Organizations and non-profits dedicated to community service focus most of their attention on the people they’re serving–and rightfully so. Identifying the best way to help others and serve the community should be where you devote most of your attention. But did you know that the right communications tools can actually make serving your community easier and deliver a more powerful effect? It can!

At Mitel, we’re believers in giving back to our communities, and we want to help organizations serve those communities even better. Here’s how three organizations used business VoIP to increase their reach and impact on the communities they serve.

Orion Township improves the community with business VoIP

Michigan’s Orion Township suffered from an aging, unreliable PBX system. The legacy system provided little in the way of functionality to the Supervisor’s Office, which plays a critical role in keeping the community running smoothly by overseeing operations including the police, fire and parks departments. At the same time, it was costly to maintain and repair. Staff struggled to stay in touch with the community.

Then a bombshell hit: Orion Township’s voicemail system broke, losing valuable information. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and Orion Township realized it no longer had the time or money to keep an outdated system running.


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Township Supervisor Chris Barnett looked to business VoIP with hope. His initial concerns around budget and cost were quickly resolved when he discovered that cloud-based phone systems, like MiCloud Connect, would provide a higher quality communications system, at lower cost.

After implementing their business VoIP phone system, Orion Township’s hall, community center, fire and police departments can work seamlessly and securely communicate with each other. Employees are better able to collaborate thanks to a central location for managing instant messaging, audio and video calls and desktop sharing. The time it takes for employees to find one another has been reduced through directories and four-digit extensions.

And the best part? Orion Township actually saved money. The upgrade reduced IT overhead and third-party service calls. Now this money goes back into the community–toward projects such as a new baseball field that’s been waiting for the dollars needed to make it happen. With this level of success, it’s no surprise that Barnett describes the business VoIP solution as the “proverbial no-brainer.”

New Jersey SHARES its business VoIP success story

New Jersey SHARES is a statewide non-profit that provides assistance to those who need help paying their energy bills. The organization also offers case management services, assisting with counseling, nutrition, housing and employment. With 250 agencies across 315 sites, its existing phone system couldn’t handle the growing call volume.

Even after moving from its outdated system to a different hosted VoIP solution, NJ SHARES still experienced problems. Volume caused headaches with the new vendor, too. Calls were dropped or frozen and reporting was unreliable. Customers weren’t having it and vented their frustration.
NJ SHARES needed a contact center that could help them transform its customer experience. They needed a solution that could handle a high volume of calls and provided real-time reports. A fully integrated cloud contact center solution supported by a team of experts, such as MiCloud Connect Contact Center, would change the way they worked.

Today, with a new hosted call center solution in place, managers can virtually move representatives from one call center to another depending on volume. Customers can choose whether to wait in a queue or serve themselves by selecting from a choice of frequently asked questions. Call monitoring provides valuable data for training. Call recording enables management to resolve issues that arise if a call agent and a customer have different recollections of a conversation.


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And, of course, call quality has improved, as the solution can handle the volume without trouble. Customer service has gone through the roof, with one call center reporting an impressive 99.7 percent of incoming calls being handled. Customer wait times have decreased to five minutes or less, even during peak hours. Bottom line: business VoIP enabled NJ SHARES to deliver the superior customer service it needs.

Business VoIP helps Minnie’s feed the hungry

Minnie’s Food Pantry provides healthy meals and resources to those in need with red-carpet treatment. Since its founding in 2008, the organization has grown from a 500-square-foot facility to one totaling nearly 17,000 square feet. Today, the nonprofit serves nearly 8.5 million meals to families in need. When Minnie’s began reaching out to celebrities, phones rang off the hook. While this growth was fantastic, it also created gaps in communication among employees, donors and recipients.

Minnie’s improved the team’s ability to collaborate internally and work with community partners by rolling out a full suite of business VoIP capabilities, including collaboration tools, mobility apps and a full-featured call center. With a modern communications infrastructure, like Mitel Teamwork, Minnie’s and other non-profits have the tools they need to serve their communities efficiently, even as they experience high growth.

But Minnie’s partnership with Mitel goes beyond technology. The Mitel team not only provides business VoIP expertise, but also volunteers its time, which each employee serving several times each year. The system and the partnership are priceless because they enable Minnie’s to work more efficiently and raise more in donations.

Organizations and nonprofits dedicated to community service often face tight budgets and tend to focus their attention externally. With the right business VoIP provider, they can have a greater impact on their community through more reliable and secure communications. Better yet, they can save money in the process, and funnel more dollars toward those in need. A solution such as MiCloud Connect provides the perfect balance of power and reliability – without draining the budget.

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