Here is the next episode from our series of 1 Year of Zzoomm interviews. We speak to busy working mum Anna King and hear about her struggles with getting online over the last year.
Anna’s family life is certainly hectic, with both her and her husband working long hours while looking after their new toddler Poppy. Her husband, a crucial key worker due to his business operating within the agricultural world, needed to continue to go into his work place throughout this last year, while Anna was able to work from home as much as she could.
Which, unfortunately, was the start of the struggles.
Life before Zzoomm
“We were with Sky; it was horrendous.”
Before joining Zzoomm in the summer of 2020, life, in Anna’s own words with her previous broadband supplier, Sky, was horrendous.
With frequent drops in connectivity and signal, it made working life difficult for her and her husband. They struggled to run one laptop properly, let alone log in to Anna’s work VPN, for example.
“The signal just kept on dropping, even when I was sitting right next to the router.”
This meant that Anna effectively couldn’t work from home at all; in fact, it forced Anna to sacrifice quality family time at the weekend by going into the office to upload all the work she’d been completing all week whilst at home.
“So, basically in the first lockdown, I spent every Saturday, literally from morning till night, in the office. I was uploading stuff so that people could use it alongside updating our accounting software – whilst my husband looked after my daughter at home.”
With work taking such a priority in Anna’s household there was little time for relaxation but when they did find the opportunity to sit together it was a case of buffered, interrupted streaming with the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime in the background while they both beavered away on their laptops.
They had to do something about it, and the answer happened to be on their doorstep. Literally.
“We could actually see the Zzoomm signage outside the window when they were based in The Hub here in Henley.”
Why did Anna switch to Zzoomm?
While Anna did consider some of the other broadband suppliers’ options, she knew that all the competitors would use the Openreach network so the difference in the quality of the service would be limited as they all use the same infrastructure. However, Anna admired how radical our plans were for the town in building the only true Full Fibre network, that’s fibre directly to your home, unlike any of the other suppliers. She also researched thoroughly and saw the chat on Facebook about how brilliant our speeds were, alongside our promise of two routers, this was what sealed the deal for Anna.
“We just knew that we’d get the speeds we need and actually get some fast and reliable connectivity all over the house”
How was the signup process?
Anna’s case is pretty unique in that she lives on a private road. She’s the Chair of the committee of residents that run the road, whereby each homeowner owns a small part of the road itself.
As Chair, Anna had to get the agreement from every household to enable us to dig up the road and lay our state of the art fibre cables.
“The project manager Robin was incredibly helpful. He talked each resident through the process to ensure that it went smoothly. Facilitating everyone’s needs and made sure that it was put back exactly as he found it, whether you had block paving or tarmac. But yes, they were absolutely excellent.”
Once we sorted the road, we were able to get Anna’s own home connected to the network and up and running in less than two hours.
“I don’t think they could have done it any quicker.”
How has life been since you’ve been connected?
“Oh, infinitely better…life-changing.”
We’re proud to say that Zzoomm exceeded Anna’s expectations. Everyone is now able to work from home, accessing the software they need when they need it. So no more long Saturday trips into the office for Anna.
“The other thing with Sky was that our Netflix used to drop constantly, and now we can watch a whole program without having to restart everything again. So, yeah. It genuinely has been, I don’t mean to be melodramatic, but it has been life-changing. Life is so much less frustrating.”
What would you tell others experiencing some of the problems you had?
“Just don’t even think twice, just go for it. Honestly, to me, it’s a no-brainer; it really is. I can’t see why you wouldn’t change. The prices are competitive—the speed of the connection and the service are both excellent.”
“It’s just a no-brainer and the two dedicated lines option which some of our neighbours have opted for, particularly where you’ve got both parents working from home, that must be absolutely brilliant as well. I’d just say go for it.”
Any other comments?
We asked Anna if she had any final comments. She reiterated her thoughts on how we handled the unusual situation on her road—praising our on-the-ground team and their willingness to listen and be as flexible as possible to residents’ individual requests.
And even said that, after digging up half of Henley, the pavements “look even better than they did before, they took a real pride in their work”.
With the following as a cherry on the Zzoomm cake from Anna:
“Zzoomm is just a really brilliant company to work with. The whole process could have been an absolute pain, but they weren’t at all; they were brilliant.”
Thanks again for chatting with us Anna, we appreciate the kind words.
If you’re finding it difficult to do basic work tasks from home, or if your current connection is interfering with your home life, why not make the switch to Henley’s only Full Fibre network like Anna?
Call ☎️ 033 33 11 99 09.