Why more businesses are choosing independent agents instead of direct representatives to acquire telecommunications services

NEW BREED TELECOM

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Why more businesses are choosing independent agents instead of direct representatives to acquire telecommunications services

Mergers and Acquisitions - Sales is a high turnover profession. Mergers and acquisitions make it highly unlikely that your original direct sales rep will still be there to assist you within a year. By using an Independent Telecom Agent, you can be sure that, regardless of continued merger activity or bankruptcies, your Agent will not be laid off or fired and will continue to have the same contact phone number and email address. They will continue to supply all of the options you need.

Single Point of Contact Single Point of Contact – SAVE TIME. Whether your Independent Telecom Agent recommends a single carrier solution or a multi-carrier solution, you still have a single point of contact to deal with who knows your account best. The number of appointments with different carriers you have to schedule could easily reach up to a dozen before an educated decision is made for your telecom solutions. A qualified Independent Telecom Agent can evaluate your company’s needs in a single meeting.

Person who understands your company Your Independent Telecom Agent acts as an assistant buyer once he/she understands your business needs and preferences.

 You get to hear the truth! When you use an experienced Independent Telecom Agent, you tap into the wealth of knowledge and experience of someone who has been in the field for many years, working with multiple carriers.  Your agent can tell you how the carriers really perform - who has the most reliable network - which has billing problems - who is going bankrupt and who can make the desired install date? Why would you want to repeat that process every couple of years?

Unbiased opinion of multiple carriers and their product lines    Since most carriers have gone to term agreements, it's key to get set up with a carrier that can move with your needs. Do they have MPLS? Do they do SIP trunking? Can they offer an IP-VPN solution for your remote sites? Your Independent Telecom Agent knows the carriers' products and limitations, and can put you in the right solution.

Agents are invested in your success long term. Independent Telecom Agents are commission only, and residual based, earning a small percentage of the monthly bill. There is no motivation for a direct representative to speak to you again after you sign. You are directed to deal with the carriers call center. However Independent Telecom Agent’s goal is to build a book of business of satisfied customers with minimal issues. They have EVERY motivation to assist you in solving any service issues that you may ever have. A good Independent Telecom Agent becomes part of your team, allowing you to take care of your business.

They don't have a quota. It is very common for Independent Telecom Agents to uncover up to 10-20% of pure fluff on your bill during the auditing process. Direct representatives have a quota to make and will often sell you what is good for them, not what is good for you. Top Independent Telecom Agents, almost without exception; do not carry quotas and tend to be “solutions oriented” rather than to be motivated only by quotas.

Extra Incentives and Promotions.  Independent Telecom Agents are typically more knowledgeable, better trained, and set proper expectations with the clients. Agent channels often have promotions or incentives for the customer that the direct agent hasn’t been given. If the direct representatives have promotions available, they are often compensated extra if they do not use them. Their clients tend to remain clients longer, and it is more cost effective for the carriers to deal with Agents.

Same Standard Pricing is used in the Agent Channel and the direct channel. For large projects, special pricing is available to both Agent and direct channels at the same amounts. It's an incredible model that helps the customer and agent win, and insures all clients are treated equally.

Next Generation Technology Independent Telecom Agents will typically be better versed in MPLS, IP-VPN, VOIP, hosted solutions, call center applications, and SIP technologies since they need to understand multiple carriers' offerings and have attended their trainings. Direct representatives may not have the overall understanding of all that is coming with new technology.

Content copyright 2009. New Breed Telecom. All rights reserved.

10 REASONS WHY BUSINESS TELECOM INSTALLATIONS FAIL

WELCOME TO OUR NEW AND UPDATED BLOG. OUR PROVIDER DISAPPEARED OUR OLD ONE SO WE'RE REPRINTING SOME OLDER BLOGS TO GET STARTED.

10 REASONS WHY BUSINESS TELECOM INSTALLATIONS FAIL

FACILITIES ISSUES:
Every voice and data circuit requires an available facility (actual physical line conditioned for the service) in order to deliver services. If all the existing facilities in the customer's local CO are in use, the phone company may need to install additional lines in order to complete the installation. This can cause long delays and additional expense. Carriers want to replace copper with fiber because copper is expensive to maintain, requires equipment that must also be maintained and is less efficient than fiber. Therefore carriers aren't looking to invest in new copper build-outs creating a shortage. Whenever the installation milestone says: "facilities issues" it can mean almost anything. Worst case: Construction build-out may be required or permits needed.

LINES NOT TAGGED OR MIS-TAGGED BY THE LEC
There can be hundreds of lines in a phone closet. If a phone company tech activates a group of lines but doesn’t “tag” or identify them properly, it's extremely difficult for your vendor to locate them to complete the installation. Getting a phone company technician back out to the site is difficult and adds time to the installation process. This could delay your order for hours or days and adds unnecessary expense. The customer still has to pay their phone vendor to wait for the phone company tech to come back and identify the lines they installed earlier.

LOCAL LOOP INSTALLATION FAILS
Even if competitive Local Exchange Carrier is providing the service, the local phone company (LEC) installs the local loop. An order cannot be completed until the local loop is completed, tested and accepted. Customers often turn away the LEC thinking that there has been a mistake. Rescheduling this is necessary and causes a time consuming and costly delay.

PORTING ISSUES
Incumbent carrier rejects port-numbers request - or ports wrong numbers - or ports early:
Rejecting a port request is often is an underhanded attempt by the telecom company losing the business to sabotage an order. They can reject a phone number porting request for many reasons such as;
* Your business name is slightly different than what appears on their bill,
* All the phone numbers aren’t accounted for or a myriad of other minor details.
Typically, each time a porting request is rejected, the order is delayed 10 business days and causes the customer to reschedule their phone and IT vendors. If this continues for too long, customers tend to have a knee jerk reaction and cancel the whole deal out of sheer frustration - thereby shooting themselves in the foot.

If numbers are accidentally ported early, the customer can be left with no services until the issue is resolved.

PIC CODE ISN'T ADDED TO LINE OR MULTIPLE LINES
Every phone line is assigned a Primary Interlata Carrier (PIC) code. Without PIC Code, long distance calls on the line will be subject to Casual Billing which is a much more expensive rate. It's not uncommon to miss a few lines on an account with many lines. This usually happens during the switchover from one carrier to another.

TECH DOESN'T SHOW UP OR ARRIVES EARLY OR LATE
If the customer outsources phone and IT work to vendors, the vendors are required to be on site for the installation. If the phone company tech is late, the customer may have to pay their vendors to wait. If the phone company tech is early, there won’t be a handoff and their vendors will have issues completing their work. Unfortunately everyone is at the mercy of the LEC first to deliver the local loop in a timely fashion. But stuff happens, especially in big cities. Things can get really out of hand if there is a storm, a visit by the President, a flood, transit strike ....whatever. Local events and weather do affect the telcos ability to maintain their already overburdened schedules.

WRONG SERVICE IS INSTALLED
Example: Customer's phone system may require analog phone lines but digital lines were ordered. Or, a VPN between two locations requires a specific router configuration which wasn't communicated. These are design issues and can be tracked by a competent project manager. If these details aren’t properly monitored and coordinated the installation will be delayed and corrections will need to be made. Worse, your services won’t function properly until the necessary adjustments are made, requiring additional expense for customer's phone and/or IT vendors.

DEFECTIVE EQUIPMENT (Router or switch):
Occasionally, new services don’t work properly or customers experience repeated outages with new services. It's natural to assume that it’s the quality of the new carrier. Typically, after initiating a trouble ticket triggering additional testing, a technician will figure out that a router or other equipment isn't performing properly or mis-configured. Easy - but inconvenient.

RISER CABLES NOT AVAILABLE:
In a high rise, telecom services are usually delivered in the basemen to a telco room. The lines rise vertically in the building via a wire riser or elevator shaft. They then are delivered to another phone closet on the customer’s floor.

Total of 4 connections are required:
* connection to the primary phone closet
* connection to the riser cable
* connection to the local phone closet
* connection to business suite.

Every element of the installation must be completed and all the parties work coordinated or the service won’t be available at the time of installation

AFTER-HOURS ONLY, OR NO ACCESS TO PHONE CLOSET
Either the phone closet is locked and property management unavailable to provide access. Sometimes the phone closet is located in an inconvenient location. There are many reasons why access to the phone closet may be restricted. It may be in another tenant’s suite. An installation may have to be scheduled after business hours requiring the customer to arrange for their phone and IT vendors and employee to be present.