Recently, we spoke all things phone and business with Chris Pallé, Co-Founder of Vi, a vibrant and growing community-focused New Jersey-based co-working and collaboration space with two locations, Holmdel and Oceanport, NJ .
Phone.com: How did you get started as a Phone.com customer?
Chris: I started talking with Ari (Ari Rabban, Phone.com CEO) several years ago following a presentation he did for the community.
Of course, I knew of Phone.com from the NJ business and start-up scene—the brand name is and always was the best there is.
When we I opened our first co-working space, we wanted a suite of “all under the same umbrella” phone tools and capabilities for our team, as well as something we could offer our people and members. Most are on cell phones and most make good use of the conference room, and we wanted a uniform solution for everyone. We wanted to encourage people to use the same service.
With all of that in mind, we decided to go with our roots and heritage here in New Jersey, and opted for Phone.com, a local company with values and guiding principles similar to our own.
P: What are some of the tools and services you like best about Phone.com?
C: I love just how feature-rich these features and offerings are. There is a lot of flexibility in terms of services, tools and capabilities, no matter what your size or the nature of your business. I also love how we don’t have to deal with multiple companies and many different apps to do different things—with Phone.com, we avoid “app overload” and get everything done under the same company.
Everything is so much more streamlined and simplified this way. No more cobbling things together to make things work—that has always been such a hassle!
P: Have you had any experiences with our Customer Service team?
C: Yes, and in a word, Phone.com’s customer service has been fantastic. The team is responsive, easy to work with and always coming up with a “can do” attitude about everything. What’s more, I have relied on these folks for their flexibility and innovation, such as coming up with new ideas and solutions in anticipation of something we need but may not know is available or possible.
From a service perspective, it is super-critical for us to have a live person who cares and responds. We don’t have the time or patience to jump through hoops with a knowledge base…we really prefer real people who can efficiently address our issues and answer our questions, and this is enormously valuable to me and for my team.
P: Tell us about some of the key needs Phone.com addresses for you as a small business, and for your own members as well.
C: Prospective members ask us all the time, “Do you have a receptionist?” or “Do you offer receptionist services?” And so many of the Phone.com services allow us—and our members—to build a customized solution that addresses so many areas that a receptionist might cover. I think Phone.com calls it an “auto receptionist” feature. For a small business with limited staff and budget, the value of this capability cannot be overstated.
We are also thrilled with the clear, crisp quality of the audio on the conference lines, it’s been amazing. The quality of the audio is so key because it adds to the experience of the space for all who use it and rely on it.
We have also played around with the video conferencing tools, and we are looking forward to getting more familiar with Phone.com’s mobile app and with other meeting-related tools.
P: Beyond technology and tools, what do you like about working with Phone.com?
C: Definitely the above-and-beyond approach to helping and serving customers is amazing here. The entire Phone.com team has been extraordinarily helpful and responsive. There is so much flexibility as far as what you can do and what features and tools we can access—it was this flexibility that was so enticing to us as we explored our phone-related options.
There is also a deep passion on the part of the Phone.com team as far as the technology and the problems it solves. The commitment to doing things the right way and to the benefit of clients and customers is enormous and continues to impress me today.
P: Can you tell us more about the company name, Vi?
C: We thought a lot about a name that would represent who we are and what we offer our members, and the combination of these two letters ,“Vi,” kept coming up. Positive, strong words like “thrive,” “vibrant,” “virtuous,” “vitality” and others all share themes of life, strength and growth, and we really like the connections.
“vi” was also a text editor invented by Bell Labs, which is near and dear to our heart, given our flagship location.
While it’s pronounced “Vee,” I never correct anyone else’s pronunciation.
Ultimately, like Phone.com, we are passionate about making sure that everything we do offers a great, high quality experience to all of our members.
Phone.com Special Offers
Phone.com has a special offer for cowork spaces, accelerators and incubators and their clients. For more information, please contact us.
