Has your definition of service changed with regard to your Internet and phone services over the last 10 years?

I had an interesting discussion with a friend a few weeks ago about customer expectations for voice quality.   He told me that with the use of cell phones and VoIP services most people don’t care as much about solid, clean sounding and reliable phone service as they once did.  He said, “if you’re disconnected, just call back – not a big deal”.  I had to agree with him.  It’s been quite a while since anyone’s called me to say that they had crackling sounds on their phone.  Usually if you get a bad connection, you hang up and redial.  The days of ongoing, and recurring back round noise are gone.  In the late 80′s and much of the 90′s when many of the carriers were upgrading their networks, random noises, echos and crackling were common place.

How good your service works is key, but how’s the customer service you get for these services – do you think anything’s changed in the last 10 years with this?  As a business owner, I am continually bombarded with offers for higher speed Internet and new phone service.  99% of the time this gets thrown in the trash.  The services I now have at my office have been in place for more than 4 years.  The bill is automatically paid via credit card each and every month.  I haven’t had to make a service call for my Internet or phone service in that same period of time.  How about you?  I truly believe that most businesses are exactly the same.  The only time they really look or think about who they use and work with for their voice and data service is when their contracts expire and need to be renewed or grown.  Do you like the people you work with when you go through this renewal process?  Are they making suggestions to upgrade your service and give you a better price, or just renewing what you already have?  These are things you want to consider as you begin this process.

One belief that I have is that every business owner needs a phone person in their contact list – someone you trust, someone that can advise and steer you in the right direction with your carrier and product selection and help you make the best decisions for your business.  Just like you need a banker, an insurance person and an accountant that you trust – make sure you have an IT/phone person you can trust.  The service and loyalty you’ll receive from this person will be much higher than if you worked with different people every time you need help.  Business relationships matter!  Nothing is worse than going to tier I toll free support when you have an issue.  Check out a carrier agnostic firm as they’ll have no alliances to any one particular carrier and will be looking out for your best interest.

Who’s your phone person?  Who’s that person that’s there each and every time you need help, or need advice on what to do?  That’s the person you should be working with.  Give them your business and get the level of service you deserve.

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