We have two parts to our business at Clevernet:
Managed Connectivity that includes, internet connectivity, hosted voice, Wi-Fi, fail-over using SIM plus;
Smart Building Management which is our Ecco platform.
Today we will cover off the first topic.
Wi-Fi is still heavily used, even in these days of 5G (and 6G looming), but let's begin by going back to the start of this millennium...
Just after Y2K
Have you ever been a mystery shopper, when you get paid to check out the customer service and premises of a business?
Perhaps you have been on the receiving end of a mystery shop? I have, on multiple occasions back in the early part of my career.
The sales rep was scored against a long list of criteria, including the tidyness of the store and merchandise.
I will not mention the name of the business, or the name of my colleague at the centre of this story from 2000, all I can reveal, the company was a leader in UK mobile phone sales.
Once a month the company would mystery shop every branch and a report would be circulated around the region to show you how each store had performed. We knew this happen, we just didn't know when, or by whom.
We were also mystery shopped by an industry print magazine and I can't recall the name as it was over 20 years ago. It was a warm, summer's day and a well dressed middle-aged gentleman walked briskly into our store. He spoke with an English accent and was enquiring about the Nokia 7110 and the mobile internet capability, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP).
"I'm in a hurry and can't stop", said the prospective customer, "can you tell me about WAP?"
My colleague, who was closest, said (while throwing a brochure in his general direction):
"WAP is cr@p, here's a copy of the brochure, you can read about it yourself"
Never Judge a Book by its Cover
In the world of sales you are always looking to qualify a prospect (is there an interest in my product/service, have they budget, are they the decision maker, when is their IT slot for delivery etc.) and my colleague must have very quickly assessed the situation and thought, I'm, not getting a sale here (judging a book by it's cover).
Sadly for us and our branch, he was a journalist, from an industry magazine conducting a master shop, who did not write very nice things about our branch (11*).
We obviously got highlighted for more frequent mystery shops for the rest of that year and thankfully returned our scores to high 90's, much to our relief.
With the benefit of hindsight, my colleague had a point - WAP was not the best technology, especially on a small mono-chrome screen, however, that was no excuse to treat someone in that dismissive way.
Why Wi-Fi?
Back to my story of WAP, which was very slow....smartphones are available now with 5G, 6G is next, so why do businesses need Wi-Fi?
There are 2 main reasons:
Insulation in buildings will block the mobile signal in/out meaning your mobile data capability is redundant. This can be fixed...
With a 6 figure investment, up front, taking months to get through planning and ongoing monthly service charges.
This leaves Wi-Fi as a very affordable alternative to providing easy to use connectivity. We can roll this out quickly for clients.
We see things other's don't
Customer Service is key at Clevernet. I may be highly biased, but we do go above and beyond with our customers, regardless of the size of the account.
We win business because we spend time with customers, we listen to them, we suggest improvements and do check-ins in person.
Our team help customers up and down Ireland and the UK.
We have some customer case studies in the process of being signed off, one quote I can share already from a global leader in property management said:
"The client is super happy with the Clevernet team"
Another new partner told us this week (mid-Feb 2023):
"My engineer said he has never dealt with a better Wi-Fi supplier"
We offer fully managed connectivity and Wi-Fi solutions for hotels, office buildings, coffee shops, retail outlets, schools, caravan parks and much more.
You can find us in over 500 sites across the UK and Ireland.
Our team is geographically distributed across this territory and we are hiring more team members right now.
We are a small, yet highly experience team, meaning we can be agile and handle customer requests in minutes, not in months. Agile would be the bingo buzz word here.
Our customer support team do a phenonmenal job 24/7 to help when the odd enquiry arrives.
We have decades of experience in this business and know where we have the edge on our competitors.
We are also trusted by our customers and they appreciate our honesty, hence referrals are a big part of our success, thank you to all of our customers for recommending us.
Our promise to you is this - your business matters to Clevernet and we are here to help.
"Ed-ilogue"
(Ed 5:0 ChatGPT)
My planned post for Valentine's Day was postponed due to workload earlier this week.
In our world today, WAP means "Wireless Access Point", rather than the early internet on mobiles. The world of technology does love an anagram.
Pictures are my own. GIF's are from a free bank and no ChatGPT was used in this blog.
Sadly I was unable to locate my 7110, to your left is one of my all time favourite mobile phones, the 8210 (with interchangeable face). Nokia have a new 8210 out 8-)