Back to Articles

Choosing the Right Communications Partner

Ray McCloud is Vice President of Operations at Vertical Communications and has worked in telecom for 38 years. He started as an entry-level installer and has risen through the ranks, serving as Senior VP of western branches at Inter-Tel and President of National and Government Accounts at Mitel. Today, Ray oversees Vertical’s Implementation, Support, Project Management, and Customer Service teams and is responsible for delivering the great installation and support experience that has become the hallmark at Vertical.

A Case Study of Vertical Communications

Last month, our President Ben Treadway shared what to look for when choosing a communications vendor that will add value to your business. As Ben pointed out, it can be tempting for customers to choose the “cheap” solution, but they often regret that choice for a number of reasons:

The cookie-cutter product doesn’t fit your unique business needs or integrate with the tools you already use.
The vendor lacks the experience and knowledge to provide a thorough and effective system design and installation.
There is no expert support team to stand behind the solutions when things don’t go as expected.

Finding a great provider can be difficult. Instead of trying to lay out the multitude of things you need to consider to find the right one, I’d like to instead use Vertical as a case study and simply show you how we do it. Vertical has spent decades building its team and processes to be a vendor that adds value to your bottom line and provides a great experience for your team along the way. By showing you the way Vertical conducts our installations, I hope I can help you understand what a reliable partner should look like.

Experienced Experts All Along the Way

The first thing you’ll notice with Vertical, is that we ensure you’re working with talented, experienced people at every step in the process. We’ve built a large team of Account Executives, Sales Engineers, Customer Service Representatives, Project Managers, and Support Technicians. These experts know the ins and outs of the technology and are eager to introduce and implement solutions that save you time and money. I like to call them our “A-Team”!

Accomplished

Available

Accountable

Vertical’s 10 Steps to Success

What does it look like to partner with Vertical’s project team? It’s a thorough, step-by-step process that ensures the communications system is installed with as little distraction to our customer’s business as possible. Our process is meticulously designed, and our team is constantly communicating with the customer, so they never have to wonder where they’re at in the installation. Let’s take an inside look at the 10 steps that Vertical uses to guide our customer’s projects from design to full, successful deployment:

Step 1 Install Begins

A Project Manager and Lead Technician are assigned to you. The Project Manager will conduct a handoff from the Account Executive and Sales Engineer that helped design your solution, and the installation process will begin.

Step 2 Welcome Call

Your Project Manager will initiate a video call with your team. They will gather important programming information, establish a detailed timeline, and ensure that all paperwork gets signed.

Step 3 Remote Network Assessment

On every project, the Lead Technician will conduct an assessment of your network capabilities. This important step, early in the process, will help us determine if any network factors will need to be addressed for your solution to work as intended.

Step 4 Telephone Porting

Our Carrier Services Manager will step in to guide you through the process of transitioning your number to your new carrier. Getting your published telephone number ported over is crucial to the project. With our experienced Carrier Services Manager by your side, you don’t have to sweat it.

Step 5 Mid-Point Check-In

Your Project Manager will provide a scheduled check-in to answer questions regarding the documentation, timelines, and system options. This is an opportunity to make sure everything is on track and to address any of your concerns.

Step 6 On-Site Visit

A technician will visit on-site to place and program phones, addressing any questions when they’re there. The on-site visit gives you a chance to speak with a technician face-to-face and for our team to verify that everything is set up correctly.

Step 7 Cutover Day

This is the big day! Your Project Manager and Lead Technician will be fully available to answer questions related to the physical placement and setup of phones.

Step 8 End-User Training

Our catalog of end-user training videos and documentation will be made fully available to you. When necessary, your Project Manager will conduct a series of webinar trainings with your end-user team.

Step 9 Close-Out Call

Within a week of cutting over, your Project Manager and Lead Technician will conduct a close-out call to verify the system is performing up to expectations. If not, they will make it right.

Step 10 Support Team Handoff

Your Project Manager will introduce you to our award-winning Support Team. You’ll get contact information, instructions for entering the customer portal, and documentation for escalation. We’ll also invite you to fill out a brief survey to ensure we’ve exceeded your expectations.

Conclusion

That’s it. The 10 simple steps that Vertical uses to achieve a successful install. Of course, the steps don’t always have to be identical to ours. But when you’re looking for the right communications partner, the provider should be able to articulate a similar process, providing open communication and regular updates along the way. And if anything goes wrong, they should be quick to offer a remedy. In fact, because the team at Vertical boasts so much experience, we excel at getting ahead of potential problems and eliminating them before our customers are ever aware. It’s why our customers are constantly raving about our smooth process and, frankly, you shouldn’t accept anything less from your communications vendor.

Get the Vertical Difference

When it’s time for you to upgrade your communications, you want to choose a vendor that’s going to partner to add value to your business. Why not go with the expert in this area, Vertical Communications? Our team will build you a communications or contact center solution that’s proven to provide a quick return on investment and significant improvement in your customer and employee experience. And don’t worry about the transition! You can rely on our attentive technicians and meticulous process to make the switch as easy as possible. We pride ourselves on providing an installation that will leave you 100% satisfied. It’s the Vertical guarantee.

Get Started