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There was no question Zachary Bollen had found success with his Papa John’s franchise in Cookeville, Tennessee, a community of 20,000 located 82 miles east of Nashville. At nearly $1.5 million in annual revenue, Bollen’s store is ranked 13th worldwide among Papa John’s franchises in terms of sales volume. But his voice and DSL Internet service from the local telephone company was simply not delivering. The DSL connection would switch from broadband to sluggish dialup speeds on a whim, and that was a problem given that 40 percent of the pizza orders coming into the store are made online. Even worse, the DSL service always seemed to go down on a Sunday — not an ideal time for a takeout pizza business at the height of football season. The voice service wasn’t any better. “I had problems with the phone because customers were calling in and getting busy signals and voice mail,” Bollen said. “The credit card processing also took forever, and God forbid if two of us were trying to process a credit card at the same time.” Fed up with the spotty service, Bollen decided a change was needed. He contacted Charter Business and met with an account executive, who worked with him to design a service bundle that was made to order, including the price. “He worked me up a quote, and it was half of what I was paying,” Bollen said. Not only did the Charter Business Bundle® cost less, but it offered more. Bollen was able to upgrade to eight phone lines and Internet service with a 16Mbps connection.

FAST TRANSACTIONS

The transition to Charter Business service was easy, even though the local phone company had to be prodded to port over the number. “It was completed in roughly two and a half hours,” Bollen said of the installation itself. “I was so grateful with the customer service and the local Charter Business folks. The local Charter Business representative was phenomenal. In fact, after all of this I went ahead and switched my home phone service to Charter.” Since the conversion, the Charter Business service has proven as reliable as it is fast, and that has had a positive impact. “It’s helped my business drastically. I’m processing credit cards in milliseconds versus seconds with DSL and dialup. There is no comparison,” Bollen said. “The voice quality is crystal clear, and the customers are not getting a busy signal or voicemail.” He is so enthusiastic about the switch to Charter Business services that the greeting customers now hear when they call the store tells them that it is “a proud customer of Charter Business^® Phone and Internet service.” The store’s billboard also tells passers-by that the business is powered by Charter Business services.

NEXT UP: TV

Bollen also plans to add TV service from Charter Business. The TV provides sports and news programming to customers as they wait for their orders, and as such, it is a key amenity. “As far as TV in a restaurant, it is a must have now,” he said. Bollen also has taken it upon himself to spread the word among fellow business owners about what Charter Business can offer. “The first thing I would tell them is that Charter Business will save you money, and second you will get excellent customer service,” he said. Click here to see more Case Studies.