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Need advice from an IT baw re Phone Options for Sales Call Center...

Posted on 1/18/22 at 7:15 pm
Posted by Droplinebacker
Member since Jan 2004
787 posts
Posted on 1/18/22 at 7:15 pm
I own a retail brand with a manufacturing building, and I want to set up a call center inside my building. (In essence, I am hiring 2-3 people to call retail shops all day to introduce our product to the store owner, with the idea that the store owner will sell our products on their shelves.) My warehouse is about 13k sq ft, and we have a couple of empty offices where my phone sales crew will be stationed. The building has some old phone lines that run from jacks in the walls (adjacent to workstations) to a server room. The Spectrum guy (I'm in CA) just came in and set up some equipment in the server room, but he said his "tuner" wasn't working and he couldn't connect the phone lines with the proper workstation jacks. He said it was someone else's responsibility anyway (apparently Spectrum doesn't run lines anymore.) This means I need to find someone else (presumably a low voltage person) to come out and run these lines. (I should also note that we don't have an existing phone company or service in this building.)

I don't know anything at all about telephone lines or VOIP. Should I scrap this whole Spectrum shitshow and use VOIP lines instead? (Internet is not an issue here.) Are should I proceed with getting this set up and using Spectrum?

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated!
Posted by Nguyener
Kame House
Member since Mar 2013
20603 posts
Posted on 1/18/22 at 7:17 pm to
quote:

Any thoughts or advice


Post a pic of your mom I bet she’s down for anything.

That’s a thought and advice
Posted by RealDawg
Dawgville
Member since Nov 2012
9448 posts
Posted on 1/18/22 at 7:18 pm to
Outsource. Way more flexible and scalable without you taking on capital and liability. Plenty of folks that do this you can still hold accountable.
Posted by Breauxsif
Member since May 2012
22290 posts
Posted on 1/18/22 at 7:22 pm to


Interview some hot chicks for your sales team with this nice setup.
Posted by Droplinebacker
Member since Jan 2004
787 posts
Posted on 1/18/22 at 7:26 pm to
Thanks Dawg. Any recommendations?
Posted by upstate
Member since Nov 2015
621 posts
Posted on 1/18/22 at 7:28 pm to
quote:


Outsource. Way more flexible and scalable without you taking on capital and liability. Plenty of folks that do this you can still hold accountable.

This is a good option. A BPO will make the calls and scale for much cheaper than you hiring.

If you must, a small ucaas solution with some CC built in would work. Run softphones on their computers, and as long as you have an internet connection and a headset you can work and run your phones from wherever.

And for goodness sakes don’t use spectrum. Use nextiva or 8x8 or someone like that.

If you need advice, I work for a tech distributor essentially and could hook you up with a partner that could guide you, and the manufacturer pays them if you sign a contract so it costs you nothing
Posted by Bullfrog
Institutionalized but Unevaluated
Member since Jul 2010
56290 posts
Posted on 1/18/22 at 7:29 pm to
Go voip.

Logmein bought Jive. They are worth getting a quote from.
Posted by upstate
Member since Nov 2015
621 posts
Posted on 1/18/22 at 7:30 pm to
quote:

Logmein bought Jive. They are worth getting a quote from.


Good option as well
Posted by TheWalrus
Member since Dec 2012
40567 posts
Posted on 1/18/22 at 7:33 pm to
Might have more staying power and better answers on the tech board than the OT
Posted by angry_german
BFE
Member since Jun 2018
15 posts
Posted on 1/18/22 at 7:45 pm to
You should have a local ILEC in the area. Basically that's your local telephone company. They are the ones who usually will wire up telephone jacks. That may not be Spectrum which is why they don't do that anymore.It sounds like the tech's "Toner" wasn't working and that does complicate things when trying to locate phone lines. It's basically a tone generator.

That being said VoIP is probably your best option. You'll need network drops everywhere you want a phone. You'll need to find a provider. Spectrum may even do this, I'm not sure. A-lot of times they can setup an auto attendant for you pretty easily. Without you having to have a local PBX. Which is probably what you want. Getting VoIP working right on your network can be tricky sometimes, but it's common enough now that pretty much anybody in IT is dealing with VoIP now.
Posted by jscrims
Lost
Member since May 2008
3554 posts
Posted on 1/18/22 at 7:49 pm to
quote:

Should I scrap this whole Spectrum shitshow and use VOIP lines instead?


VOIP
Posted by upstate
Member since Nov 2015
621 posts
Posted on 1/18/22 at 7:51 pm to
I would go ucaas not voip. No need to run drops. If the network can support just run softphones off computers or cells and give the baws a headset.
Would seriously look at a bpo if you haven’t hired them yet though
Posted by RealDawg
Dawgville
Member since Nov 2012
9448 posts
Posted on 1/18/22 at 8:59 pm to
quote:

Thanks Dawg. Any recommendations?


I’ve been out of that world for 10 years now. Surely some other folks on here know some resources.

A call to make would be one of the big local tech staffing firms. They could tell you If anybody nearby is doing contract work.

I’ll ping a couple of contacts to see what they recommend.
Posted by XxxSpooky1
A place in SE La
Member since Sep 2007
5145 posts
Posted on 1/18/22 at 9:26 pm to
Nortech

Give these guys a call. They offer great voip service.
Posted by Limitlesstigers
Lafayette
Member since Nov 2019
2862 posts
Posted on 1/19/22 at 6:25 am to
I'd probably go VOIP, how is your internet and email marketing going?
Posted by bee Rye
New orleans
Member since Jan 2006
33962 posts
Posted on 1/19/22 at 6:33 am to
VoIP will allow more flexibility and allow people to take the phone system home with them as well.
Posted by Droplinebacker
Member since Jan 2004
787 posts
Posted on 1/19/22 at 4:31 pm to
Thanks to all that responded. I ended up going with VOIP through Nextiva. Appreciate the advice.
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