Simplifying Life Through Technology
SoundVision LLC is a lifestyle technology company located in Mooresville, North Carolina. We interview vendors, clients and staff with the purpose of demystifying the capabilties of new technologies for your home or business and sometimes highlighting local content that is important to our community.
Simplifying Life Through Technology
SoundVision's Service Membership Plans
On this episode of “Simplifying Life Through Technology,” Mark, Michelle, and Andrew from SoundVision sit down to discuss our NEW Service Membership Plans, available for all customers now.
Join us as we delve into the value of service membership plans at SoundVision and how they benefit customers. We'll explore the different tiers of service plans, including a custom option tailored to your needs. All of our plans provide perks like 1-hour callbacks and remote troubleshooting.
Designed by our COO Michelle, these plans are designed to eliminate equipment malfunctions and system lags, ensuring your technology continues to run seamlessly. From streaming TV shows, to intense gaming sessions, and working remotely, technology has crept into our daily lives; It's pivotal to have service to ensure smooth sailing.
Our team has a dedicated service department. During business hours, we have a service technician working solely on service calls. After hours and on weekends, we have a dedicated on-call technician readily available when service calls require action. By doing this, we can provide customers with service whenever they need it.
Our service manager, Mike O'Dowd, oversees service operations from Cozumel, Mexico. Hear the tales of delivering outrageous service from different parts of the world and how we've been able to redefine satisfaction through our service membership plans. Join us, and learn how to simplify your life with our service memberships.
To learn more about SoundVision's Service Memberships:
Call: (704) 696-2792 Ext. 2
Email: support@svavnc.com
https://www.svavnc.com/best-smart-home-service/service-memberships/
Listen to more “Simplifying Life Through Technology” podcasts:
https://www.svavnc.com/podcast/
Check out SoundVision’s Podcast with Martin Conway from HomeWatch Care Givers, as well as our other podcasts, on Apple and Spotify.
Hey, it's Andrew. Welcome to Simplifying Life Through Technology. Joining me in the podcast room today we have our Chief Executive Officer, mark DePetro, and our Chief Operating Officer, michelle Furlato. So today we're going to be talking about service membership plans we offer here at Soundvision Big thing, andrew. So why don't we get into a little bit what our service memberships are? What are they? Why do we have them?
Speaker 2:So for the last number of years we have offered service memberships and actually even to back up just a little bit, it is my belief and what our entire company feels is that we are a service company. We are not an audio video company, we're not a lighting company, we're not a security company, we're a service company. We hear when we do interviews with customers and we do We've done focus groups, we've actually done one-on-one stuff, we've interviewed customers and VIP events, and the two things that we hear almost unilaterally from every customer and every price point that we work with is we want whatever the systems that we install to be easy to use and when there's a problem because it's technology that you can get service for whatever issue that you're having, and so because of that, we really define ourselves as a service company. Now back to the memberships.
Speaker 2:A couple of years ago we outlined levels of service and the way it typically described this to a customer is not unlike what you would have with Southwest. So if you fly Southwest a lot of people do, and you can actually pay for when you get on the plane, and some people find value in that, some people find value in flying first class. There's different values associated with different levels of service, and so that's what we have done here as well. We've created a couple of different levels of service, and those levels have different response times and different ability to get to us whether it's after hours, weekends, that kind of thing so we can accommodate really anybody's particular preference for the value that they associate with service.
Speaker 1:Will you say for anybody who do you feel that service memberships are catered for?
Speaker 2:Everybody wants excellent service. There's certain aspects of systems that we install and systems that we're putting in that it's paramount. The most common one is a network. So we do a ton of networks and networks are so important nowadays, whether it's for work or homework or gaming or streaming TV or whatever. There's a ton of different things, but what you use your network for and how often and taxing you are on that network can define how important the service is for it.
Speaker 2:So, for an example, if you're just using it for streaming TV and you come home and that's all you're doing maybe some gaming or something and your network goes out for whatever reason, it's technology, it happens right, so there's an issue with it.
Speaker 2:That might be an inconvenience. That might not be something that you want to pay an accelerated service membership where we would send somebody out to fix that on a random Wednesday night. However, if you are in the financial markets and you are working during the day from home a lot of people are doing that now, right after the COVID thing and your network goes out. Or if you're like one of our clients that actually leases space to other companies and each one of those companies has an individual network in their space and one of their networks goes out and they're paying you rent or leasing the space. That's a different level of service, and so we can accommodate both of those. So you may want us out there like immediately, and so we have the ability to do that. Within our company We've crafted a service department that allows us to do that, if that is necessary.
Speaker 3:So that is a big differentiator of sound vision among other AV companies locally and both nationally In the past, when you have a big install at your home and you have a project and you have automation put in and then, after the install is done and something stops working because we live in a digital age and there are firmware updates that get pushed through by providers and other Apple TV other factors that arise something stops working and you need help, project is finished and you can't get ahold of the guy who put it in.
Speaker 2:We hear this all the time.
Speaker 3:And you're stuck and you're just trying to get that guy back on the phone with you. The differentiator with sound vision is as a service company, we're specifically set up to be able to address that need and for our customers after we do an install, we do offer different levels of a service plan for them, but you will always be able to get us on the phone. The difference is in our membership that, yes, you will get a call back within an hour. If you have a membership and that's one of the benefits is just that availability to get somebody right away. And, depending on which membership you have, we may be able to do a remote service call with you to help troubleshoot the issues that you're having.
Speaker 2:There's two things there that you talked about. One is remote service, which I want to get to in a second, but the first one you said was you'll get a call back within an hour if you have a membership, and that sort of begs the question of how can we guarantee, like, how do I know I'm going to get a call back within an hour? Can you speak to that, michelle?
Speaker 3:Yes, so the way that we are structured when somebody calls in, you will hear a prerecorded message instructing you to leave us a message of exactly what issue that you're experiencing. It is transcribed and sent out to the on call or service department. If it's during business hours, service departments looking at it. If it's after hours, we have an on call department that's looking at it, and then we're able to pull up your system and do a little bit of work before we call you back to see if there's anything we can identify off the bat of what might be going on with your system.
Speaker 2:We have literally dedicated people for service. So if you call in during the day, we have one person that is assigned basically just to monitor the service phone. You're also doing some scheduling and if you call in during the day they are going to get that call. Now we do that service level agreement of an hour. And that's for a couple of things, and you touched on one really importantly we are going to do some due diligence based on what you say is the problem in your system, before we even call you back, so that we can try to triage that and come up with a solution for you when we call you back.
Speaker 2:And then the remote service. This is another thing that when we set up systems and here's maybe a bit of a plug for just a professional installation anywhere versus a DIY installation or at least a professional installation that's done properly we actually set up our systems such that we can troubleshoot the vast majority of things that can happen without ever coming into your home, without ever having to come back. We can do it remotely and in a lot of cases we can preemptively see that. For example, if there's a power outage, we used to get this pretty normally and we would see the whole street was out. We can tell and we can say almost certainly that that is an internet service provider losing power or you have a power outage. So we can tell and we can actually send out you know information, whether that's an email or something so that you can say, hey, your power is out and your internet service providers out, and we're monitoring it, we'll tell you when it comes back up, kind of thing. But what's cool about remote is that when we call you back after we've done that due diligence, we can actually reset or reconfigure some of your system without ever coming out there.
Speaker 2:Now, in a lot of cases there's a charge to that. But what's nice about that charge is that number one it happens immediately so it doesn't inconvenience you. You don't have to set up an appointment with us so you don't actually have to be there. We do it, you know, while you're there. You don't have to inconvenience your schedule the next day or whenever, and it's less expensive than if we actually send a technician out in the first place and we just take your credit card and over the phone and we do the remote service. Now, if we can't fix it, that remote service amount gets applied to the service call that we send out a guy anyway. So there's really no downside to it for the customer and we've been doing this for a while and it's very beneficial.
Speaker 3:It saves time, certainly If you're looking to avoid downtime. Like Mark touched on. You have a business that you're running out of your home and you need somebody on standby. There's certainly a benefit to that for you and the way that it's structured. You have multiple eyes looking at your issue, whereas you know other companies you're not going to have that. We are very conscientious in trying to stay on top of it. It is certainly one of the hallmarks of how we are trying to frame our business model.
Speaker 2:It says time-honored sales benefits time, money and convenience. It saves you time, it's more convenient for you and it saves you money, and so that's the reason that we do it for certain. I wanted to touch on this too. I said that when we set up the systems, we set them up in such a way that we proactively prepare for down-the-road service, because you're going to need down-the-road service with the systems that we install.
Speaker 2:There's just too many technologies just changing too quickly. Super common one is Apple TVs having to be reset. Very, or Roku is very, very common and we deal with them all the time. One of the ways we do this is we actually in the back end we label everything so our technicians remotely can see literally the outlet that your Apple TV is plugged into, the actual outlet, and so he could say that that's bank for number three and you don't need to know what that means. But he does, and so when he goes in there he can reset that exact thing. So you're not running around like plug-in wires or having to do stuff. He's not walking you through that in most cases. Every once in a while that does happen, but 99% of the time it doesn't, and you don't have to tell him anything. You don't even have to be there. You know he can do that completely whether you're there or not, and he doesn't need any input from you because we've set it up on the front side. It's incredible.
Speaker 1:Upgrade your home with SoundVision, your one-stop destination for cutting edge home automation, From lighting design, indoor and outdoor, audio video systems, security systems, network optimization and shading solutions. Our experienced team ensures seamless installations and talk to your service. We're dedicated to enhancing your lifestyle through technology.
Speaker 3:One of the other benefits that we haven't really touched on is kind of the proactive service. So with the memberships there are some visits where we come out and we have a checklist and we push the firmware updates to your equipment and we check the health of how they've been running and go through the house and do a once-over of everything that you have in there and make sure everything's functioning the way that it should.
Speaker 2:That's a great point.
Speaker 2:We literally come out to your home free of charge. I mean it's included in the service membership. So let's not be misleading, you do pay for it, but you don't pay us anything extra to come out and we do a once-over of all your systems and, as Michelle said, we literally have a checklist that will leave with you. So we go through and we make sure that everything, all the firmware, is up to date. We had another podcast. We were talking about Shades.
Speaker 2:One of our customers had asked about like batteries and shades and maybe it's too high, I can't get to it or I'm not comfortable getting on a ladder. So we can do specialty service features like changing the batteries in your shades. I had a lady who had a two-story closet and there was an electrician smoke detector, so nine-volt battery, not our smoke detector, theirs. But she said hey, you know when you come could you change that battery? You know we added a little extra to do that, but it's in our notes. So every time we come out once a year we bring out an eight-foot ladder or 12-foot ladder, whatever we need, and we go up there and we change that battery as part of our service membership. So we can customize these and there may be some extra charges for that, but we can customize things that you want to have taken care of on a routine basis.
Speaker 3:We do that with vacation homes.
Speaker 2:I know, oh good point.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So there are a couple of vacation homes where you're not living in the residence most of the year. Around Thanksgiving You're getting ready to come out. You give us a call, let us know when that is and we can plan proactively to take a look before we go and then take care of anything we need to while we're out there.
Speaker 2:There's two classic ones in there. We have one where a gentleman or family was involved in the music industry in Nashville and they have their second home here in Lake Norman. It's not even that far from our office and constantly because we're dense and not Michelle, but everybody else takes us a while to figure stuff out.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 2:It's all right, I excluded you and we were constantly having issues where he would come on vacation here and he would call us like the next day and his network needed to be reset and our service manager, mike, reached out to him and said look, I tell you what, if you can just send me an email, like a couple of weeks before you're coming, I'll go to your house before you're ever there, I'll check it, reset it and do that. So that was part of their service plan. That was one example. The second one is one Michelle actually alluded to on Thanksgiving. We have a customer that has a second home up in the mountains and goes every Thanksgiving, and so we literally have a proactive list that within two weeks before Thanksgiving, every single year, we go up there before they go up there, and we do it once over on their system. So when they show up, it all works again. There's some additional charges associated with that, but it's a convenience that those customers find value in and we are certainly willing to do that.
Speaker 3:In our plan options. We have a couple of base level plans, but we also have a custom plan option and we will Can and will work with you on coming up with a solution that best fits your lifestyle and needs that you may have.
Speaker 2:Our goal is to provide outrageous, crazy service for our customers. We want you to have a you wouldn't believe kind of moment and All we need is to figure out. You know what that is for you and we'll work together on that. But service is paramount. We recognize that because of the systems that we install. We recognize that because the customers have asked for it. You guys have asked for it for years and years and years, and so we are trying our very best to provide that kind of outrageous service to our customers.
Speaker 2:Number of years ago we had worked with a provider in providing service and there was a lot of negatives that went with it. They had call centers and they weren't here and we weren't talking to somebody in our team, that kind of thing. But it did allow us to learn how to do this and Michelle essentially crafted our protocol, our process for service in general. So what you experience now when you call in is kind of her brainchild. So she has set up a lot of the ways here of how you can get service from us. How do you get service if you need it, michelle.
Speaker 3:I'll start with. So I'm the person you call if your plan sucks, if you're unhappy with the service you receive it's my brainchild Please let me know Wow.
Speaker 2:We'll put her personal cell phone in the show. But if you're interested in getting a service membership, we would love to work with you on that.
Speaker 3:You can certainly reach out to our main number, or you can shoot us an email and Andrew put the contact information in the show notes and we will have Mike Godoud, who is our service manager. It's worth noting Mike Godoud is not in the country, he's actually in Cozumel.
Speaker 2:We're going to get to that.
Speaker 3:But he actually was an integrator himself and ran our service department locally for many years. He's familiar with many of our customers homes. He's very, very up to date and tech savvy, and you will love Mike Godoud.
Speaker 2:He's been with me in various forms and capacities for over 10 years. Mike had a life change a couple of years ago and had to move. He used to live like two streets up from me. Then he had to move and so he literally moved to Cozumel and one of the positives that came out of COVID is all of a sudden, like about a year in, we said, man, why can't Mike do service remotely?
Speaker 2:So when you call in during the day, if you talk to Mike, he's literally in Cozumel, mexico, and he's doing a scheduling from there and he's doing remote support from there. And it's been working for going on two years now and he is tremendous. He has a wealth of knowledge in the products and in the vast majority of our customers' homes are ready, your homes or places of business. So he is certainly proficient and does a great job listening and just handling service. And I did want to touch on if you are a customer currently and you are looking to get service, not actually the membership, but you can call our number, which again Andrew will have in the show notes, that's the 704-696-2792 and it's option one or two, michelle.
Speaker 3:You can do sales or service, okay.
Speaker 2:You can also from our website. Right on the home page in the top right corner there's a service request and you can click on that and type in and that will get to us immediately. You can also email support at svavenccom. Don't worry, that'll be in the show notes. You can do that and that will get to us immediately. It gets transcribed and, as Michelle said earlier, posted to whether it's during the day or on our on-call team after hours. But you can reach us any one of those ways.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if you find you're experiencing an issue after hours and you're interested in getting a service membership conveniently at that time. Just make sure when you call in that you notate hey, I'm having an issue, I don't have a membership, I would like to get a membership and I would like to get my issue taken care of.
Speaker 2:And I think probably before we get out of here, we probably should say that. What is the expectation? We talked about the SLA, the service level agreement. If someone calls in, they're going to get a call back within an hour during business hours. What if it's a Saturday at seven o'clock at night and you don't have a membership? What happens?
Speaker 2:Everybody's got a quote, unquote free service membership, and what will happen is that if you call in, email in, send a request through the website in an after hours timeframe, then you're going to get a call before noon the next business day. So, of course, the worst case scenario is it's a Friday at eight and you wouldn't get a call till Monday by noon. That's where that value comes in. Like, is that something that you feel like, hey, I need that taken care of quicker? And if so, that's what the service memberships are for, and typically we respond to almost any service call within that week for sure, regardless of what the membership level is.
Speaker 2:However, we do have memberships that will allow for that day or the next day, depending on when you call in. So we quite literally have a service technician that is in the office from eight to 11 every day and only goes out on priority service calls. So if you call in at nine and we can't do it remotely, we can literally have him go that day. If you call in at four, we can literally have him there, you know that, next day. So we do have that. We've scheduled specifically for customers that find value in that level of service.
Speaker 1:Well, this has been great. You have provided so much great information about our service membership plans and, again, if you want more information on it, visit our website, give us a call and we would be happy to help you. Thank you for joining us. You can learn more about SoundVision at soundvisionlakenormancom. You can follow us on Twitter at soundvisionlkn. Find us on Instagram and Facebook at soundvisionlc.
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