, from an awareness standpoint, but I will tell you in the first year the feedback and awareness has been unbelievably positive,” he says.
“The Aquinas game that we covered just after Thanksgiving is a near-term example of tremendous feedback. The viewership was incredible,” Rafferty adds. “It’s nice to be able to provide that to the community.”

Customer focus

As division president, Rafferty spends most of his time thinking about customers. The best way to add new ones, he says, is to maintain good relationships with the existing subscriber base.
The company has numerous competitors, Rafferty says. “The most significant are Direct TV, Dish Network, Frontier and Verizon. There are others, but they are smaller in scale.”
“I always love it when people say, ‘Oh, you’re a monopoly,'” Rafferty laughs. “We’re not a monopoly. There’s plenty of competition. It’s a very competitive marketplace here. You have to provide exceptional service.”
To that end he has restructured training programs to aid lesson retention. He does that by breaking up long six- or seven-week training sessions with hands-on work.
He also has a new training program planned for next year and meant to reduce customer wait time. Employees will be given lessons in empowerment to redefine the decision-making hierarchy of call center staffers.
“The one thing we want to make sure is that they walk away knowing they don’t always have to run it up the chain of command,” Rafferty says. “You can’t let someone walk over you either. It’s looking at a customer’s issue, his history-listening before saying anything-and then using good judgment to solve their problem. I think the majority of the time our people are doing that. But there is a small portion who are not.”
Overall, there remains room for improvement, Rafferty says. But already company surveys and performance metrics point to progress.
Approximately 75 percent of the company’s service calls are answered within 30 seconds, which Rafferty says increased substantially from figures predating his arrival.
“(The company) ranks us every single month, highest to lowest. Rochester has made dramatic improvement relative to the rest of the company,” Rafferty says. “I would say last month, we were No. 1 (out of 30 divisions) in both customer service and field service in the month of September, which was a huge accomplishment from where we were.”
Customer service is Rafferty’s own niche, which he has been developing over the latter half of his career at Time Warner.
He joined the firm in 1994 as controller of the New York City division after having worked with Time Warner as a client during his six-year career at Ernst & Young LLP.
When he left Time Warner New York City in 2006, he was senior vice president and general manager for a staff totaling some 3,500.
His position there had evolved to group president of finance, first for the division and then for the entire Northeast. Over the course of that evolution, Rafferty’s responsibilities extended to customer care, signal security and quality control in the field.

Coming to Rochester

For his job, he traveled frequently to Rochester. He always was fond of the area, he says. But he never considered moving here until his predecessor, Jeffrey Hirsch, called. He was leaving Rochester for a Time Warner position in Los Angeles when he proposed the position to Rafferty.
“I said, ‘I’ll call you back in five minutes after my wife finishes screaming at me,'” Rafferty recalls. “I called her, and I held the phone a little away from my ear, and she surprised me. She said, ‘Let me think about it.'”
With their families downstate, he was convinced she would say no.
But the quality of local schools and the low house prices won her over.
Paul Scott, president of Mary Cariola Children’s Center Inc., remembers Rafferty calling him before deciding to accept the job offer.
Rafferty was researching services for one his sons, who has autism, Scott says. Rafferty and his wife, Jeannie, have two sons, Colin, 12, and James, 10.
During his conversation with Scott, Rafferty took the opportunity to ask about volunteer opportunities. Rafferty has served on the board there for two years now.
“It’s very unusual. He came looking for us. Usually, I have to go running after people to get them involved,” Scott said.
Rafferty’s wife and other Time Warner employees have gotten involved with the organization as well, Scott says. Rafferty is high energy-a doer, with definite opinions.
“I can’t think of anybody who’s come on in recent years who came in with as much enthusiasm and good ideas. He really comes across with everything that he says he’d like to do, and everything you ask him,” Scott says.
“I know we’re not alone in being the recipients of his charitable endeavors and the time he gives to the community,” Scott adds. “I don’t know how he makes the time. I know he’s really effective at work as a mover and a shaker over there.”
Dawn Borgeest, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for the United Way of Greater Rochester Inc., worked closely with Rafferty on a new initiative geared to college students who volunteer.
Through its Web site, Campus Connection connects students with local volunteer opportunities and donates money to cover out-of-pocket expenses associated with volunteer projects. The program is sponsored by Time Warner.
Borgeest began working with Rafferty shortly after he joined the organization’s board nine months ago. She was surprised how receptive Rafferty was to the project, she says.
“He’s really passionate about the role his company can play in the community,” she said.
Rafferty splits his free time across several local boards, Scott notes. Rafferty toured several local organizations before deciding which ones to join.
He admits his open-door policy means he often does not have time to accomplish all his work during the day. His office lights are often on late into the night.
On the weekends, Rafferty says, he likes to golf. He and Jeannie have plans to take advantage of the wealth of outdoor activities available upstate. They want to start boating, Rafferty says.
For now, his plate is full as he focuses on empowering employees to use their own judgment to take care of customers. His job, he says, is to take care of customers by taking care of his employees.
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12/14/07 (C) Rochester Business Journal