We’re proud to announce the debut of Commenco Care, a groundbreaking new service agreement available to our commercial customers. Commenco Care represents a monumental shift in the way we do business that goes far beyond a la carte hardware purchases and rentals to better meet our customers’ needs.
It allows you to pay a monthly fee that puts your entire system under the care of Commenco — everything from system engineering, programming and installation to troubleshooting, maintenance, upgrades and documentation.
Customers will certainly be allowed to continue to buy, rent or lease hardware from Commenco as they have for the past 65+ years, but Commenco Care offers a new opportunity to put the full power of our tools and expertise to work for your business at a set, affordable price. We talked to Commenco Managing Director Gary Quint about Commenco Care and what customers can soon expect.
Gary, what inspired the idea for Commenco Care?
We’ve always had maintenance contracts with public safety customers and a few of our larger commercial customers who can’t afford any disruption of their communication systems. Commenco Care stems from that idea. We started looking at how we could extend that kind of value to all of our customers and it came down to thinking outside of the box about service.
After much internal discussion, we determined that the best way we can help our customers is by expanding our service offerings and taking more of the communication system responsibility off their plate, whether that involves two-way radios, video surveillance, access control, barcode devices and printers or anything else that we offer and support.
How does Commenco Care work?
A communications system is an ongoing investment. It’s never a one-time cost. Systems require maintenance, troubleshooting and upgrades, and new technologies come along that need to be considered.
Commenco Care puts all of that on us so that our customers don’t have to worry about it and can stay focused on their business. You pay a regular fee and we do everything necessary to keep your system running and properly documented. We’ll service it as if it was our own. This is much more than a maintenance contract.
How would you sum up the benefit of Commenco Care for customers?
You’ll get the most out of your system investment. It’s that simple. Commenco Care is a smart use of your money and proactive service gives you a lot of additional value.
We won’t wait for a disruption to occur before we go to work. We’ll continually monitor and maintain your system to help prevent problems or catch them early. I think that translates to peace of mind. It minimizes system downtime and maximizes savings through less production interruption, better safety and reduced risk of FCC fines.
What’s the scope of the service included in Commenco Care?
We designed Commenco Care as an umbrella service covering the spectrum of our customers’ needs. A new customer’s service begins with consulting. We’ll meet with you to fully understand your business so that we can match you with a system and hardware that’s exactly right for what you’re trying to do.
Then we’ll install and customize your system to fit the conditions of your operation and make sure all FCC licensing and technical requirements are in order. We’ll train your people on the equipment and make sure everything is running smoothly from end to end.
After you’re set up, we’ll come back at least twice each year to clean your site and perform equipment calibration along with software and hardware upgrades as necessary. All of that is critical in keeping your system running as it should.
Maintenance includes confirmation and documentation that key infrastructure is not causing interference that risks expensive FCC fines, which can be as much as $5,000 per day.
As we check and inspect Commenco Care-covered equipment, we’ll replace components as needed. You won’t have to deal with long wait times or downtimes, or shipping equipment out of town yourself for repair.
What if an issue pops up and a Commenco Care customer needs additional help?
You can expect a priority response. We’ll typically be there within 24 hours and we’ll come out as many times as necessary. No more pay-as-you-go trip and labor charges, which can quickly add up.
Any Commenco Care drop off repairs will take priority over first-come-first-serve service. And you won’t have to pull your people out of the field to transport equipment because we’ll deliver and pick up Commenco Care-covered equipment free of charge.
Commenco Care also gives you a 20% discount on any non-contract repairs.
How will you track everything?
As a customer, you will receive a system performance report that details your system’s condition including any service we’ve completed. We’ll keep you properly licensed and documented to prevent conflicts with federal regulators. And at the end of the year, we’ll send you a statement that shows how much money you’ve saved with Commenco Care.
What’s the bottom line?
Communications equipment is not just a commodity you buy off the shelf. It’s an engineered and designed investment for the growth of your business and needs regular attention. If you don’t have highly technical resources on staff who can focus their attention, or are familiar with, leading-edge digital communication networks and FCC rules and regulations, we will handle that responsibility for you and help you save substantial amounts of money at the same time through Commenco Care.
You know, maintenance contracts have been around a long time, but this is a better idea. We’ve really put it together carefully to ensure maximum value for our customers.
We’re reshaping our internal processes around Commenco Care and we expect it to make our customer relationships even stronger. As your business grows, it will just make sense to partner with Commenco and grow with Commenco Care.