NITCO tailors large phone systems to clients’ needs, provides personalized training 

Whatever the nature and mission of a business may be, every business needs to be able to communicate. However, finding a communication system that works for any given business can be a challenge, which is where Northwestern Indiana Telephone Co. (NITCO) can step in to help. Having served Northwest Indiana for around 90 years, helping businesses select and adopt large phone systems tailored to fit their needs is NITCO’s specialty.

While there are cable, internet, fiber, and television companies that also do phone installations, they do not have the same specialization in phone system installations. As the leading Northwest Indiana phone installation company, NITCO has the capacity to provide outstanding phone installation service for businesses of a variety of sizes. NITCO also has a deep understanding of and commitment to the community where the NITCO staff lives and works—a quality which, according to NITCO Senior Vice President for Sales & Marketing Tom Carroll, many of NITCO’s competitors lack.

“They don’t know the local flavor. You don’t have anybody specializing in voice systems for business except NITCO,” Carroll said. “We’ve had a lot of our customers who, for one reason or another, decide to leave and go to another provider and come back within hours. They will say, ‘This was a huge mistake. Can I have my NITCO phones back?’ When you’re doing a lot of prep work—talking with that customer to understand their needs and then setting that phone system up so that it works for them—you’re going to be very successful at what you do. I think that good communication, working with that customer prior to the install date, and then doing follow-up after that, is what sets us apart.”

While NITCO understands the community on an intimate level, that does not diminish its capacity to install large phone systems, as evidenced by clients like Porter County Government, School City of East Chicago, Fair Oaks Farms and Journeyman Distillery.

For each of its over 6,000 phones and phone lines out in the field today, the staff will build a system that works for each business, call or travel for on-site training, and maintain communication with that client long after the installation and training dates.

“We really tailor the phone system to their needs, meaning the training is tailored to their needs and the systems are tailored to their needs,” said NITCO Director of Sales Heather Dull. “We can do one phone or 700 phones; it’s all possible within that system, but our goal is to make sure it’s what they need and what functions best for their business. Each person’s training can look a little different, just depending on how they use their phone and what their function is or their role is.”

Once NITCO has reached the training phase with a client, its staff will go over training items like setting up a voice mailbox and forwarding calls, even conducting practice calls to ensure everything is working and clients feel comfortable with the new phone system. This training is tailored not only to the company as a whole, but also to the individual needs of its employees, as each role may vary in its phone requirements. 

“We also show them the easy to use web portal. There’s always a business group admin assigned. That business group admin may be the owner or the receptionist. It depends on the business and who they want to help manage that system for them,” Dull said. “We go through that whole portal, and they have access to do a lot of things on their own. They make changes on their own and do things in the back end on their own. We do empower them to own that system and take charge of it, but also let them know that we’re here in case they need help.”

In the event that a client does need NITCO’s help, they are easily able to contact NITCO for prompt assistance thanks to the Business Priority Plan. 

“Every single person who gets a phone on their desk gets a training cheat sheet. We also usually sell a protection plan with the phone system, which we call the Business Priority Plan,” Carroll said. “That way, if you do have a question because your phone is not operating as it should or you want to make changes, you can call the number assigned to you through the Business Priority Plan. You’ll get to the front of the line with our help desk, and you also get same-day service.”

One of the major draws that sets NITCO apart is the personal connections it forms with each client. When they call for help, they are not going to be tossed around from stranger to stranger, but receive help from people who have actively worked with them previously during the installation process. Carroll believes that this personal connection sets NITCO apart from competitors, and it gives him a great sense of pride in his team.

“With our competitors, you usually never get the same customer service rep who did the installation or someone you’ve started to develop a relationship with. Then, if you hang up and have another question a little bit later, you call back, and you don’t get the same person. You get somebody else, and you have to explain it all over again. If you call NITCO, you will get to the right person. I’m thrilled with what we do here and the team we have backing it.”

For prospective NITCO clients who hesitate to install a phone system for fear that it will not be large enough for them in the future, they need not worry. NITCO is committed to giving each client a phone system that can grow with them.

If you would like to learn more about NITCO’s phone systems and what transitioning to a larger phone system would entail for your business, please call NITCO’s main number at 219-996-2981 or email [email protected]. To learn more about NITCO, visit nitco.com.