Fresh! Insurance
Prepared for
Expansion Thanks
to Toshiba
Business
Communications
DivisionKey Points
Industry
Insurance
Features Highlighted
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Fresh! Insurance Prepared for Expansion Thanks to Toshiba Business Communications Division Fresh! Insurance is taking the market by storm. The company, which started up four years ago, has seen turnover grow from £0 to £9 million and the number of employees increase from 5 to 40 in the same timeframe. The objectives for 2006 are just as big - Fresh! Insurance wants to grow by 50% in the next year.
The reason for this rapid growth can be attributed to its unique tailor-made products and innovative insurance policies, supported by strong customer service. The company’s targeted marketing campaigns and website encourage customers to speak directly to a Fresh! customer service agent. The Fresh! contact centre is a key part of the business, and its efficient running is increasingly important as the company grows.
This meant that the company needed a telephone system which was expandable and reliable, and would allow Fresh! to continue being more accurate at how it dealt with the business and reporting.
For these reasons, Fresh! decided to call in Connect Business Systems and Toshiba’s Business Communications Division (BCD) for help upgrading their telephone system to a communication platform that would help the company with its expansion.
“The business is developing so quickly we needed to upgrade to a larger system to support our expansion. Toshiba BCD and Connect upgraded our Strata CT to a Strata CIX670,” explains Pauline Sutherland, project manager at Fresh! Insurance.
“Migrating to this larger system was a quick and easy process and we suffered no disruption during the installation. Even better, when we need additional capacity or functionality, the Strata system can be quickly upgraded with simple card changes, as our business expands.”
Facing the challenges head-on
The company’s marketing campaigns are a critical part of the business. Fresh! has over two thousand 0800 and 0870 numbers in BT phone books, with each number tied to a different region in the UK. To measure the effectiveness of each campaign, Fresh! needed to see where each call originated from by viewing quick and accurate reports of all calls made and received.
To overcome this challenge, Connect Business Systems implemented the TASKE contact centre reporting system from Toshiba BCD. This provides Fresh! with detailed reports on key contact centre resources in real-time. Fresh! can now easily determine how many calls come from a certain campaign and as a result target services for that region.
As Pauline Sutherland, project manager at Fresh! explains: “Previously at Fresh! we had to merge two call logger reports together in order to get the most up-to-date information, which was a timely and inaccurate process. TASKE allows us to really drill down into the business and provides us with a real-time view of the customer experience and resources available.”
Moreover, with the previous reporting system, it was difficult for Fresh! to track calls once they had been transferred to an extension. TASKE allows Fresh! to compile detailed reports more efficiently and determine where calls are being transferred to within the business.
Fresh! Insurance is focused on promoting flexible working and as such required an accurate reporting tool which would help employees manage their time. Toshiba BCD’s solution enabled this through a wall-board visible to all, helping agents to see how many calls were queued and as such, when they could take a break. It also allows the call centre managers to quickly gauge when extra resource needs to be brought on line to deal with demand.
Team Leaders also have their own mini wall-boards on their PC, which are set up individually to deliver more information than the main office wall-board. This provides them with key information so they can swap resource between departments as and when necessary. This ensures Fresh! provides the best customer service at all times.
Fresh! was also concerned that the current reporting system didn’t allow them to monitor the performance of each employee. To guarantee the highest levels of customer service, Fresh! needed to be able to keep track of how many calls per day were taken by each employee, to ensure that calls were dealt in the most efficient manner. This helps Fresh! tailor the training provided for each agent.
The flexibility of the TASKE reporting system combined with Strata CIX670 meant that the reporting could be extended to every area of the business. For example, if after 20 seconds a call hasn’t been picked up by an agent, the call is re-directed to the receptionist who then decides how best to direct the call. Before the new system was implemented, however, it was difficult to tell why calls were terminated - whether the caller had simply hung up or whether the call was irrelevant and the receptionist had ended it. Toshiba BCD and Connect implemented a NetPhone system on the receptionist’s PC, which allows the receptionist to log every call and its outcome. The information can then be fed into reports to provide a complete picture of every call.
Reaping the rewards
Toshiba BCD and Connect Business Systems came up with the perfect solution to our problems, which helped us quickly and efficiently deal with a number of issues we had.
TASKE has been pivotal in allowing Fresh! to accurately measure the effectiveness of its marketing campaigns. From a customer service and business performance point of view, this has been invaluable to the company.
The upgrade of the Toshiba telephone system also means that the company is now prepared for its future growth.
“Toshiba BCD and Connect Business Systems came up with the perfect solution to our problems, which helped us quickly and efficiently deal with a number of issues we had. We were really running blind before it, but thanks to the TASKE reporting solution we can find any information we need. It is so much more flexible, but more importantly, it has so much potential. I am confident that Fresh! Insurance can expand as quickly as it wants to whilst continuing to provide the best possible customer service.”
“Thanks should also be given to Tim Hulme, our account manager from Connect Business Systems and Colin Stoker, their technical manager, who provided Fresh! Insurance with this solution. Many meetings took place to establish our exact requirements and Connect not only understood the way our company operated currently but also looked into our future needs, giving us sound advice on the way forward.”
“Fresh! Insurance wanted to form an alliance with a company who could provide hands on advice and continued support for the future. Connect Business Systems have more than surpassed our expectations. I have no doubt the relationship between our two companies will go from strength to strength.”
