It could happen to you!!
Often
times I come across mishaps in the telecom industry and have a “that’s standard
operating procedures” or more of an “I’m not shocked” attitude. Why? I’ve spent
20 years in the industry and things happen. Lines get cut, hunt groups get
disruptive, and FOC dates get moved. After moving over to conferencing, I tell
everyone I am so “relaxed” that I just don’t have those problems. Conferencing
works! You pick up a phone; you dial an 800 number and presto! I don’t get the
Friday afternoon calls that were cut over a pizza xyz company and dropped two lines in the
hunt group at 5 pm…. I’m not at the Clemson game on my cell because the problem
still isn’t fixed. (Go TIGERS, 7-0 btw and yes, this is a true story). In
Sales, I do everything I can to make sure problems don’t occur. In telecom
sales I was taught how to “spin” the bad. It’s all been “normal” for me until
the other day when it actually affected me.
I
was on my way to ATL for our son’s huge “Scout Focus” basketball program.
Our son has a torn shoulder and taking steroids until the season is over. I
kept trying to call the orthopedist for the steroids but all lines were busy.
“Your call can’t be completed as dialed”. So finally at 3:00 pm, momma bear hopped
in her car and drove an hour to the orthopedist to raise some heck. I get there
and they are shut down. They’re normally open on Fridays so I did what any
momma would do…. I found my way through their surgery center into the business
office and found a Dr. Needless to say, he was rather surprised to see me. His
first question was “how did you get in here”? A word of advice to you men,
don’t ask a woman, especially a mom, how she does anything… Just know “we have
our ways”.
I
explained to him that I needed a hand written script right away. He said
that their entire VoIP (you know, that super duper thing we hear about in the
cloud) system wasn’t operational and they had to shut down. They had no way of
making calls and major conferences were canceled because the XYZ Hospital Group
systems were down, etc. At the time, I really didn’t care what his problems were…
I just knew what mine were and what I needed. I asked a simple question. “Do
you not have an iPad or a cell phone?” He was like “well yes”. I
said, “Then call his doctor and find out what you need to get it done”. Net/net-
I left with the prescription I needed.
Driving
down the road I started thinking about the missed opportunity I had. So many
times agents tell me that their client “ has conferencing”, it’s built into the
phone system or it’s in the Cloud with their super duper SIP trunking
system they put in. Needless to say, a call was made to the agent working
on this opportunity and I stressed the importance again of “why” this
particular orthopedist group NEEDED US. If they had our services, the major
conferences wouldn’t have been canceled. Why? Because we aren’t in his “XYZ
Hospital Group system”… Any
cell phone or land-line (which by the way, I always suggest you put a land-line
in for this exact reasoning) can get you to an 800 number. Any iPad with Wi-Fi
can get you to our video conferencing platform. So as agents I have to ask you,
why do you put all your eggs in one basket? Think outside the box. Make sure
you have redundancy built in, even with conferencing.
Caroline Rogers 302-530-1666
Caroline.rogers@conferenegroup.com
Caroline.rogers@conferenegroup.com
