Frequently Asked Questions Part Ii

Here are some more frequently asked questions that I run across while I am in the field that might be similar to questions that others might have. Picking up from part I, this is part II.

4) Why should I choose a service provider such as your company over Cox or Qwest?
answer: Well, there's actually a few advantages to choosing a service provider such as ours over a large company like Cox or Qwest. 1) Companies such as Cox and Qwest are ILECs, which means that they have to lay down and service the lines. You, as a customer, pays for this overhead. You are paying for technicians that have to go out and service lines for customers like yourself and customers such as us. With service providers, such as our company, you are paying to have the line provided and for customer service reps to be staffed. There is lower overhead, thus lower prices for you to pay. 2) Service Providers, such as Netacom, are much larger customers to Cox and Qwest than your company is, no matter how large of a corporate account you are. We will have a much larger clientele base for telecommunications service than you can provide, so we have priority on service related issues when there are issues with the lines. If there are two simultaneous service related issues called in, one from your business, and one from Netacom, then Qwest or Cox will respond to our issue before yours because we are a larger account. This will always be the case for service providers, such as Netacom. 3) Service providers such as Netacom usually have customizable plans for personalized business communications services. Companies such as Cox and Qwest usually have pre-organized plans that you have to chose between, and the price of personalizing your plans can be very costly. By being able to personalize your telecommunications service you allow your business to run much more efficiently than with the pre-arranged plans that Cox and Qwest offer. 4) The level of customer service is usually much better than that of companies such as Qwest or Cox. We are smaller businesses and therefore value your business much more than the larger corporate service providers. With service providers such as Netacom, you usually have very close accessibility to a live representative and accessibility to your original sales rep as well.

5) What makes customer service at your company so much more accommodating than the customer service of Cox or Qwest?
answer: Again, there a multiple answers to this questions. First is the fact that these businesses are usually run locally as opposed to being run by corporate entities. This gives technicians at service providers such as Netacom, authority to make decisions based on the circumstances that are particular to that situation as opposed to larger companies such as Cox and Qwest, where the technicians have to follow a rule book. They also have to have calls escalated to a supervisor to have certain issues resolved and this can lengthen your call time or even make it take hours, even days, to get your issue resolved. Most service providers offer customer support 24/7/365, so this usually doesn't make a difference, but what does is the fact that by being local, service providers such as Netacom, have technicians that are only one button away once you call in. Companies such as Cox or Qwest have multiple options that you have to choose from before getting to a live human being, again lengthening your call time. If your situation needs a call back your larger providers such as Cox or Qwest usually have automated responses that remind them to call back, lengthening the time it takes to get back to their customers. Service providers such as Netacom have technicians assigned to your particular problem, and see it through from start to finish, and if the problem is unresolved or comes back up, you are transferred back to that technician so that you do not have to go over the problem all over again.

6) How much can taxes, surcharges, and fees be?
answer: This is a frequently asked question that I get a lot, because Netacom does not charge any extra taxes, surcharges, or fees. With that being said, it can be a lot! I have a current prospective customer that has Cox (or Comcast) that thought he was paying $10 per month for a phone line. When broke down his bill he was paying $10 for the basic phone line, $8 for caller ID with name recognition. With taxes, fees, and surcharges it comes out to $29 per month with only Caller ID as a feature. He has no voicemail, no call waiting, no three way calling, or anything else. His internet line is only $20 per month (this is for 512KB connection... no, this is horrible speed. to be high speed it has to be able to offer up to 1.5 MB, 1000KB=1MB. as you can see this is a horrible connection), but after taxes, fees, and surcharges it comes out to $35 per month. Another potential customer pays $116 per month with Qwest for one business line after all taxes, fees, and surcharges. She has all the features, but pays $116 per month for one phone line. So as you can see, taxes, fees, and surcharges can be quite a bit!

This will be our second installment of an unlimited segment. This means that there will be another segment very soon, so log back very soon.