NITCO Help Desk delivers on promises to customers during recent storm outages and beyond

The Northwest Indiana Telephone Company (NITCO) has been a staple in the Region for over 100 years. During that time, they have made immense changes that the founders could never have imagined, connecting communities and businesses all over Northwest Indiana and delivering fast, reliable service when it is needed most.

One of the aspects of NITCO’s legendary service has been its help desk team. NITCO has always held the belief that whenever there’s a problem, a small business or a home in a rural area should not have to wait until standard working hours for the support they need. This is why the help desk offers 24/7 service to all customers with help desk employees stationed directly in Northwest Indiana.

Ron Gatlin, the help desk supervisor, has been with NITCO since 2020, a year when being connected felt more important than ever. In his time with the company, he has led by example, offering to take on some of the more challenging calls that have come in, resolving to make sure that no one has any experience that is less than stellar.

“My duties as a supervisor are to give our customers the care and support that they need and also to support our help desk technicians with any technical or procedural assistance that may come up,” Gatlin said. “I even step in to take escalated calls if it comes down to it. I review call interactions and provide constructive feedback as well as participate in cross-departmental meetings to help make sure the inner workings of NITCO are running as smoothly as possible.”

Gatlin feels very strongly that a team that works well together will be better at finding solutions. He leads a team that communicates well with each other and works together toward the common mission of delivering on NITCO’s promises.

“Help desk provides technological support for all of NITCO’s services,” Gatlin said. “Whether it be internet, phone, TV, or our WiFi+ service, our help desk aims to address any issues or questions a customer may have in a friendly and easy-to-understand way. We act as the ‘front door’ when it comes to any issues, and we aim to solve them as soon as they come to us.”

Gatlin strengthens the help desk team by engaging with team members, getting to know them, and making the environment in which they work feel empowering. Having the job of assisting customers through difficult challenges can be hard, but upbeat spirits and a knowledge of working solutions consistently helps NITCO come through for customers with all kinds of questions and concerns. In fact, when Gatlin thinks about what the best part of his job is, he has a quick answer.

“It’s easy: the people,” Gatlin said. “NITCO presents a friendly and helpful working environment where any questions or issues are treated as a team effort to get to a common goal: customer satisfaction. There is no such thing as a dumb question with this type of support.”
When the help desk team itself feels supported, Gatlin believes it will come through in the service they provide.

“Including myself, the help desk team is made up of 5 individual members,” Gatlin said. “Each member of the team has a great amount of core knowledge of NITCO’s technology and procedures, along with each having their own individual strengths. What makes the team function so well is the understanding that we are all here as a team. Each member of the help desk is willing to go above and beyond to support each other to make sure the customer gets the smoothest and most effective service experience possible.”

The local touch is a significant part of NITCO’s overall promise to keep customers satisfied beyond just what they can offer with technology. NITCO is a frontrunner in the high-speed broadband market and the Region’s preferred provider in internet, TV, and voice. They service thousands of clients within a four-county service area, keeping them connected with over 300 miles of advanced technology fiber. On top of that, they have an experienced team of 100% local individuals available around the clock for all customer service needs.

“NITCO provides competitive products all around our service area, but what sets us apart from other providers is our customer service,” Gatlin said. “When you call into NITCO, you are being helped by someone local to Northwest Indiana who is there to understand your needs and get them addressed as soon as possible. I believe it’s always a better experience talking to a neighbor than just being treated like a number.”

During recent outages, NITCO saw a boom in needs from customers throughout the area. The help desk team was constantly engaged through unprecedented circumstances, and Gatlin believes it was a great test to show just how well they work together to resolve issues.

“I think the storm event as a whole stuck out as an experience,” Gatlin said. “There was a lot of storm damage during that time that made it challenging. The help desk made sure to keep the collective mindset of keeping the customer as updated as possible, even if there wasn’t a lot of information in those times of uncertainty. That honest communication gave us the confidence that we were doing the best we could for the customer even if the times we experienced were very trying.”

During storm recovery, many NITCO customers were able to see why the service they have was ideal for such unimaginable circumstances.

“First Call Resolution is our initiative to do whatever it is in our power to get a customer’s issues resolved on the first attempt, and hopefully just with a friendly phone call,” Gatlin said. “Additionally, we like to keep transfers and hold times to a minimum to let customers know that we respect their time. No one likes to be passed to different departments and having to re-explain a problem they were having.”

Whatever the challenge, whether it be regulatory or resulted from a force of nature, the help desk team is consistently training every day to be the number one source for reliable support.

“I focus on instilling the ideal that great communication breeds great customer service. I believe that having an honest conversation with a NITCO customer about their issue and needs and really hearing them out leads to a much more successful interaction for the customer. This, along with providing as much information as possible about how we are going about fixing a customer’s issue goes a long way,” Gatlin said.

For more information on NITCO, you can visit nitco.com.