Winet Blog

The collaboration between Golfers Paradise and Winet

Find out in this article how the cooperation between Golfers Paradise and Winet works and get a little insight into the daily business from CEO Marc Rohr.

We had the pleasure to conduct an exciting interview between Marc Rohr (CEO of Golfers Paradise) and Daniel Maier (CEO of Winet) at the Golfers Paradise branch in Dietikon. Under the management of Marc Rohr, Golfers Paradise is managed nationwide with 90 employees and 13 branches. Three years ago we had the opportunity to get to know Golfers Paradise and since then we have been supporting them in their telephony business.

Below you will find the interview between Marc Rohr and Daniel Maier:

How did you actually get the idea to enter the golf business?

"That's a good question, because I've been asked it a lot, too. Because when I took over and bought the company four years ago, I wasn't a golfer then. However, I am a passionate retailer (or also called retailer) and I also knew that my passion was hidden here. Opening new stores and managing products, customers and staff has accompanied me all my life. I was also able to experience this internationally with large companies. And so I had no hesitation in taking over Golfers Paradise with its 13 branches (which is therefore not a small retail chain either) and continuing my work. As a sportsman, I was naturally looking forward to a new sport. For now I am a keen golfer. Not so good yet, but since then I've already got the golf fever in me."

After the inventory of the various branches, various starting points for optimization probably became apparent. What did you focus on there?

"Yes, I'm rather impatient there, because I would have preferred to have already changed and turned around everything I saw for optimization from the beginning. But of course, in all these processes there were also people who had to go along with the change. And so we certainly took a year at the beginning to see what was most important and where we would place our focus. And one very important area is the entire digitalization, which is also a reason why we know Winet today. And in the area of digitalization, Golfers Paradise AG was hardly anywhere before I took over. For example, emails were still printed out for reading and in general, a lot of work was still done with paper. To this end, I very quickly focused on and expanded the digital infrastructure in my business. To this end, many changes were planned and also implemented."

Why did you want to replace the telephony system?

"On the one hand, the claim where I have to a telephone system. Saying that at that time, for example, we called our central branch with a normal phone number. Because there was also no internal telephone connection. We didn't have anything digital back then either, or any managing software to control that."

"An example of this would be the out-of-hours call announcements, which we can now install and control via software on the display. At that time, we also had an ancient ISDN telephone system, which was to be replaced anyway. So from a purely technical point of view, we had to adapt our telephone system and replace it with a modern one."

How did you go about the evaluation?

"The thing is, we did it very neatly. We looked at different vendors and also realized that this is a specialized area that requires tremendous expertise. Even when we talk to the Winet team today, we see that expertise and professionalism. It's like professionals talking to nerds. Nevertheless, we had our requirements, which I already described a bit at the beginning. So initially, we also first arrived at the classic providers, which did not meet our requirements. After further research, I also came across the Winet website and also saw the video of you (Daniel Maier, CEO of Winet), which I found incredibly personal and it made me happy that you as CEO also stand behind your products. On the same day, I had also filled out a digital contact form at the time, where a nice Winet employee also got in touch directly the next day. This direct and personal approach convinced me to prefer Winet's offer compared to the large classic providers. And since this evaluation, we are still with Winet to this day, which also speaks for the satisfaction with the telephony solution at Winet."

What tipped the scales in favor of awarding the contract to Winet?

How did you experience the implementation process with the Winet team?

"The nice thing was above all that we did not "experience" anything in the process, because we did not have to do anything ourselves either. Because the conversion was carried out to 100% by the Winet and we had suddenly all desired telephone devices, which functioned since then. In fact, we did not only do the telephones, but also the server connection, the Internet in the head office as well as in all branches and especially closed and secure Internet connections for customers. Winet brought us the technical solutions, which were suddenly there. The only thing we had to do during the implementation was to choose the appropriate telephone devices that we liked. That's when we decided to use wireless phones, where our employees can flexibly carry around and use."

"The support and the complete setup were included in the whole price. You made all these additions for us and I didn't see any additional invoice, but it was even part of your service. I think that's insanely great that we didn't have to contribute much ourselves. Once it was the case where the Winet company even made sure that a suitable electrician was on site quickly. And this experience has personally given me back a lot of time and also lowered my worries. It doesn't get any better than that."

How did you experience the implementation process with the Winet team?

"The nice thing was above all that we did not "experience" anything in the process, because we did not have to do anything ourselves either. Because the conversion was carried out to 100% by the Winet and we had suddenly all desired telephone devices, which functioned since then. In fact, we did not only do the telephones, but also the server connection, the Internet in the head office as well as in all branches and especially closed and secure Internet connections for customers. Winet brought us the technical solutions, which were suddenly there. The only thing we had to do during the implementation was to choose the appropriate telephone devices that we liked. That's when we decided to use wireless phones, where our employees can flexibly carry around and use."

"The support and the complete setup were included in the whole price. You made all these additions for us and I didn't see any additional invoice, but it was even part of your service. I think that's insanely great that we didn't have to contribute much ourselves. Once it was the case where the Winet company even made sure that a suitable electrician was on site quickly. And this experience has personally given me back a lot of time and also lowered my worries. It doesn't get any better than that."

Can you tell us something about the savings compared to before?

"When we look at the monthly bills, we have certainly already saved 40-50% compared to the former provider Swisscom. The big savings we have made, however, in the additional work, where we ourselves did not have to perform additional. In the past, we even had a person who maintained our network, our servers and our telephone system. We had specific maintenance contracts for that, which we haven't had since. That's an additional few thousand and even tens of thousands of Swiss francs that we save in the process. In addition, today we have a hotline that we can call and within minutes there is already a solution. Most of the time, Winet technicians know where the problem is before they call, and they can describe it exactly and solve it every time. For this reason, there are certainly incredible savings, which we can not even quantify. But the pure phone bill is certainly 40-50% cheaper than we used to have. The only thing is that we no longer have our own server to take care of, because now everything runs through Winet. And that's included as well."

Now three years have passed. How would you rate the cooperation with Winet?

"I think I've said this two or three times already. It's the people that make the whole thing, and you seem to have a knack for inviting very great people to join your team. You also seem to have a certain demand on the people you hire. You also once told me that it is difficult to hire good people in the first place. All the more I have to congratulate you that you have the best of the few good ones with you. But not just the best, but also the friendliest, who see to it that they look after their customers with heart and soul."

"We couldn't be happier. In these three years, we have only had 1-2 breakdowns in which Winet was not directly to blame. Because as I also understood it technically, Winet is also connected to larger main lines from Swisscom and therefore also dependent on them also taking care of their lines cleanly. And as soon as there are such major nationwide failures of Swisscom, we are also affected. But even despite these problems, you have always been there for us. Even you as CEO often answer the phones yourself, which I find amazing. You also make sure that you maintain direct customer contact. So we really couldn't be happier with the collaboration there."

Would you recommend the Winet to others?

"Yes, of course, absolutely! I have the feeling that the switch to Winet has also opened our eyes to the fact that we don't always have to be with the biggest and best-known partner. And the small things have made it so that we can also react flexibly and that the personal approach is also given. The decision that we preferred a smaller partner to a better-known and larger one was a very good one, and we are happy to continue with it. Working with Winet, I have also learned a lot in many areas. You almost have to recommend it. To any potential customer looking for a new telephony solution, I would certainly recommend working with Winet."

Golfers Paradise can be reached at:

info@golfersparadise.c
041 799 71 71
www.golfersparadise.ch

Winet Customer Stories as a source for further developments

Since we started implementing our Winet Customer Stories, we have had even more opportunities to receive direct feedback on our own offers and solutions.

Among other things, this has resulted in a new, innovative Cloud PBX to our range in the course of the coming year, so that we can continue to offer our customers the best possible solutions.

In addition to the conventional functions, this PBX also brings highlights such as UCC (video and chat function), modern user interfaces, visual operating options (e.g. in the IVR) and in the future various connections (e.g. MS Teams).

If you are a Winet customer and are interested in a Winet customer Story please feel free to contact us. Because we are happy to accompany our customers on their way at any time.