When I was a Telecom Manager Years ago, I found choosing my account team much easier, mainly because there were very few choices. However, in recent years with the growth in partner programs at the providers, customers have many more choices for their account team.
A key driving factor in choosing an account team is resource allocation. With the decrease in resources within customers and providers, the account team you pick has become vital to the success of your business. Therefore, customers must look to sales and support teams for resources that augment their staff as well as fill in the gaps of their provider. With this in mind, it is important to consider the continuity of service, consistency of service and quality of your service when choosing your account team.
Continuity of service refers to having the ability to continue the same level of service despite changes to your staff and your provider. When your provider reorganizes, the right account team should be able to continue supporting your services according to your requirements. Since providers reorganize their teams on a regular basis, customers need an account team outside of the provider for continuity of service. Fortunately, customers today have the ability to work with partners for their account team. These partners can provide the continuity in their service during times of flux within their company and their provider’s company.
In addition, for continuity of service it is crucial that customers have the same account team that knows their requirements throughout the lifecycle of their service. They are there for the proposal, contract, project plan, implementation, billing, trouble tickets and ongoing support. Moreover, the right partner becomes an extension of your team and provides continuity of your service and support no matter what is happening with the provider.
A successful partner also needs to provide a consistent level of service. Because, providers periodically restructure their sales and support teams, partners need to fill in the service gaps for their customers. Additionally, every provider is subject to mergers, downsizing and outsourcing that can impact their individual levels of service. At the same time, customers face new business requirements and challenges. Additionally, a customer may lack certain skills or resources that are required to implement a successful solution. The right partner will have the knowledge of your environment and the skills needed to meet these new challenges over the life of your agreement and ensure changes do not impact day to day operations.
Finally, a successful telecommunications solution requires having implementation and support teams committed to providing the highest quality of service. That means they are proactive, involved and engaged in every aspect of deploying your solution. Most importantly, when things go wrong, they are working tirelessly to manage and escalate your support tickets to ensure they are resolved.
Given the understanding that a partner is the right choice for an account team, which partner will you choose? With over 20 years of experience, implementing services ranging from small office solutions to large international call center and data solutions, the Concierge Telecom Services team is well prepared to partner with your company.