Top 5 Insider Secrets to Keep Your Business Phones Working

Top 5 Insider Secrets to Keep Your Business Phones Working

The following is not a pretty picture, but an actual event:

11 AM on Wednesday at your office: You are on the phone with an important client and bang…the line goes dead. What do you do? You call 1-800-Verizon, You hear the following: “Thank You for Calling Verizon Press 1 for Wireless, Press 2 for FIOS”…hey, wait where is repair?…You don’t press anything then you hear “Goodbye”

CALL AGAIN, you press 2 (FIOS)…nice piano music (Chopin, I think) on hold…A live person picks up and you ask to be transferred to Repair..”Thank You for Calling Verizon Para Español Marque el dos”…”If you know your account number enter it now, otherwise please press pound(#)”….You press Pound (#)…”I am sorry that’s not a valid extension please try again”…you enter the phone number…Thank You for Calling Verizon, All Representatives are busy right now. Please call back later or go to Verizon.Com…Really?…Really???

Read the following to avoid the above!

1: What is Telecom?
     It has changed over the years. It used to mean a twisted pair of copper wire that you paid Ma Bell for. Then the breakup happened into Baby Bells, and it meant you paid NY Telephone or NYNEX and there was no negotiation and you paid like 50¢/min to call another city. With Deregulation, there were benefits and pitfalls. You could now chose your carrier and select a rate. And with that carrier came their Customer Service, Billing, and Repair. 

     After the Telecommunications Deregulation Act of 1996 there was a wild west-like land grab. Countless start-ups competing for customer acquisition. Grab Grab Grab…No focus on service, or on the back-end, only profitability. After the Dot Com Bust, you could no longer finance a losing venture and the Great Merger Wars began. Smaller fish getting gobbled up by bigger predators until the players could fit in a …wait for it…a phone booth. Hey are there any more of those around anyway, and what does Superman do to change..oh well, I digress.

     A decade ago, I was a Telecom Agent and could point to this or that company and say with confidence: “They do a great job. Good pricing, Great Service, they really are on the ball.” Not so anymore! Right now Phone Service and Internet Access has fallen to the level of a commodity. Every carrier competing on price, cutting corners on provisioning and service. Much of their revenue going to network and merger costs. They figure they can get your account and after that- you won’t really care. Do you Care? Well, a soybean or a pork belly is not going to connect you to that prospect or help you win that big deal. You can not string two tin cans together to support your clients. What’s a CIO to do?

2: The Era of Anti-Trust
     We have entered the era of Trust and Anti-Trust (to re-purpose a phrase). I happen to work for a small Service-based CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier) supporting business partners who use our phone and internet service for their valued clients. We do not have a direct sales force, relying instead on referrals and trust. 

     When our clients call us they get a highly-trained Project Manager on the 1st or 2nd Ring…After then it is all hands on deck and an Owner will typically pick up.

     When I pick up the phone and interview a business manager they will routinely tell me that “their carrier sucks”. “But they all do… so what does it matter?” When they have a problem they have to work through an Automated Attendant (“press 2 for this, press 3 for that and so on, and if you would like to Speak English please press 1”, but don’t get me started on that!), wait on hold, and then speak to a rep (often overseas with the anticipated language skills) who is not trained or empowered to help, This is Called Tier One Customer Support. Tier One dutifully enters the details and sends an email to Tier Two, who initiates a fix, or Tier Two emails to Tier Three when they can not understand or get it done. This is the Industry-wide model.

3: The Era of the Trusted Partner 

     That is why we have entered the Era of the Trusted Partner. There was a time when the people selling the business phones or servicing the networks would look down their nose at carrier services (phone and internet). They wanted nothing to do with them. They were in their ivory towers with complete control over their environment. The vigorously enforced an Ethical Firewall. That model is long gone. Most likely, the IT Shop or the PBX Vendor who sold you your computers or phones is an Agent for a variety of providers of Phone, Data, Networks and now the Cloud. You now have one point of contact when you have a problem: you call your partner and if he or she is on the ball, they jump on board and start pumping the bilge. But the Idiot Carriers and still the Idiot Carriers. And the Verizons still control the underlying copper.

4: There is Another Way:  Choose Boutique
     If your Trusted Partner is working with a White Glove Boutique Carrier, you will receive better support, service, and engineering. Boutique does not cost you more money, it will save you time, effort and heartache. What is better Communications Service worth to you? If you are a mom & pop deli or a gas station, probably not much, But if the execution of your business and your corporate image rely upon the quality of your phone call or the latency and up-time of your internet…It means A LOT!

5: Do Your Own Research
     You need to look at the Carrier Options that are being presented to you and do your own research! It just takes a few short Google minutes. And won’t you feel better knowing you are dealing with a company with strong ethics that will be there for you when you need it? And if you share your findings with your Trusted Partner, chances are you that will be doing him a great service. They do not want to be dealing with the lazy Carriers, but until YOU, their valued Client speak up, they will assume that the only thing that is important to you is the low cost and that the “Walmartification” of service is acceptable. Your partner will now be able to sleep at night and also remember, many of these “large” carriers routinely cut off commissions to their Agents. You would not wish that upon the nice partner you see regularly, would you?

So In Conclusion…
     Choose your carriers wisely. Look at more than just the dollar amount on a shiny proposal
because many of these hide the real costs and surcharges. Partner up with a Technology Provider who takes the time to understand your company and deliver a solution that works for your needs.

     I have heard it oft-quoted “Nobody ever got fired for choosing Verizon”, but being in my third decade in this industry (woe be to me), I have seen it more times than I would like to count. If you are looking for status quo you do not need me. I prefer to work with high level innovators who want to get the most that they can out of their telecom carriers.

     I currently have about 3 spots this next month to go out and meet with a new client. If you are curious and want to see how this would currently impact your business please contact me. It is a whole new world. You can get a lot more than you ever imagined.

Chose Well, Allow Trust in Your Heart, & May your Business Flourish!

Tim Hunter
Telco Experts
212-452-6029
                                                                                 Thunter@telcoexperts.com