Managed VoIP Services with CCI Systems

Antiquated to Updated: Making the Most of Your PBX

Author:  Dale Jarvis, Director Managed VoIP Services

Dale Jarvis

Trying to manage voice services within a hotel, with numerous features, functions, and periodic updates can be a challenge requiring a significant time commitment and on-going training for hotel technical staff. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Utilizing a managed service provider to handle your property’s voice needs leaves you and your staff free to focus on the needs of your guests and the other technical needs a property has. CCI’s Managed VoIP Service can offload the burden of managing a hotel’s voice solution from your IT team. Our ability to control the project from the initial planning stages, through the deployment, with on-going support via our 24/7 NOC/Call Center, has brought relief to many hotels and property owners. No more concerns about potential (or imminent) failure of outdated proprietary PBX equipment or the escalating costs of hard to find replacement parts; our solution takes advantage of readily available industry standard components.

To bring this all to life, let’s discuss a recent incident where a Colorado hotel contacted us with an urgent request for a hosted VoIP solution. During the holiday season, the property had experienced an unexpected failure of their dated PBX, leaving the entire property and its guests without voice services. Another vendor was able to implement a temporary solution, which brought limited dial tone to 40 staff members but left 30 other staff and all guest rooms without a dial tone. The limited dial tone availability impacted hotel operations, and the liability of not having 911 service from guest rooms was extremely concerning. Previously, CCI performed a similar installation in the Southwest region of the United States, so we were top of mind when this particular failure occurred. Swiftly a plan was devised, equipment was shipped, and the CCI installation team was headed to Colorado to install a new PBX as part of the hosted voice solution developed. While onsite, over 600 old guest room and back of house phones were replaced and tested and the PMS integration and training of hotel staff was completed. In under 20 days, CCI was able to take a hotel crippled by dated hardware and completely update, train, and manage the new hosted VoIP solution implemented, allowing the property to focus their efforts on driving business.

Today, we’re engaged with this same hotel planning to consolidate PBX operations between them and a neighboring property to handle call routing and staffing efficiencies between both hotels. As a result, resource sharing is expected to reduce operational costs for both properties.

To learn more about CCI’s Managed VoIP services, or to hear more about what other hoteliers are doing within the industry, join the CCI team at the Hilton 2018 Technology Leadership Forum in Houston, TX January 23-25, 2018. During the breakout session on Wednesday afternoon, CCI Director of Managed VoIP Services, Dale Jarvis, will be leading a discussion regarding the significance of a managed voice solution and why it’s significant to ownership. Stop by and visit us in booth # 303 or contact us directly at info@ccisystems.com.   

CCI Systems Improves Customer Experience With Help From Five9

[Blog originally written by Liz Pedro and featured on www.five9.com] 

“Since implementing Five9, we've seen our agent availability percentage increase by 10-15%. We've also seen less dropped calls thanks to the implementation of the queue call back, and we've been able to improve our call routing from our previous phone system setup.” - Jacob Shields, Call Center Manager, CCI Systems

CCI Systems, based in Iron Mountain, Michigan, provides across-the-network communication solutions to service providers, healthcare, educational, power, and hospitality industries. “We have two call centers, one in Iron Mountain, Michigan and one in Denver, Colorado,” explains Shields. “Our agents provide technical support for guests staying in hotels, residential and small/medium business cable modem customers, and commercial circuit (fiber) customers across the U.S.”

While CCI Systems had an existing contact center solution in place, they weren’t satisfied. “We were looking for companies that were developer friendly, scalable, easy to manage, and could make adjustments on the fly,” explains Shields. “We considered competitive solutions but chose Five9 because of the robust features, and integration with so many other solutions, with a very powerful API.”

CCI Systems implemented their Five9 solution in 2016. The benefits that CCI Systems has experienced since implementing include:

• Agent availability increase by 10-15%
• Added after call surveys to provide insights for improved customer satisfaction and employee coaching
• New capability for queue callbacks which led to less dropped calls
• Custom reporting tied into their database through the Five9 API
• Improve call routing leading to improved customer experience

There are three main reasons Shields recommends Five9 solutions to his peers:

1. Five9 Account Management Team: “They are some of the best to work with and made sure we were taken care through our entire customer journey.”
2. Five9 Implementation Team: “This team is one of the best teams I have worked with. They made sure we understood everything and had a grasp on what was being deployed. They also made sure we had all the documentation and were willing to re-review if we did not understand. The follow-ups were phenomenal.”
3. Five9 Support Team: “They are there when needed and can quickly answer most questions. If they are unsure of the answer, they worked to get us the answer or over to the right person. The follow-ups are great as well to make sure the ticket could be closed.”

For more information on Five9 visit their website at www.five9.com.

Reach out to CCI for all your customer support needs - our experienced technicians and staff are available to assist 24/7/365.