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After achieving record revenue growth over the last 3 years, Reliance is now approaching 200 employees with seven locations across the U.S.
To support the business' need for a modern customer communications solution, they chose Nextiva in 2016.
“We really needed a business phone system that could grow rapidly with us and provide the data that we needed to make sure phone calls were going out and being received well. Nextiva really handled all the analytics we needed,” said Lee Baker, Systems Administrator at Reliance Partners.
Reliance Partners was in search of a better way to manage its customer communication for its freight business. They needed a unified communications platform that could let representatives move fast and give them the best opportunity to reach prospects and current customers.
Reliance is a phone-first company who prefers to communicate with its drivers and vendors via voice communications. Their business communications system is perhaps their most important technology investment from a business development perspective.
“Nextiva is the lifeblood of what we're doing,” Baker said. “It's our phone calls. It's internal messaging throughout the company. Everybody is using it for everything that they do. The only thing we’re not doing via Nextiva is emailing.”
We really needed a business phone system that could grow rapidly with us and provide the data that we needed to make sure phone calls were going out and being received well. Nextiva really handled all the analytics we needed.
Lee Baker, Systems Administrator at Reliance Partners
Per Baker, the daily call volume across Reliance’s 150 person team is massive. Between sales, billing, and support, the Reliance team is averaging roughly 1,000 calls per day using Nextiva. “Our teams regularly make a ton of phone calls. I can tell you that between inbound and outbound dials, we had around 30,000 phone calls come through via Nextiva in the last 30 days,” explained Baker.
Baker has also set up Nextiva to provide the best possible customer experience for Reliance clients who are calling into their business. The company is a huge fan of Nextiva’s auto-attendant feature, which allows their inbound callers to connect with the right people at Reliance with just one click. “We use Nextiva to set up a phone tree so our customers can quickly access any department they need to. Whether it's reporting claims, getting a new quote or reaching out to one of their customer service associates, we've all got that built into Nextiva. They just click one button and it directs them where they need to be,” Baker said.
For outbound dialing, the company is a huge fan of Nextiva’s local presence feature, which lets the company use area codes that match the customers’ they are dialing into to increase answer rate. “Another great feature of Nextiva is that we can go in and select the area codes that we need for all of our offices,” Baker explained. “If we have an office in Chicago, we have area codes based around Chicago, so when we're reaching out to someone in the Chicagoland area, they get an area code that they're familiar with.”
Another critical feature of Nextiva’s is the simultaneous ring feature, which enables Baker to route calls to a group of Reliance team members, increasing the speed of response to inbound inquiries. “To ensure our customers can get a hold of us, we use Nextiva’s simultaneous ring functionality across 12 people on a team,” said Baker. “So if one person can't get to an inbound phone call, there are 11 other people who can pick up a phone and assist the customer.”
Nextiva is the lifeblood of what we're doing. It's our phone calls. It's internal messaging throughout the company. Everybody is using it for everything that they do. The only thing we’re not doing via Nextiva is emailing.
Lee Baker, Systems Administrator at Reliance Partners
Finally, Baker cites Nextiva Analytics as a valuable asset for the company’s overall business and workforce management strategy. “We use Nextiva Analytics to build out team portals that show exactly what each individual team looks like in terms of call activity. This helps our managers go through and deal with their people the right way,” said Baker.
According to Baker, advanced features like these give Reliance a massive edge in figuring out how to scale their business. Nextiva is far more than a dial tone to them. It powers their speed of response to inbound calls, improves their connection rate on outbound calls, enhances their overall customer experience and adds insight into team productivity.
One Nextiva use case proved especially pivotal for Reliance Partners - the ability to support a remote workforce using the NextivaONE App.
“Since we adopted Nextiva, my favorite feature, hands down, is the mobile app for it,” Baker said. “Nextiva has been really crucial in making sure our remote sales staff and service staff have been able to continue working in a hybrid work environment. When COVID hit, a lot of people didn't know what their business was going to do. We sent one email to Nextiva upgrading our account to Nextiva Pro Plus. And within 36 hours, we moved everyone from working primarily in an office to a hybrid remote and office environment. We didn't have any kind of business interruption.”
Over the last 18 months, Reliance has steadily grown into a remote-friendly company, with nearly 2 in every 5 employees operating remotely. As Baker explains, Nextiva is the primary driver of Reliance’s newfound remote-friendly work environment.
“We've got roughly a 40% remote workforce,” said Baker. “We try to make it to where everybody can work from wherever they need to — and with Nextiva, there's no downtime. You can be sitting at your house halfway across the country or sitting in a coffee shop. You sign in through your desktop or through your cell phone - and you've got access to everything you would have through your desktop phone.”
We use Nextiva to set up a phone tree so our customers can quickly access any department they need to. Whether it's reporting claims, getting a new quote or reaching out to one of their customer service associates, we've all got that built into Nextiva. They just click one button and it directs them where they need to be.
Lee Baker, Systems Administrator at Reliance Partners
In addition, Baker has great things to say about Nextiva’s customer support and ease of doing business. “Nextiva customer service has been awesome. We've got a direct phone line to our Customer Service Managers. If we need anything, we call them. If it's something quick, I can jump on the portal and either submit a ticket or wait for an agent to hop on,” Baker said.
Overall, Baker finds everything Reliance needs from a business communications solution in Nextiva. From reliability to features to ease of use, Nextiva checks every box for Reliance. “The great thing with the Nextiva is the reliability. We've never had downtime. Our systems don't get overwhelmed. The phone calls are always coming through,” Baker said. “We have simultaneous ring and the mobile app, so we know our phone calls are always going to get answered. And it’s easy for us to do outbound dialing so we can reach our clients. Those are my favorite things about Nextiva.”
Nextiva is also helpful with internal communications at Reliance Partners, connecting remote employees and in-office employees via one universal platform. Baker raves about the ease with which his team members can relay messages to one another via Nextiva.
“Nextiva ensures that everyone is connected all the time,” said Baker. “There are a lot of different ways you can message back-and-forth between teams. We can quickly and easily send a message to someone by hitting one button on a mobile app and dialing a number to make sure someone's available.”
As a forward-thinking company, Reliance is constantly seeking new ways to support its growth in terms of headcount and customers. According to Baker, Nextiva has perfectly positioned them to continue their rapid upward trajectory by providing a business communications solution built for scalability.
“Reliance is looking at growing in the next two years to around 300 employees. Nextiva is awesome because anytime I need to set up a new person, I just go into a portal and click a button,” Baker said. “We brought 50 new hires into the company within a month's time. If I need to buy more phone numbers, it's no problem. I shoot off an email. I get a quote back within about 24 hours. I can click a button and we're good to go.”
We've got roughly a 40% remote workforce. We try to make it to where everybody can work from wherever they need to - and with Nextiva, there's no downtime. You can be sitting at your house halfway across the country or sitting in a coffee shop. You sign in through your desktop or through your cell phone - and you've got access to everything you would have through your desktop phone.
Lee Baker, Systems Administrator at Reliance Partners
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