When Dan McCall starts talking about his family, it takes a while to get back around to himself.
From the arrival of his father in Ocala following his Navy service during World War II, the McCall footprint in Ocala has been large. As one of only two dentists in the growing community, Wayne C. McCall served his neighbors for decades on the Florida Board of Regents, and in the legislature.
Dan’s mother, Catherine, had her hands full raising seven boys. Those boys, now men, along with their wives and children, are leaving their own mark on the community. From political office to law and finance, from construction and real estate to memberships on local boards and charitable activities, it seems you are always running into a McCall.
For many around town, Dan McCall is known as the communications man.
President of McCall Communications, Dan has been in telecommunications for 26 years. In the early days, he was just “Dan the phone man.” The operation was business phones, and a lot of wiring. That changed.
With the addition of Sprint state-of-the-art data products, McCall Communications delivers the whole spectrum of wireless and business communication.
“When I first bought into Nextel in 1996, I knew wireless was going to go somewhere,” says McCall, “and there were only four of us then.”
Now he has a staff of 40, and four locations in Ocala and Crystal River. Two new shops are planned for the coming year.
“We have service, repair, and sales,” says McCall. “We’re a one-stop shop.”
With the revolution in wireless technology in the last 10 years, Sprint meets the versatility and speed demands of the white collar crowd [and] Nextel meets the needs of the hardhat crews. Sprint has wireless data products that rival high speed DSL. Sprint CDMA technology provides seamless access during peak business hours. The choice of handsets and personal data assistants, or PDA’s, by Motorola, Sanyo, and Samsung is broad enough to satisfy any taste or business need.
“The cellular market has become saturated,” McCall admits, “and about everyone who’s going to get one has one.”
But the demand for new capabilities is as great as the output of new technology. Sales of phone upgrades have eclipsed phone activation in McCall’s business. McCall and Sprint are on the same page when it comes to meeting customer demands for technology and service and McCall’s sales and repair staff are in perpetual training on the new technologies. If you want to know what the features are, or how to make them work, sales associates at any of McCall’s locations will show you.
McCall’s has eight certified service technicians between its Ocala and Crystal River locations. Their motto is “World Class Service” which they provide for their nearly 1,500 repairs a month. That volume is only matched in Florida by major dealers in urban markets like Miami, Tampa, and Jacksonville.
Matt Ellis, McCall’s director of sales and data, explains, “Sprint/Nextel is the only carrier with nationwide service and repair. Customers can walk in to McCall’s to get a phone fixed and get it back in about an hour.”
And what about McCall’s original business of business phones? That handset with all the buttons on the desk may look the same, but the advancement in business phone systems has gone far beyond voicemail.
And McCall’s continues to expand. They are the exclusive Toshiba dealer for a fourteen county area, with three service technicians dedicated to business system installation and service. Like wireless advancements, business system options have capitalized on the Internet as well. Business phone system technicians are network certified, too. An added bonus.
“With new technology,” explains McCall, “I can sit at my desk in Ocala or at home, pick up a cordless phone, and the dial tone is the same one you hear at any of my locations in Ocala or Crystal River.”
With the evolution of Voice over IP, cable Internet service means when the staff at one location are all busy with customers, another employee in the next county can take the next call. Businesses can provide reliable customer service without regard for where their employees are located.
Indeed, Dan McCall is not just “Dan the phone man” anymore.
McCall Communications and Sprint/Nextel are in the communications solutions business and will continue to offer cutting-edge technology to area residents.
McCall Communications
1202 SW 17th Street, Ocala
(352)369-1600
www.mccallcomm.com
