Do You Want It To Be A Job, Or Do You Want It To Be A Business?

The Challenge

When Jeremy Banner and his business partner acquired Meucci Cues four years ago, taking over a custom pool cue brand with more than 50 years of history, they inherited a phone system that was failing in a way that had real costs attached. The legacy line was unreliable, at one point damaged by a lightning strike, and patched together rather than built to run a business. It became the first problem Jeremy set out to solve.

At the time, one employee handled the phone while juggling several other responsibilities. Calls were missed regularly, voicemail follow-up was inconsistent, and a missed call without a voicemail usually just went unreturned. With roughly 50 inbound calls a day, many of them repair or order updates on made-to-order cues, and any call tied to a product carrying a minimum value of $400 to $500, every dropped ring carried a real cost.

The Solution

Jeremy replaced the legacy line within the first month, then went looking for a system that could actually run a growing company, not just answer calls. He compared providers for a business in the 30-to-40-person range, hunting for a middle ground: more capable than basic phone tools, without the complexity of an enterprise platform built for a company ten times the size.

The requirements were specific: call recording, clear visibility into missed calls, and something close to CRM-level context on who was calling, how often, and what had already been discussed. Nextiva stood out for its Google integrations, self-service call-flow building, and a visual call-flow map Jeremy could configure himself. Meucci Cues built out a full flow: an auto attendant routes daytime calls to the primary customer service line, then a secondary line, then a fallback line if nobody picks up. Outside business hours and during daytime overflow, calls route to XBert, Nextiva’s AI receptionist, which answers, asks the caller why they’re reaching out, and passes that context to the team.

The Results

Meucci Cues now runs with a dedicated customer service rep and a second rep for busy stretches, backed by XBert, Nextiva’s AI receptionist, catching after-hours calls and daytime overflow so a busy team member never means a silent phone. The buildout is still in progress: the newer XBert configuration is roughly a quarter complete, and Jeremy has a working session on the calendar with a Nextiva engineer to sharpen how it hands off callers who ask for a person. A full ROI figure isn’t measured yet, but at 50 calls a day and $400 to $500 minimum on the calls tied to a cue or product, the cost of what used to slip through was never small.

WHY MOST SMALL BUSINESSES STALL

Asked what tends to hold small business owners back from adopting AI or a stronger tech stack, Jeremy didn’t hesitate:

“A lot of small businesses grow just enough to fit the owner’s lifestyle. Once it’s big enough to meet that, they’re not looking to grow or innovate… just maintain how it is. That’s not how we see it.”

Jeremy Banner, CEO @ Meucci Cues

A BIGGER LENS ON A SMALL BUSINESS

“I did an MBA and spent years in management consulting with Fortune 500 companies. You see a lot of systems, a lot of process, a much bigger view of what’s possible. The fun part is flipping that over onto a small business and bringing that bigger perspective into a small pond.”

Jeremy Banner, CEO @ Meucci Cues