Not only is it important for a provider to communicate with a customer frequently, it may be just as important for the customer to communicate with the provider. Thus two way communication.
Case in point #3. National ComTel had a customer that used both a dedicated circuit in conjunction with our VoIP services. On a Monday morning we receive a call from a customer that their VoIP is not working. After conducting our usual checks we decided to send a tech out. At that point the customer admitted to moving their IT room to another location in the building. Guess what, they totally hosed their LAN and communications set up. It took three hours to rewire their network, build a proper firewall, test, turn up and diagram their IT room and network for them. The customer tried to save a buck by using a family “IT person”, thus creating business down time, spending additional money, and creating headaches for themselves.
If the customer would have communicated their plans with us, we would guide them properly on how to go about this change. If they would have been up front with us, we would have had an accurate idea as to the initial problem. We do our very best to educate our customers and others about our industry with monthly letters, blogs, invoice announcements, invoice inserts, emails, phone calls etc. Sometimes the customer has to do their part.
There are very good resources out there, utilize them, ask questions, share your plans.
