Company background:
Adequate Insurance Agency is an Allstate agency based in Columbus, Georgia. M.C. Phillips is the agency’s owner and has over 30 years of industry experience. In April of 2020, the agency celebrated 16 years in business as they continue to help the people of Columbus with their insurance needs.
Executive Summary
When Adequate Insurance Agency, LLC contacted Aline Phone Systems, at first, they were only seeking to upgrade the office’s handsets. Aline’s sales staff explained that the handsets can be provided complimentary with the service which also offers desktop and mobile phone applications. Since the agency upgraded its phone system and implemented these solutions, the benefits have far exceeded their expectations and solved some key problems.
The Challenges: Old hardware, missed calls, and spam faxes.
M.C Phillips knew that he needed to upgrade their old Nortel phones. The call volume was low and this made it difficult for both parties to hear each other. Plus, they were starting to wear out. “I had some old outdated phones that Allstate gave me back in 2004. I had four phones and eventually had to discard one of them”, said M.C.
The other issue with the phones was that they kept him tied down to his workstation and M.C. enjoyed the freedom to move about in and out of the office. If he was in the office, every time the phone would ring, he would have to leave what he was doing and walk over to the phone and answer. Or, worse, if he couldn’t get to the phone in time, he would miss the call.
“If I didn’t get to the phone fast enough, I didn’t know who called. In my line of business, you need to be accessible.”
Also, if he left the office, he would turn call forwarding on with Spectrum Business. “I used to have to log online and transfer my lines manually, and a lot of times it didn’t work,” said M.C. This put him at risk of missing important calls from clients.
Faxing was another issue. The office was notorious for receiving spam faxes from solicitors trying to sell promote and sell their services. “Whoever gets ahold of your fax number they’ll send you faxes trying to sell you anything from roofing to vacations” recalled M.C. Not only was the spamming a nuisance, this wasted ink, and paper. Little did M.C know, A cloud-based phone system was the solution he needed.
The Solution: A Cloud-Based VoIP Phone System.
The agency switched their phone service from Spectrum Business and replaced their Nortel phones. The office also adopted a mobile phone app. Users can send and receive calls, check their voicemail, initiate conference calls, view call history, and more. The mobile app doesn’t require the task of call forwarding and can be taken anywhere in or out of the office.
The softphone was also implemented. M.C can view call history, integrate his outlook contacts, view call history, send and receive virtual faxes and much more. The softphone can be downloaded onto any computer and used from anywhere with internet access. Also, it can be set-up to have a simultaneous ring with his mobile app. This allows M.C to choose which application he would like to answer.
The Benefits: Improved call quality, enhanced efficiency, flexibility, and conservation of office resources.
Aline Phone Systems has improved call quality, reduce the chances of missing calls, and conserved office resources.
Once Aline was implemented along with brand new Yealink handsets, the office experienced an immediate impact. They haven’t had anyone complain about the call quality as they did before. With Aline and the new Yealink phones, all calls are crisp and clear which makes for a smooth conversation every time. M.C also enjoys the speakerphone feature so that he can talk hands-free and work on the computer.
Aline Phone Systems has improved Adequate Insurance Agency’s efficiency. Before M.C leaves the office, he no longer has to log in to an online portal and forward calls to his cell phone. He can work from anywhere in or out of the office without the fear that he’ll miss a call. “I pay attention to the details and it’s the little things that change your world, “M.C. says. “Even if I do miss a call, I can view call history from Aline’s softphone or my mobile app”.
Aline’s softphone has been a solution and more. Not only can M.C easily view missed calls from the softphone, but he simply clicks to listen to a voicemail. To listen to voicemails with his previous provider, M.C. would manually dial into a number. Plus, with Aline, if he needs to hold a conference call with a client or colleague, this is performed instantly. The softphone also syncs with contacts from his outlook. Rather than manually dialing, he‘ll efficiently click to call his personal contacts or clients when needed.
Office resources have also been conserved with Aline through the virtual fax feature. Since faxes are sent to his inbox, M.C can choose which faxes he wants to save as a PDF, delete, or print. Paper and ink are no longer wasted like before from spammers. Overall, M.C is satisfied with the results.
“Aline Phone Systems is the only choice I made in 17 years to upgrade my phones, and needless to say I’m glad I did. The combination of desktop, computer softphone, and the mobile phone app has been a problem solver for me. The functionalities and features of the phone have proven to be a big plus. Also, thanks to their support team in making the transition smooth.”