National Dispatching?

[econotel]

Has anyone heard of a company called TechOptions and one called Continuant. These are two national telcom service companies that I have done business with and have had some problems with and who send me out for Avaya service calls.

TechOptins is not to bad they let me have a free hand with the client but are slow to pay. Continuant is joke. They are like dealing with the government. They will not let me even talk to the client about anyting even if they are standing right in front of me. The clinet has to call the call center and speak with a rep. then the rep calls me and gives me orders and back and forth and back and forth.

I am ready to fire them both and not take any more service orders from them. Anyone have any dealing with these guys or any other national service centers?

I have plenty of local accounts but dealing with guys like these just is not worth it even if their per hours rates are great. Just not worth the trouble.

How about any of you?

 

[Dexman]

While I'm not a CPE installer, I do know that some vendors are so fed up with required extremely fast response times but extremely slow payments, (sometimes as long as 120 days), that they (vendors) will no longer do business with national telecom service companies.

 

[econotel]

Seems to be my experience. They promise the customer one thing then never deliver on this then blame me the vendor as what just happened the other day in my case. The call center "rep" did not know what she was doing and then told the customer it was my fault.

As far as I am concerned when the tech is in the field the tech is the expert and not some non techie call center rep.. They don;t have to deal with a screeming customer.

 

[dagwoodsystems]

A certain Avaya channel partner here in Southern California calls on me regularly for contract work. They too have a terrible track record for payment, sometimes dragging it out for 120 days. That's right, a FULL business quarter for what I would characterize as chump change.

Do I still deal with them? Occasionally. Why? Because they are a fantastic source of customers for me! And before anyone says anything about "stealing" other people's customers, let me assure you that I EARN the right to serve them.

 

[econotel]

I am curious as to why you feel it is ok to market these customers that are referred to you by them. I am not judging because of thi slast experience I am thinking about telling this custome that I can do a better job for them than this national company can being as I am local and the they deal direct with the owner and the one sho does the work.

 

[allisland]

We haven't worked for either of these two company's, but have worked for others of the same, they all want the "vendor" to carry insurance and have any necessary license, but when it comes to paying their all slow, and as far as we're concerned cheap,they have tried to give us jobs 60 miles form our location and didn't want to pay travel time, only from the time we arrived at the site ( a phone call)to the time we called back with the customer present to say it was fixed, we no longer take any work from any of them them.
And as far as getting new customers, don't know about those companies, but the ones we dealt with we had to sign forms as to insurance/license/and not trying to sign up their customers.

 

[dagwoodsystems]

I understand the rub. You are introduced to a client of a channel partner that referred you. The customer expresses discontent with the referrer, but loves you. And then it happens...the day comes when the customer asks about contracting directly with YOU.

In order to be ethical, your first response should always be, "Thank you I'm flattered. However, any work I do with you will have to be handled through [the referrer]".

When a customer asks you a question like that, two things are apparent to them. The first is that you are conduct yourself in a professional manner. The other is that you are an independent contractor. The observation that you have some class and professionalism is often responsible for the conclusion that you can't possibly be associated with the referring company. What does that line of thinking say about you versus the referrer, hmmm?

Keep doing what you do best, and you will eventually be asked a second time. That's when I would drop my business card on the table. Does that mean you're "a shark"? No. It means that the customer wants a change in the way they are serviced. They are looking for choices and have pressed for you to be one of those choices.

If the customer is truly unhappy with the referring party, one could argue that it would be unethical to NOT offer an alternative. That alternate can be YOU, provided that the customer had to jump over a fence or two to get you. To any outsider, it should be transparent as to whose decision it was for the change. THAT'S the difference between marketing yourself to someone else's customer (sharking) and simply being attractively professional.

This whole phenomenon of "customer gathering" that I experience happens with exactly ONE channel partner. I have never, ever done this with anyone else. Even from a completely selfish standpoint, the telecom world is too small to be pulling that kind of stunt with just anyone. You do that to one of the good guys, and that behavior WILL catch up with you on short notice.

But if you're as angry about these two outfits as I have been with the one I'm talking about, I wouldn't think too hard about a few of their contacts defecting to your camp. Like I said, do the right thing and let things happen naturally. Ultimately, it will be the customer's choice.

 

[econotel]

I spoke with the vendor services rep. today and I could tell in her voice she knew I was not to blame, but did I get any "I sorry" nope.

 

[dagwoodsystems]

Until it becomes The Bell System again (and it may soon), there will always be finger-pointing. It's what I call "the human factor" and will always be a part of any multi-vendor installation.

Keep you chin up and do the right thing. Listen to your customers when they talk about their needs, and work to meet their expectations. Disappointment is the number one reason that customers ditch their provider (what was delivered was less than what was expected). Do this, and you won't have to worry about beating the bushes for business; it will come to you whether you want it or not.

As your business grows, you won't give a second thought to "firing" the TechOptions and Continuants of the world.

 

[econotel]

Thanks. I guess as a sole owner / operator I am so use to working directly with the owner of what are small to medium sized companies that I am just not use to all this corp. B/S. I get in there and get the job done whatever it takes any my clients know I work hard and do an great job for them. The corps. are in some call center ivory tower.

 

[dagwoodsystems]

Good for you. I think you'll find that this forum has a lot of cheerleaders for people like yourself.

 

[econotel]

I called in to this clients office to see if they got their Partner AA working properly. Well they never installed Partner Messaging as I had suggested and they set up this very messy Info. selection that tells the caller for the company directly press this or that then tells then they must remember to press *8 then the extension number. They read off all these ext's then expect the caller to remember to first press *8. Their main menu recording is out of order when they tell the caller what to press. They first say press 6 for this and 7 for that then go back and say press 3 for this them 9 for that. This national dispatch company that hired me really did a GREAT job getting rid of me "the trouble maker".