We would take your problems and pay you a commission. On Wed, Jan 6, 2021 at 10:19 AM Adam Moffett <[email protected]> wrote:
> I'm about fed up with phone systems. Back in the day, I didn't > understand why the phone system vendors charged $10k to install a $1200 > phone system, but now I get it. You can have tens of man-hours invested > in making the tiniest phone system work exactly the way someone wants. > I'm starting to think you have to plan on being there in person for > awhile so they can immediately tell you what they don't like instead of > stewing on it for a week. I also think when there's a week of back and > forth on these adjustments we think of it as spending a week to make it > perfect for them, but when they talk about it it'll be the story of > their phones being all screwed up for a week. > > So My new thinking is that I can't go low on price. I have to go high > so that I can afford to be there putting time into it, and if I can't > afford that time investment then I should let somebody else handle it. > And if they don't want to pay high, then they can figure out something > else. Maybe I could go low if they would agree to a recurring > maintenance contract, but I think most of the time they won't. > > It does help to have a conversation up front about how things should > work, how calls should flow, what the IVR should do, etc. After I have > that conversation I write up an outline and/or flow chart describing my > interpretation of what we just talked about and email it to them. A lot > of the time I think they just agree with the written form without > reading it because we STILL end up with confusion sometimes, but at > least we start out closer to the mark. It doesn't help that there's a > terminology that is often unfamiliar to them....they say "voicemail", > but they really meant an auto attendant or IVR or something else. > > Frankly, it's easier to just sell internet and let someone else be the > "phone guy", but for some reason people keep coming to us about phones. > > -Adam > > > On 1/6/2021 10:51 AM, Nate Burke wrote: > > I notice this mostly when I do phone setups. Try to get everything > > configured the way the customer explains to you, then you install it > > and tell the customer to test it and make sure it's doing what they > > want. They say 'Yea, yea, it's fine' As they're putting on their coat > > to leave for the day, since you made them stay an extra minute later > > than they though. Then you don't hear anything more at all out of > > them. Then about 6 weeks later you get a call "THESE PHONES ARE JUST > > ALL BROKEN, THEY'VE NEVER WORKED RIGHT, YOU NEED TO COME FIX THEM > > NOW!!!" Usually it's something stupidly simple like, 4 extensions are > > ringing for inbound calls, and only 3 should ring. But suddenly it's a > > crisis of business terminating proportions. > > > > Over the holidays a customer with an ancient key system with no > > answering service wanted us to provide voicemail for any incoming > > calls for the 2 weeks of the holiday. OK, no problem, setup the > > voicemail, and it sent out via email, I tested it with the office > > Admin before break started, and it was all working fine. Then the > > first day of the holiday they wanted to change the email address it > > was sending the voicemails, to one of the owners. No problem, but > > they never bothered to test the new email address, voicemails were > > getting marked as spam by their system, and they only keep spam for 1 > > day. After break, they ask where all their voicemails were. For 2 > > weeks, you were not able to check that it's doing what you want? And > > it never occurred you that you didn't see any voicemail coming through? > > > > These are all small businesses, for something that is so critical to > > them why don't they check and make sure they're doing what they want? > > Everyone has a cell phone they can use to dial in, it would take them > > about 2 minutes to check, but they just refuse to. > > > > Ironically, many of these are also the same customers that will > > religiously run speedtest.net on the hour, every hour, and let you > > know if that little number on the screen is less than the last time it > > ran. > > > > -- > AF mailing list > [email protected] > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > -- Lewis Bergman 325-439-0533 Cell
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