Supporting Teachers Using a Better Phone System

Established in 1975, North Orange County United Teachers (NOCUT) serves teachers through five district chapters in California. Currently serving over 2,000 teachers, NOCUT assists in: negotiating fair salaries, health and other benefits, leading student-centered educational improvements, supporting professional practice with conferences, workshops, grants, and scholarships, improving learning and working conditions, enhancing and defending professional rights, and providing cost-saving benefits designed just for educators.

“We make sure teachers have everything they need to succeed in their profession and beyond. We help leverage communication between the union and the district. We’re an important connection between educators and administrators,” said NOCUT’s administrative assistant, David Jones.

David says he began his search for new phone service at the end of 2016, as their copper POTS system was no longer supported by the company that sold it to them.

In addition to an unsupported system, David says their contracts and pricing were subpar and their customer service, “beyond subpar.” His requirement for a new phone system was that it provided solutions to all of those problems.

Make the Better Choice

“I felt that VoIP would be a better choice. I’d never used it before but just based on research, it seemed like that’s where business phone systems were heading,” says David.

After comparing six different phone companies, David and NOCUT’s board of directors settled on Nextiva.

“Reading the reviews with people raving about the customer service at Nextiva made me trust it more. The salesperson’s pitch fit into what the reviews said, and the rest of the process and continuing customer support made me a believer,” says David.

With a small office, NOCUT’s transition to Nextiva only took about a week to finish.

David had no previous knowledge of setting up phone systems but says Nextiva’s customer support walked him through every step and provided him with a set schedule that was convenient for him to oversee the setup process.

Communicate with the Members You Serve

Since then, NOCUT has been enjoying vFAX, upgraded call quality, and they’re taking advantage of Nextiva’s SMS feature to communicate with the members they serve.

NOCUT staff uses the NextOS portal to handle all of their call trees and voicemail setups.

David says the simplicity of it all compared to his last provider is refreshing and allows their organization to communicate in a more effective and professional manner.

Overall, David says his favorite Nextiva feature is the amazing customer service and professionalism, from sales to set up to support.

“Every time I get off the phone with Nextiva’s support department, I tell the people I work with how impressed I am with it. I’m not an easy guy to please normally. The customer service is just an all-around better experience than I’ve had almost anywhere, regardless of industry.”