This year, Changing Times Telephone Service celebrates its 40th year in business; they have been providing business communication & telephone systems in Northwest PA since 1983. If you have made a call to a local business and recognize the voice on an automated attendant, it is quite likely that you are hearing Rod Adams, owner of Changing Times and as we call him at the chamber, the voice of Venango County.
Jeff Heeter founded Changing Times in 1983 and Rod began working for Jeff in September 1994. Rod fondly remembers when his brother Ron, who worked for Miller Equipment at the time, suggested that he might be a good fit for their telecommunications vendor. His brother suggested that he had “found him a career!”
Rod worked his way up the company ladder to General Manager in 2003 and ultimately purchased the business in the summer of 2010, as Jeff focused on a different side of the telephone industry and launched CT Utility Service. Rod then relocated the business to Route 257 in Seneca.
The new space provides storage as well as a comfortable office setup. But Rod remarks that his team can assist customers from anywhere. Changing Times has always stayed at the cutting edge of communication solutions for business. While they continue to support analog and digital equipment they have installed over the years, they crucially find this older hardware is difficult to maintain. All of the new phone systems they offer are now voice-over internet protocol (VOIP); a very affordable option with configurations available for as few as two or as many as 10,000 extensions for any business and any budget.
Jim Stanish has worked at Changing Times for 16 years, beginning under Jeff’s watch and continuing with Rod. Matt Blum is the latest addition to the team, having been with the company for 2 years. Dawn Adams, Rod’s wife, manages the office administration and their son, Guy, works part-time over the summer. While the Changing Times team is lean at the core, their customer base is extensive, in number and geography. They have been installing systems and providing solutions for businesses of all sizes with locations reaching across the US. By partnering with industry leaders, Changing Times maximizes the benefit of the newest technology and technical support.
Rod credits the company’s success to his teams’ responsiveness to solving problems and always looking for a better way to accomplish the goals of their customers. He thanks his customers for their continued support over the years.
When asked about the biggest changes he has experienced over his 29 years with Changing Times, Rod references the constant change that demands diversity to meet customers’ needs. Increasing reliance on technology has demanded that he and his team continually learn about what is coming next.
Join us in congratulating Changing Times Telephone Service on four decades of success and many more to come!
This article was published in the Venango Chamber’s August 2023 VenangoWorks! Newsletter.