Vocalocity Customer:Gilbert and Associates

www.gilbertassociates.com

Gilbert & Associates is a Seattle-based, business software consulting company specializing in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM Software) for manufacturers and distributors. They serve companies in the Pacific Northwest, Alaska and Hawaii.

Hub Gilbert’s formal title is Marketing Manager, but in a small company he wears lots of hats, including Office Manager. He answer phones, direct calls, answer generic client & vendor inquiries, and develops all marketing collateral for the company. Gilbert & Associates has been in business for over 25 years and has 6 employees.

Phone System Challenges:

Gilbert & Associates started out with standard analog Toshiba office phones through a local carrier, what’s referred to as POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) in the industry. They ran into limitations with their old business phone solution when an employee was preparing to work off-site. With a traditional business phone system this type of multi-location setup was next to impossible to implement. They wanted to make sure that every employee could connect with the rest of the office seamlessly, as if they were on-premise.

After some research it became clear to Hub that his consulting company needed Hosted VoIP business phone service. Gilbert & Associates conducted a thorough comparison of VoIP solutions and offers on the market. They were concerned about the ease of adaption, hidden costs, and reliability/clarity of hosted business phone service.

Vocalocity Success:

Initially, a competitor beat out Vocalocity on sticker price, but Vocalocity’s knowledgeable staff was able to answer all of his questions, and even matched the offer from the other company.

Now all of their consulting employees are able to work off-site and easily transfer calls to each other as if they were all in the same office. They set up a Virtual Receptionist with a different out-of-office message for off-hours, saving time and hassle of transferring phones whenever they step out or leave for the day. Every employee now has a different busy message to inform customers that they are currently on the other line. Caller ID allows employees to easily screen calls, and multiple lines on each phone let’s them know who's calling so they don't miss a client's call.

“There are a lot of good VoIP companies out there, but what makes Vocalocity great is the customer support and general care for their customers. Whenever I need support, I get an answer within 24 hours, usually within minutes. They truly care about their customers.”

Of all the features in Vocalocity’s Hosted VoIP business phone service, Gilbert and Associates highlights the ease of use of transfers with the ability to blind transfer or talk then transfer as one of their favorites. They also love 3-way calling without extra charges and the combination of the Virtual Receptionist and the simplicity of the Dashboard that makes setting up menus and out of office hours simple.

Not only do they get all the added features, but they also save over $150/month on their phone bill.