While Bryan never regretted his decision to break out on his own, finding providers that met his high standards proved difficult. Not to mention the challenge of chasing industry trends. Classic Internet and Voice services were getting cheaper, and suddenly their future did not seem so clear.
For years, Bryan pursued the latest trends, solutions, and providers. As an agent, he was keeping up and doing well, but his providers failed time-and-again to provide a positive, consistent experience for his customers. Sometimes the product itself failed, other times it was the provider’s lack of support or their inability to grow and adapt.
Despite the difficulty of finding a good provider, Bryan resolutely avoided “Free PBX and ‘pick your flavor’ open source options.” He feared doing a disservice to any customers lacking in technical knowledge. “If you go that route,” he explains, “you need some pretty serious experience.”
One well-known provider that Bryan worked with was good, but still not ideal. Perfection is unrealistic, but is providing all of the tools that customers need to grow their business so much to ask?
His breaking point with this provider was twofold:
Lack of commitment to agents: The provider requires agents to provide all customer data. Bryan says they “couldn’t seem to decide if agents were their source, or if they were prepared for a massive agent exit.”
An extra layer of competition: The provider lists all other local resellers on their website. The ability to handle the competition is one thing, but having your own provider add that extra layer of competition is one step too far.
This brings us back to where we began: Bryan was ready to call it quits and find a new industry.
That is, until a series of emails from Stephen Corrigan of Bicom Systems rolled into his inbox. Stephen had previously worked for Bryan’s provider and what he was saying in his emails, according to Bryan, “hit the nail right on the head.”