How Madwire® Uses Zoom to Maintain Award-Winning Culture From Home

Madwire is on a mission to help small businesses grow. This father-and-son partnership evolved into a 500-employee technology company based on a strong belief in the power of entrepreneurship and the idea that small businesses are the lifeblood of local communities.

Communication is core to Madwire’s growth and the success of its clients across the U.S., and Zoom has become fundamental to day-to-day communications throughout the company — especially in a new remote work environment.

‘Behind the times’ with legacy phone system

Madwire’s CTO, David Jones, wanted more than a fragmented communications experience for the company’s growing team. Sales used ClearSlide to give presentations, but without video conferencing, it was difficult to get customers engaged in product demos unless they were face to face. Madwire’s legacy phone system, Mitel, felt “behind the times.”

“It didn’t give us the capability or the tools to grow as an organization,” Jones said. “We were looking for more data points to help with business analysis, to become more effective as a team in working with clients.”

Chat tools were constantly being tested and turned away. “We used about a billion chat tools. Google, HipChat, Rocket.Chat, which was problematic,” Jones said. “Our tech team uses Slack, but it didn’t make sense for the entire organization.”

It was clear that Madwire needed a more unified communications experience.

More effectively helping small businesses grow

A few members of the sales team started using Zoom independently for their presentations. “It’s one thing to tell someone Marketing 360^® is great — it’s another thing to show them how they can use it for their business,” Jones said.

Their positive feedback prompted Jones to implement Zoom Meetings across the organization. “The usability is key. It’s always been really easy to set up Zoom and get people into a meeting,” he said.

Switching from hardwired desk phones to a cloud VoIP phone system came next. “We had advocates on our end that said, ‘You really need to look at Zoom Phone,’” Jones recalled. “We deployed Zoom Phone across everybody’s computers all around the world. Now we could communicate with customers on a landline or cell phone, and the ease of transitioning to a Zoom Meeting was nice.”

When Madwire went remote during the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoom became a lifeline for communicating with co-workers and clients. “With Zoom Meetings, Zoom Phone, and Zoom Team Chat already in place, we had everything we needed to transition to a fully remote company,” Jones said.

Maintaining connections, supporting customers

Pre-pandemic, Madwire was an “all-on-site” team with a strong culture of collaboration. That hasn’t changed, even though employees have been working from home for several months. Whiskey Fridays, book clubs, and other social events keep the fun culture alive, and Jones’ team has a series where individuals can present on topics they’re passionate about. The team has gotten creative with building connections in other ways, too.

Since sales celebrations were commonplace in the office, employees wanted a way to keep up the excitement at home. Jones’ team integrated with the Zoom API to create a chatbot that automatically announces sales milestones and goal achievements to the company’s sales chat channel, which is often followed by a round of celebratory messages and emoji reactions from colleagues.

At Madwire’s all-hands meetings held over Zoom Webinars, co-founder and co-CEO JB Kellogg frequently shares recordings from client video calls to highlight employees’ good work. “We had a video where a customer saw their website and said, ‘This is amazing!’ It’s powerful to share their reaction with the team, especially the people who built the website,” Jones said.

From department meetings to team collaboration, most communication happens over Zoom. “Online, there are technical challenges with latency and people speaking over each other, but Zoom has rectified that with microtools like emojis and in-meeting chat,” Jones said. “Sometimes people don’t speak on a call, but they’re chatting their ideas.”

For Jones, frequent communication is key to ensuring Madwire’s software developers are on track. “Whether it’s daily stand-ups in person or using Zoom as a tool, that’s critical for us,” he said. “I don’t know where we’d be without Zoom to be able to get that insight.”

As Jones emphasized, it’s all about maintaining connections and finding ways to improve communication in a new world.

“Madwire’s innovative technology has helped businesses grow and reach new customers, and I think Zoom’s been a big part of that,” he said. “It’s a bit of a revolution we’re having.”