To give you the best possible experience please select your preference.
By Iain Sinnott, Head of International Carriers, Enreach for Services Providers
A group of accountants is attending an annual conference and, over the lunch break, one of them laments how their comms system is not fit-for-purpose. Another accountant then shares that they have had a great experience with another comms supplier — let’s call it Sinnott Telecom — a fact heard by six other accountants listening. So, if those accountants do an online search, they will find Sinnott Telecom and hopefully make contact to find out more.
Conversely, imagine that the accountant mentions the technology vendor instead of Sinnott Telecom. So, when that same group of accountants performs an online search, they look for the technology brand, and guess what? A dozen different results pop up: Sinnott Telecom might be one of those, but it will be among a list of competitors offering the same technology solution.
Understandably, being associated with well-known brand names has a natural appeal and can help to generate interest among customers actively looking for that technology. However, service providers will have to work much harder at customer engagement to ensure success is attributed to them rather than the technology vendor. That means more investment in marketing to stay visible in a sea of other branded resellers.
We believe that the relationship and visibility with the customer should stay with the service provider. This is why we are passionate about giving our partners a choice of white labelling options and enabling them to own the entire customer relationship. As far as their customers are concerned, they buy from our service providers, not from us.
Consequently, the service provider gets all the credit. Plus, their marketing investments are for their own benefit, not shared with other companies offering the same underlying technology. Want to buy services from Sinnott Telecom? There is only one place to go.
However, what’s under the hood at our imaginary service provider is a comprehensive set of converged contact solutions, integrating apps, devices, platforms, and networks into one seamless environment tailored to each company and its users. Services include customer experience, collaboration and mobile, with white-label options in many languages, technical support, and analytics.
The net result is that our service providers can rely on comprehensive, reliable and flexible technology so that they can focus on what they do best: looking after customers, giving them a great experience, and getting credit for their own hard work. And then those customers share that good news, hence: your brand, your referral.