Crosstalk with Select Telecom (Winter 2013)
On the surface, Crown Products, a Westchester-based supplier of janitorial and packaging supplies, and Infotrieve, a leader in the electronic document delivery field, may not seem to have much in common. But communication is key in any industry, and these companies faced the same problem with their outdated phone systems: difficult administration that was getting in the way of the high service level they provide to their customers. Luckily, both companies turned to Select Telecom for a solution and found their match in a ShoreTel IP phone system.
Select Telecom and Crown Products had a serendipitous start to their partnership. As Robert Whetsell, Director of Operations, recalls, “I was at a networking business dinner and I happened to meet Peter and Joe from Select Telecom. The timing was perfect because we were looking to replace our 12 year old phone system, so Select Telecom was one of several vendors we vetted.”
Crown Products was in the market for a new phone system that had better call routing capabilities. “The old system gave us headaches with handling customer service calls,” Robert explains. “At the time, only certain reps handled certain customers, but we wanted to be more efficient and spread out those responsibilities so that if one person was busy, another in the group would get the call. It wasn’t impossible with the old system, but it was very difficult to manage, and we didn’t control the software that handled the call routing.”
After attending some demo sessions at Select Telecom’s Valhalla showroom, Robert was convinced that a new unified communications (UC) system from ShoreTel was the solution they’d been looking for. With user-friendly software for end-users and administrators alike – in addition to sophisticated call routing capabilities – the ShoreTel system was just what Crown Products needed.
Robert was particularly impressed with the training and support his team received after the new system was installed. “Danielle and Bob – those two people made the process. Their attention to detail and willingness to help were unmatched. It’s very difficult these days to find a vendor with that kind of work ethic, and Bob and Danielle were just a fantastic team. It says a lot for them and also for Select Telecom to have that caliber of people working for them.”
In the end, the new ShoreTel system delivered exactly the results Robert had been hoping for. “The ShoreTel system has been tremendous. It’s definitely addressed the issues we had in making customer service more of a team, and since it’s so easy to use and setup, the team immediately bought in. This change also took a lot of pressure off our receptionist, allowing her to assist in more administrative duties and making our team, as a whole, more productive.” Another added benefit that Robert has come to appreciate is the ease of administration. As he explains, “One of the biggest things that made the system extremely beneficial for us is the ability to adjust on the fly. If there’s bad weather and we need to close early, the ease with which we can change the system into the proper mode, it’s just fantastic. We couldn’t do that before.”
Though Select Telecom and Crown Products may have met by chance, this is a partnership that’s geared to last long into the future. Robert sums it up best: “Usually you have great technology and an awful vendor, or a great vendor and awful technology. But in this case, you have great technology and a great vendor. I don’t want technology or a vendor that I have to constantly manage, so this marriage is such a homerun. I don’t even have to think about it; if I ever run into trouble, I make one call or send an email and I’m set. Select Telecom plus ShoreTel is my BEST vendor relationship.”
Infotrieve struggled with many of the same issues as Crown Products before they moved to their new ShoreTel system. When Arun Daniel started his new role as Director of IT at Infotrieve, he knew who to call for service with the legacy phone system he’d inherited. “I’d worked with Select Telecom at my previous company, and I was blown away by their professionalism and how responsive they were,” he remembers.
Eventually Infotrieve outgrew their old system with its lack of reporting capabilities and difficult administration. As Arun recalls, “Our customer service relies on making sure that customer problems are solved when contacting the call center, and we had no way to track if a call ever made it to resolution. And frustratingly, we couldn’t do any administration unless we rebooted the entire system, which meant that all of our maintenance had to be done after hours. And finally, we just needed more scalability.”
Arun looked to Select Telecom for a recommendation of what to implement to solve these problems. “I knew they weren’t in the business of BS’ing,” Arun explains. “Most sales groups come in and promise you the world. Select Telecom came in with detailed requests to understand what we need, create a template, and come up with an appropriate recommendation.” After gathering Infotrieve’s requirements and considering the unique demands of the Infotrieve customer base and company structure, Select Telecom recommended a new IP phone system from ShoreTel.
The ShoreTel system, proved to be just what Infotrieve needed, and Arun has been impressed with the benefits of moving to a state-of-the-art unified communications system. “Administration is cleaner and more robust and can even be done on the fly, and our customer service department plans to use the reporting tools. Even better, our end users quickly overcame the challenge of learning the new system.” Nowadays, Arun can’t imagine ever going back to the way things were.
With modern UC systems from ShoreTel in their arsenals boasting simple administration and rich feature sets, Crown Products and Infotrieve are now well-equipped to provide the world-class customer service they strive for – and Select Telecom will be there to support them every step of the way.