Jackson Hewitt Tax Services assists millions of people in preparing local, state and federal tax returns every year. Since 2012, Jim Springfield has been the franchise owner and CEO of 82 Jackson Hewitt locations in Texas, Tennessee and Oklahoma. Springfield’s franchise consists of 450 employees dispersed among 42 storefronts and 40 locations inside Walmart and Sears stores.
Jackson Hewitt Tax Services outlets operate according to seasonal demand and are only open between January and April, a schedule that presents unique IT challenges for the franchise.
“Setting up our phone systems at our branch locations was tricky—our stores are seasonal and remain vacant thereafter,” Springfield says. “Trying to set up a phone system inside our Walmart and Sears locations posed a challenge because it required us to get into the existing wiring of the store to fit our IT and telecommunications needs.”
Setting up a PBX phone system at each branch would have been expensive, difficult to set up and tough for Springfield’s IT team to manage. RingCentral’s flexible and feature-rich cloud business communication system was the logical choice.
“Connectivity between our employees and customers is critical to our business, especially given the high volume of calls leading up to April 15,” Springfield says. “We chose RingCentral’s cloud-based platform because it is quick and easy to deploy and manage, allowing us to focus on what we do best, which is getting our customers their maximum return.”
RingCentral ensured a smooth onboarding process, despite Springfield’s franchises’ dependence on three different internet providers. Springfield was happy to learn the many features that are included at no extra cost with RingCentral Office, including conferencing, faxing, call forwarding and a mobile app, which gives users access to their company directory from anywhere at any time.
Also, employees no longer need to worry about the cost of long distance calling. “Prior to using RingCentral, I was essentially paying for both internet connections and phone lines, but now with RingCentral I can consolidate both bills into one,” Springfield says. “We are expecting to save at least $50,000.”
Since each of Springfield’s Jackson Hewitt Tax Services locations do not have an on-site IT staff, making administrative changes was difficult for employees. He says, “RingCentral gives me the ability to change options and features without having to track down a store. This robust system allows me to manage my outbound and incoming telecom from one location.”
Springfield is excited to have the ability to control and alter messaging centrally, and to be able to set up voicemails and greetings remotely.
“The world became a better place when we moved over to RingCentral’s cloud-based phone system,” Springfield says. “We had qualitative improvement of increased functionality while saving money at the same time—it was a homerun deal for us.”
Originally published Mar 26, 2014, updated Aug 19, 2021
