Business Relationships

Beginning last week, Cheers POS was thinking of switching our phone company.

Right now we have one line and are paying close to $65.00 a month for it when all is said and done.  If we add another line, we can pay half for each line each month, but, with taxes, it may be roughly the same price as we are paying now.  Add to that that in order to get this price, we would have to pre-pay for one year.  $65.00 x 12 is $780.00.  Though we would have unlimited outbound calls (good for calling liquor stores for sales and calling back people who have left messages or need help with something we could not get to right away), our inbound calls would be capped at 1,000 minutes (16 hours, 45 minutes, roughly) if we went with the $24.99 per month per line pre-pay deal (not good for callers with questions about the system, or, callers who will need help in the future with Cheers POS).  If we decide to pay $10.00 more per month, per line, pre-paid, (plus taxes), we can up our inbound call cap to 41 hours and 40 minutes.  $839.76 is a lot of money to pay up front for something that may or may not work for us all that time.  Who knows if we will use all that time OR if we will grow and need more (if we go over our allotment, we can pay 4 cents each additional minute).  [On a side note, why don't computers have the, "cents," symbol?  Typewriters used to have this symbol.  Have coins been devalued so much that it is not cost efficient to have a key for this?  Yes, we can add it in by copying, pasting, and formatting, or typing a series of keys, but, that's just not worth it...as opposed to going off on a rant about it.]

We mention all that to bring The Reader to this: we were looking around for other options and after playing phone tag last week, we got a call from a representative from a competing phone company this Monday.  Competitive Company acknowledged that for two lines, they may cost a little more, but,
--a) they do everything the company we are with now does
--b) no contracts
--c) U.S.A. based (Current Company only offers U.S.A. based support for companies with 20+ users)
--d) 09:00 - 21:00 Eastern Time
--e) one point of contact

Pay attention to e).  Please re-read e).  The guy who contacted us back would be our point of contact if we decide to go with Competitive Company.

There was a certain title he gave us if we chose to go with his company, but, ultimately, he would be our point of contact.

This is HUGE.  Cheers POS had a discussion and we have decided this is how we will be.  One person for each contact.  Our boss has acknowledged how annoying it would be if somebody called in, got the secretary/resident wonder woman who then transferred them over to the sales guy, who set up an appointment, only to have a third person here at Cheers POS call the person back to help him (because Third Guy could do better than Sales).  Who wants to deal with a business like that?  You never know who you are going to get; it's not personal.  FURTHERMORE, The Caller has to explain three different times his or her needs and/or concerns.

Not cool.  Totally not cool.

A company like that, one person taking calls only to transfer them so that other people in different departments can take care of certain needs is aiming for efficiency, not relationships -- kind of like how certain box stores recognize cashiers for excellency; they can ring up items and bag them quickly, but, they lack A LOT in the People Skills Department.  They make you feel like you are holding up the line when you are putting away your change other method of payment or loading up your cart.

We know, the companies can look at how many people a cashier is ringing up per hour (or day) and measure productivity that way, where as friendliness is not quantifiable (and furthermore, box stores are not going away anytime soon).

However, by having one point of contact, this phone company (we are back to the phone company now) is already establishing a relationship.  Even though we have not decided to go with this company (yet), this company is treating us like a person.  We can go to this representative during his regular hours and he will know what is happening with our situation and our account.  He will get familiar with us.

As stated a few paragraphs ago, Cheers POS will be like this: if a worker calls you and you would like to implement Cheers POS in your liquor store, that person will be YOUR person.  This is a good way to do business because business is all about people.

~Cheers!