Michael Pierce runs US Capital Lenders, a business that helps other businesses get access to capital. Equipment leasing, SBA loans, working capital. There is no office phone. Every call comes straight to his cell.
The Challenge
Michael has spent 26 years running businesses on one rule. Answer the phone.
"It is amazing how many people have a business in which they're not necessarily concerned about the phone being answered," he says. "Oh, it'll go to voicemail. I'll get back to them."
He did not want to run that way. But the setup worked against him. With no office line, business and personal calls landed in the same place.
"It gets routed to my cell phone. So, it was always getting intermingled with personal calls, business calls," Michael says. "So, it was always tough to kind of manage all that."
Some calls still went unanswered. "Sometimes, I'm in a situation where it might have to go to voicemail and I never wanted that to happen," he says. "But I always had a challenge with that."
The Solution
Michael started looking at options. What he needed was straightforward.
"It doesn't have to be real detailed," he says. "I just have to be able to collect name, number, and information."
He looked at a lot of different services. Setup kept stopping him. "I had tried a couple of other companies and getting things set up, and it was very difficult to set them up," Michael says.
Then he started an Upfirst trial.
"With Upfirst, I was really surprised," he says. "One of the best things I like about it, it was very easy to set up."
Upfirst now answers every call to US Capital Lenders and asks the questions Michael would ask. One of them: "Are you looking to get financing for new equipment for your business, or are you just gathering information at this point?"
Upfirst also connects to his calendar, so a caller who is ready to talk can book time with him on the spot.
"I think that the best feature is, again, the simple setup and just the fact that it can actually go and plug into my schedule and book somebody into my schedule as well," Michael says. "Which is great to have."
The conversations sound natural, which matters when the first call is about someone's business and their money.
"I just think that the best thing is just being able to feel like it's more of a human being talking than an AI-generated person," Michael says. "Because I think that's kind of the key to what we want to be able to do with our business."
The Results
Michael stopped thinking about the phone.
"It frees me from worrying about the phone calls that are coming in, because I always like to make sure that they're answered professionally," he says. "It's always answered, and it's been working great."
He spends his days talking to business owners, and he notices which ones let calls slide. Now he tells them what he uses.
"Any of the businesses that I work with that aren't focused on answering their phones, I tell them that it's a great solution to be able to implement," Michael says. "It's cost-effective, and it makes sure your phones get answered. It doesn't go to voicemail."
The price is part of why he recommends it. "It's a great system," he says. "And, you know, again, I love the fact that it's affordable."