The advances of online communication have moved much of business communications towards websites and other virtual communication channels, but one long-standing piece of technology, the telephone continues to be a mainstay for businesses to connect with their customers and manage their daily operations. ToTel Communiciations Inc., located in CruzioWorks, is a local provider of VoIP Telephony services that is keeping pace with the changes in demand for phone service to provide high quality, personalized service to local businesses.

We interviewed Sean Brender, founder and CEO of Totel Communications Inc. to learn why he chose Santa Cruz as the home for his business.

What makes your business different from other telecom services?

ToTel Communications Inc. is a locally based VoIP Telephony provider and focuses on delivering services to customers here in Santa Cruz, CA and in the tri-county area. We find that customer service is the most important part of providing VoIP telephony. What you get with ToTel is a straight answer, which differentiates us from most other VoIP providers whom are focused on quantity and not quality or customer service. We meet with each customer at their business and analyze a number of factors in determining if a business is the right fit for ToTel’s ‘cloud’ telephone services. The ever improving internet infrastructure in Santa Cruz has allowed us to support more businesses than ever. We insist on providing a demo period and technical assistance to our customers to make sure that VoIP services are right for our customers before making the move to this new service. We understand that things are not always perfect within the ‘cloud’ therefore we find it imperative to our success as a local provider to offer our customers maximum flexibility when it comes to moves, adds or changes of service. As a benefit of being local, our offices are located here in Santa Cruz and we employ local talent to provide the excellent customer services that is received.

Why did your business choose to locate in Santa Cruz?

I am a local resident of Capitola and feel that working in Santa Cruz is the nicest part of being located near Silicon Valley. We especially like the business diversity of Santa Cruz and get to work with new tech startups and as well as historically established businesses that are apart of Santa Cruz's business legacy. Because we are local to our community, we enjoy getting to know our customer’s processes and procedures thereby creating lasting business relationships.

What’s special about Santa Cruz to you?

Santa Cruz has both the entrepreneurial spirit of Silicon Valley and a small town feel. It’s great to work in a creative environment with innovative companies. For example we are impressed with Cruzio’s initiative in providing internet solutions such as broadband and fiber as a non national solution for local businesses and residents.

What’s your relationship to the overall business community?

Most of our new business is based on referrals from other customers. ToTel is known for going beyond our national competitors to provide services that they cannot because of their limited local resources. We enjoy spending time to educate our customers about new technological advances within VoIP and IT systems that may be right for them. We are a trusted resource to our customers because they come to find that we will always provide them with the answers to their VoIP/IT questions, even if it is not in the interest of ToTel and is the right solution for our customer. This reputation is the key to our local business relationships has earned ToTel lots of repeat business and local referrals.

To learn more about ToTel Communications Inc. visit: totelvoip.com