Forward Tech Solutions
Forward Tech Solutions helps facilitate better management of small business IT departments by understanding their specific needs and providing solutions for companies to get the most of their IT dollars. Since technicians are often on location responding to IT calls, communications with customers became increasingly difficult, and more essential than ever.
Learn more: www.forwardtechsolutions.com
The Challenge
With a small, dedicated team of IT agents and clients located across Colorado, Forward Tech Solutions needed a way to make technicians in the field more available to clients, improving response times and helping build client relationships.
- Accessibility: Clients depend on Forward Tech Solutions to solve their IT problems, so agents need to be reachable, even if they are out in the field.
- Continuity: FTS technicians are constantly on the move. No matter where they are working from, lost service equals lost business opportunities.
- Reliability: If calls do get missed, agents need a reliable system to turn voicemails into support tickets so issues are dealt with promptly.
The Solution
After evaluating several different solutions, Nathan Malone, Lead Technician, decided that Broadvoice’s b-hive platform was the perfect fit for their needs. Multiple aspects of our service appealed to Malone including the auto attendant, mobile app, and visual voicemail.
“We spent some time with Just Call, but it was a little too busy and not easy to navigate through the system or make changes. RingCentral wasn’t the right fit and we’ve had our fair share of complaints with them through the years. With Microsoft Teams, the implementation was a bit more involved than we were willing to do. Google Voice lacked many of the capabilities we needed, leading to missed calls and potential lost business. Ultimately, we landed on Broadvoice. The whole web UI is very straightforward and it takes no time to train the staff. Plus, you can get things going in a matter of minutes, which was not possible with any of the other providers.”
Broadvoice’s b-hive cloud-based unified communications platform checked all the boxes.
“It really was a no-brainer in the end to go with Broadvoice for a variety of reasons, including ease of implementation, the call attendant, and intuitiveness of the web portal and app. Plus, customer service is always top-notch whenever I need support, which is rare.”
The Results
Forward Tech Solutions now has a cloud-based unified communications solution that allows clients to reach them wherever they are and that scales with them as their business continues to grow.
“The ability for our clients to reach us quickly has been a game changer,” said Malone. “Whether or not I’m at my desk or out in the field, my clients are always able to reach me via our office line. Even if just to acknowledge an issue and give a call back. It shows we are available and that’s good for business. Plus, the call quality is impeccable.”
And if they miss a call, they can use our voicemail to email feature to quickly create a support ticket so the issue can be dealt with promptly—keeping their clients satisfied and coming back as return customers.
Malone continues, “The voicemail to email feature is also paramount to us as our support team can also respond back to voicemails on my behalf. It’s also very important to have the voicemails saved on my PC in certain circumstances.”
The b-hive mobile app has also improved business by making them more accessible to clients while they are out of office. Using the app, they can call and text from their personal devices with their work numbers, further solidifying their relationships with clients.
“I appreciate our clients being able to reach myself or Thomas (CEO) really easily, wherever we are. The app also works just as well in the field as you move through different cellular towers as it does when you’re sitting in the office and connected to Wi-Fi.”
As Forward Tech Solutions continues to scale, b-hive’s auto attendant feature has also been fundamental in accommodating the increase in call volume for their small team. Auto attendant allows team members to be in the field responding to calls and still gives clients the ability to get a hold of them.
FTS knows a smart solution when they see one. In fact, Broadvoice’s b-hive cloud PBX business phone system did such great things for Forward Tech Solutions, they began recommending it to their own clients.
Malone concludes, “We have no complaints. Not only does our organization appreciate the service, but I regularly hear from our own clients that they appreciate the flexibility of the service. Going forward, if we have an opportunity to implement VoIP services for another customer, we will recommend Broadvoice as the leading VoIP provider.”
