Miller Auto Center Finds Nextel Phones Improve Customer Service

"How often to you use a pen and when was the last time you remember using it?" asks Dave Thompson of Seren Communications, the first Minnesota company to provide multi-communications services to consumers. "That's how I feel about my Nextel phone. I use it constantly." In fact, Nextel phones fit in so well at this subsidiary of Northern States Power Company that they require all of their contractors to purchase the phones. "Our contractors need to communicate with us and Direct Connect makes that communication easier." Nextel's Direct Connect® is a unique two-way radio feature that provides instant access to other Nextel users. By selecting Nextel, Seren joined the nearly 30,000 other contractors, architects, engineers and other suppliers on Nextel's Builder's Network, which ensures all Nextels users in the building business can reach one another in a click of a button. Thompson chose Nextel when Seren Communications had only 10 employees. "Direct Connect was a big factor in my decision to purchase Nextel phones," he says. And because Seren now relies on communication with up to 140 contractors, Direct Connect is even more important. "I like Direct Connect because it eliminates the chit chat you go through when stopping by someone's office or calling them on the phone. It's like sticking your head in an office, getting what you need and then leaving. Conversations are more to the point," says Thompson. "With Direct Connect, you don't have to talk about the weather." And so business gets done more quickly. "Seren is more efficient with Nextel," says Thompson. "We can instantly contact groups of employees with both Direct Connect and e-mail." Thompson likes that every employee and contractor has an e-mail address for his/her phone."Now, our Network Operations Center (NOC) can communicate with employees to alert conditions of a lightning storm." Seren's NOC can contact all of its workers in enough time to notify them to get out of the field, "because it only takes a few seconds to notify everyone," says Thompson. "If I had to say one thing about my Nextel phone, I'd say 'Don't get dressed without it,'" says Thompson. "I left it at home once and I learned the hard way. You don't realize how important the phone is until you leave it at home. One time was all it took."