Heroes in Business - Robert Jones the president of Communication Concepts AZ is interviewed by David Cogan of Eliances Heroes

Episode Date: September 20, 2024

Robert Jones the president of Communication Concepts AZ is interviewed by David Cogan of Eliances Heroes amfm, iHeart, Podcastone. They discuss how CCAZ helps its clients do more with less and create an impact through sound and reliable technology solutions. With more than 25 years of experience, Jones truly loves supporting his customers and has found the key is excellent customer service. "I believe we all are geniuses in some way." 

Welcome back to Alliances Heroes, where heroes in business align. To be part of our super community and find out more about Alliances, visit www.alliances.com. Now, back to our super host, David Kogan, founder of Alliances. Well, what a morning it's been. What a morning it's been. We just had the president of Big Lots. That's a Fortune 500 company doing $5 billion in sales. I just interviewed the inventor of Dippin' Dots. We'll be ending the show with Angie from Angie's List.

But our next hero, he is the president of Communication Concepts, Robert Jones, and he can be reached at ccaz.com. Now, Robert, your company's been around for 24 years. It was born out of the desire to help businesses do more with less effort. I just love that aspect of it. But share with us more in detail exactly what your company does. Well, thank you for having me on, David. And our company really focuses on the business and the people first.

That being said, we consider ourselves brand agnostic because really it's about what technology you put in the company that supports the company and the people they're in as opposed to any aligning with a particular brand or vendor. And who do you target? Small to medium business, our sweet spot is between 10 and 50 users. I like to call them people, though, as opposed to users or contacts. And how do they know that they need to use you?

So what aspect, what comes into play where they go, oh, okay, I got to go ahead and contact Robert? Well, if we've already got an ongoing relationship with them, typically it's just a matter of picking up the phone and asking for help. How did you get your start in doing this though? What was the aspect of getting involved? Well, boy, that's a long story. To shorten it, really, I had been working with a company that did similar types of things, and business was off a bit, and I opted out to, you know, leave to lighten the payroll load, and people kept ringing my pager at the time. And here we are 25 years later. And people kept ringing my pager at the time. And here we are 25 years later. So that's incredible. You left, yet you still had people contacting you and said, okay, they're contacting me.

Let's go ahead and let's start it. More or less. Yeah, it took me about six months to really get my head around whether or not this was a viable opportunity. And it flourished. Let's talk about that because that's certainly on the minds of many people that are starting their companies. They want to know, I've got something, I think I've got something, but I'm not sure. So at what point do you know, because you mentioned Viable,

going, okay, yeah, I've got it. Well, if the business appears to be there, I'd recommend going for it. Excellent. recommend going for it. Excellent. And tell me too, is, is what do you believe to be great customer service and how important is it to a business owner? Talk about customer service. Customer service is huge in, in our business, especially because when your systems are down or when you've got some kind of issue that's impeding your business from functioning, time is of the essence. And our goal is to not only design foundations that are reliable and stable and with 99.9 uptimes,

but also to provide that extra little personal touch of, you know, hey, I put those icons back the way you're used to using them. And again, you could reach Robert Jones by going to ccaz.com. Okay, so make sure you go there. He's the president of Communication Concepts, been doing it for 24 years. He's also a member of alliances. In fact, Robert, you've been to our roundtable. Talk about your brief experience of being at a roundtable filled with entrepreneurs. Oh, it's a great experience, actually. It's fun to share enthusiasm and ideas with other folks that are like-minded, if maybe not in the same venue.

Because certainly entrepreneurs are a little bit out there and stuff. And, you know, when you get them all in a room, crazy things can happen. In fact, let's talk about crazy. All right. Daredevil comes to mind when I think of you. Why would I also say that? Well, tell me some of the things that you've been doing because you've got background taking chances and stuff, not just with starting your business, but let's talk about some of these activities you're involved with.

I'm assuming you're referring to skydiving, which is a favorite of mine as far as hobbies go. And statistically, it's actually quite safe. But you're jumping out of a plane, and are you doing free-falling? Yes, hooking up with other people, doing what we call free-flying, which is either head down or feet down, makes the skydiving, it's a little more challenging than, you know, prone or belly to earth. Now, here's the thing. When you have a business like you have, you know, you're thinking about it pretty much 24 hours a day. You're thinking about other customers and stuff.

So I got to ask you, when you jump out of a plane, are you at all thinking about business? It's part of the reason I do it. What is going through your mind poll i love it you're listening to alliances heroes with david kogan that's me be a hero go to where entrepreneurs align be part of the community just like robert is go to e-l-i-a-n-C-E-S dot com. What was it like the day you decided, though, ready really to go out on your own and then again realized that you needed some help? I mean, you know, what point do you go, OK, I'm doing this, I'm getting the calls and stuff.

Now, how do you reach out and who do you reach out to to kind of get to that next step? It's really about finding the right people, people that are aligned with the customer service mindset and have the technical ability or at least interest to deliver. Where do you find those people and how do you know that it's the right? Because listen, when people interview you, you meet them, they say, yeah, I'm the best at customer service. I'm the smartest, et cetera. How do you know? It's really difficult.

A lot of trial and error over the years. I probably am far less likely to consider accolades or certifications in technology arenas and more prone to the personality first. Did you reach out to any advisors or mentors? Over the years, yes, quite a few. And I'm still on a couple of different boards, peer advisory boards, which are very helpful. And is there anyone in particular that you've grown close to that you, you know, confide in to be able to bounce ideas off of? Absolutely. Actually, a number of our owners of our, you know, customer businesses, as well as I'd say an Alan Himmelstein is a good example. He facilitates one of these peer-to-peer.

Yeah, the peer advisory. Excellent. And again, we're talking with Robert Jones. He's the owner of CCAZ.com. What do you spend a majority of your time, Robert, though, doing day to day? Well, I would have to say too much administration and not enough FaceTime and customers. But that's really my love is helping a business not only realize where they are and what they need, but also helping facilitate them to get there and really streamlining their operation. That's where I really have fun and excel. And you've seen technology changing and changing over the years. I mean, how do you keep up with the feel that you're in?

Well, that's somewhat the name, concepts. The concepts, for the most part, have remained the same. The technologies have improved and become more stable, but the concept is really the same. It's connecting people and allowing them to transact business through electronic means. I mean, just amazing. Again, you can go to Robert Jones by reaching him at ccaz.com. He's part of Alliances, the place where entrepreneurs align. He started a company

i mean and just is doing so well and stuff what though do you say you know with an entrepreneur something you know there's there's days that we just don't want to get and roll out of that i mean it just could be anything what drives you though to continue each day to do what you're doing? You know, after all this time, I still find it fun. I really enjoy what I do and the difference that we're making in our customers' lives. Well, Robert, you take great pride in serving your customers. You obviously know what you're doing, having done it for 24 years. You not only take risks, but you employ others you work hard you do helping clients do more with less robert jones communication concepts you're our hero ccaz.com and when we return angie from ang information on alliances.com.