If you’re involved in managing your organization’s digital transformation and all that comes with it, how do you distinguish a true partner from “just” another vendor? As complexity grows, so does the performance gap. Expectations are hardening, and providers are being tested on whether they can meet them.
There are several things you should be looking for. In Tangoe’s case, they surfaced clearly in customer feedback and helped drive our highest Net Promoter Score (NPS) to date. We share this accomplishment with both pride and purpose. It’s not just about what the score represents but what it reflects: the defining qualities of a true partner that customers demand and deserve.
Here’s where the bar is now set.
Easy Does It
Ease of doing business came through loud and clear in the feedback, with Tangoe scoring close to 9 out of 10. When it’s easy to work with you, customers feel like you can help bring order to the chaos. When it’s not, it feels like you’re adding to it.
In an environment where most teams are already stretched thin, no one has patience for extra steps, slow handoffs, or explaining the same issue repeatedly – especially to someone who’s supposed to makelife easier. Every bit of friction pushes customers back into reactive mode, which hurts from every angle.
A true partner will also make it easy to share feedback – and will listen, learn, and deliver. A good example of this at Tangoe is our new automation for telecom invoice exceptions. Teams can get buried in email chains over things that should take minutes, putting more important and strategic work on the backburner. Tangoe recently rolled out its Data Requests dashboard, powered by automated invoice exception processing, so teams can spend less time managing exceptions and more time moving the business forward. Ease of doing business, exemplified.
“Human, Human, Human!”
We’ve all yelled this into our phone at some point. That’s because we’re drawn to technology for convenience, but we turn to people for reassurance. The moment we’re forced to compete in the dial-pad Olympics or an endless Q&A maze, frustration sets in. Then disappointment. Then distrust. Let’s not forget when a company’s contact page is suddenly replaced by a knowledge library. No phone number. No chat. Whose idea was that?
That tension shows up in customer feedback. In Tangoe’s case, customers rated customer success engagement at 9.29 out of 10, clearly proving that access to real people matters. Here at Tangoe, everycustomer is assigned a dedicated Customer Success Manager – a single point of contact who understands their environment, knows who to pull in when questions come up, and takes ownership of finding the right answer. There’s no bouncing between ticket queues or starting from scratch each time an issue surfaces.
“We view our Tangoe team as a partner more than the typical customer/vendor relationship…”
“The support team has been fantastic. Day to day response time is almost instant. The team actively works to find issues and inform us before we even realize there’s a problem…”
In a world where many support experiences feel the same, this kind of human responsiveness stands out. Customers value experience over escalation, and confidence over complexity.
Tech that Fits the Way You Work
Solutions that force customers to rework their processes just to make it function add friction instead of removing it. A true partner designs their tech to fit into their customer’s environment, not the other way around. That means integrations that work across existing financial and operational systems, as well as SaaS apps and IaaS environments. It means data that can be normalized, reconciled, and acted onwithout manual gymnastics. It means workflows that align with how different users already make decisions.
This isn’t something we scored on, but its impact is felt everywhere. When technology integrates cleanly and processes align, work moves faster. Teams spend less time stitching together information and more time using it. Decisions feel easier because the system supports them instead of getting in the way.
We take this seriously at Tangoe, from customizing workflows around contracts and carrier complexity to having the industry’s most extensive array of pre-built API integrations.
Confidence and Expertise – You Can’t Fake it!
Roughly 60% of businesses say they plan to work more closely with their IT providers over the next two years and expect those partners to truly understand the challenges of their industry.
As costs and complexity continue to rise, Tangoe remains dedicated to helping customers navigate both the unglamorous work – contract nuances, legacy migrations, cost controls – and newer, higher-risk areas like AI cost volatility and emerging technologies. It’s the mix of day-to-day realities and forward-looking decisions that a lot of teams don’t have the bandwidth to manage alone but can’t trust “just” anyone with.
The simplest measure of success here is loyalty. Enterprises don’t stay with providers out of habit anymore. They stay when trust is earned, industry context is understood, and decisions consistently drive meaningful business outcomes. In Tangoe’s case, 93% of customers say they plan to continue using our services going forward.
A Practical Checklist for Evaluating IT Partners
Can issues be resolved without extra steps, slow handoffs, or repeating the same context?
- Do processes reduce friction or add to it?
- Would your team rather reach out for help than avoid it?
- Can you reach a real person when it matters?
- Is there a clear, consistent point of contact?
- Are you funneled into ticket queues, knowledge bases, or escalation loops?
- Do their systems fit the way you work?
- Do their solutions integrate cleanly across SaaS, IaaS, mobility, telecom, and existing financial systems?
- Can data be normalized and acted on without manual workarounds?
- Do workflows align with how different teams actually make decisions?
- Do they make it easy to give feedback – and act on it?
- Is there a clear path to share input when something isn’t working?
- Do you see evidence that feedback leads to real improvements?
- Do they understand your industry and your reality?
- Can they speak to your specific challenges, not just generic best practices?
- Do decisions consistently map to outcomes you care about?
- Are cost, stability, scalability, and risk measurably improving over time?
- Do recommendations feel grounded in your goals versus a generic roadmap?
- If you had to make the decision today, would you still move forward?
- Would you recommend them to a peer?
The Bottom Line (Yours Counts On it)
Decision-makers, you now have the blueprint for getting top-shelf service and support. The majority of Tangoe customers recommend us for making it happen. If you want to learn more, let’s talk!