How a Communications Platform Trains Tomorrow's Chefs

For over 15 years, the Arizona Culinary Institute (ACI) has trained aspiring chefs of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. As one of the only culinary schools in Arizona, they take over 200 students each year and boast a 90% job placement rate after graduation. With such high demand, ACI needs a reliable, modern phone system to be able to take calls from potential future students.

Co-founder and President of ACI, Robert Wilson, began looking for a new phone system in 2013.

ACI originally housed an on-premise unit that was outdated, lacked modern features, and was not cost-effective for the school.

After researching other on-premise systems, Wilson realized they were antiquated, and an upgrade would cost him thousands of dollars.

Fielding heavy calls to their admissions, financial aid, and student services departments, Wilson needed something worthwhile and modern to effectively respond to all student inquiries.

Wilson’s background in IT, led him on a quick Internet search where he found Nextiva.

After meeting with a Nextiva representative, Wilson says it didn’t take much for him to know he’d made the right choice by choosing Nextiva as his new service provider.

Make the Right Choice

“I knew that Voice over IP had been around for a long time, but I did not realize, until I started searching for a new phone system, how far it had come.

Everybody else I looked at either stored their stuff out of state, they were more expensive, they didn’t have the features, or the customer service lacked. From the time I put in my request for more information to Nextiva, I haven’t been treated better by anybody or any other company.”

Some of the features the Arizona Culinary Institute was looking for in order to upgrade their system included conference calling, caller ID, voice recording, flexibility, but most of all, they needed a direct dial feature.

Experience Flexibility

“I’m a person who doesn’t like automated systems. When I call, I want a live voice to answer the phone. I think the direct dial has been the feature that helped our business the most.

It allows ACI Students and potential students to reach the person they want. If they need to call student services for something or they need to leave a direct message for somebody, it’s a lot easier,” says Wilson.

Wilson mentions that the new phones are also significantly easier for his staff to use compared to their previous devices, which didn’t have a display feature to simplify phone usage.

He likes how his employees can enjoy the flexibility of working from anywhere with just a simple Internet connection, without sacrificing any professionalism.

“I can pick up the entire phone and send it home with somebody. If somebody wants to work from home, it mimics that they’re on campus,” said Wilson.

In addition to making a positive influence on their business communications, Wilson mentions that the Arizona Culinary Institute is also saving time and money after making the switch to Nextiva.

Save Your Company Dollars

“It’s a savings of over $500 a month. I don’t have to worry about managing the phone system like I did in the past; it frees up my time.”

For those who are looking to switch up their communications, Wilson advises caution, do extensive research before you make the switch to a different provider and don’t buy the cheapest VoIP phones.

“I tried three different phone companies before this. Be careful, because there are a lot of companies out there, but I think Nextiva has what they do down to a science.

Like I said, from the time I contacted Nextiva to send me information to the time I actually received new phones had them programmed it was pretty much seamless.”