Case Study: McKie Automotive, Rapid City

 Situation 

When you’re the largest Ford dealer in the western part of a big state like South Dakota, time is of the essence. If a customer is ready to buy, things need to be in place so you’re ready to sell. McKie Automotive was looking for a solution for unreliable connections with phone and data.

 
“With our previous provider, the outages were aggravating,” said Wayne Hunt, IT Specialist. “We found ourselves saying to our customers, more often than not, ‘We can’t really help you right now.’”
 

McKie was experiencing connection problems as often as two or three times a month. Selling a car can be a one to two hour process, but if a sales rep can’t check numbers or get information, it can take longer. “When a customer is passionate about making a purchase,” said Hunt, “you don’t want them cooling off. When our system was down, we couldn’t write tickets and look up or enter information. So we were back to handwriting some things. That is not very professional.”

Tech support with the previous provider was based out-of-state and that, too, caused major frustrations. “It seemed like they didn’t know anything about us and how we were set up,” said Hunt. “If we had an outage and I called them, it would take them twenty minutes just to figure out who and where we were. They were basically saying -- ‘this is all we can do for you.’ For us, that wasn’t enough.”

 

Solution 
 

McKie looked to Midcontinent Business Solutions for a  fix and a better plan. 
 

 “Their engineers went to work right away and got the wheels turning quickly,” said Hunt. “I was feeling relieved. We were sort of in a pinch to get a new store opened and I didn’t know what kind of time frame I had. Midcontinent just stepped up and got it all done. It was incredible. They were able to get fiber into that building without tearing up a lot of stuff and the store opening was right on track.”

Now McKie can count on faster Internet speeds, more reliable phone connections and cable services for their waiting rooms at all five locations -- all with great service and support from Midcontinent Business Solutions.

“The switch was great too because my relationship is now personal,” said Hunt. “Midcontinent’s a local company and I know how to get a hold of someone right away and they always call me back. They know what they’re doing and they have the best people in place. They really have made my life easier. I actually sleep better at night knowing I can count on Midcontinent if we have any issues or concerns.”

Scope of Services 

Business Phone Lines

PRI-Voice T-1s
Dedicated Internet Connection
WAN - Ethernet Transport
 

Back to Resource Center