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Axis Telecom Case Study |
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Company Background |
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Axis Telecom was founded
in 2001 as an
independent telecoms
service provider with
the aim to bring high
quality solutions and
competitively priced
services to business and
residential customers
across the UK. The
company’s mission is ‘to
provide value for money
on essential services to
small businesses and
consumers nationwide’. A
high emphasis is placed
on customer needs and
Axis actively seeks
feedback to improve and
exceed expectations. |
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The Business Challenges |
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 Axis Telecom operates in
an extremely competitive
environment. There are
overall 400 companies of
varying sizes operating
within the sector and
competition is fierce.
Providers use a range of
marketing techniques to
build customer awareness
and generate sales. Many
companies use personal
selling as their main
method of contact but
this can prove to be a
very high cost per sale.
Telemarketing is
considered a far more
cost effective solution
and Axis have used this
method of generating
customer interest since
their inception.
However, their manual
dialling system was not
generating the
efficiencies required
and a competitive
advantage could not be
attainable.
Axis has grown rapidly
since David Meyers set
up the company in 2001.
Starting off with just
one member of staff,
they now employ 150
people. Such rapid
growth has naturally
presented its challenges
with regard to the
technology employed
which proved another
reason for Axis to seek
a more efficient method
of contacting the
lifeblood of the company
– their customers. |
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Ofcom regulation plays a
key role in the business
operation of Axis. Any
change of system would
have to be fully
compliant with any Ofcom
dictates. |
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Why Did Axis Telecom
Choose TouchStar? |
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Axis was confronted with
a range of options when
sourcing an outbound
calling solution. It was
apparent that a blend of
predictive, power and
preview dialling was the
requirement to achieve
the greater efficiencies
that would increase
their competitiveness
within the industry.
Managing Director, David
Meyers was meticulous in
his search for an
outbound dialling
solution. He said: “I
made sure I looked at
every option available,
including hosted
solutions. This was a
pivotal moment in the
development of Axis so
it was important we
spent a considerable
amount of time making
such an important
decision. We invited a
number of companies to
present an outbound
solution to our
requirements and in this
process, we came across
TouchStar.” |
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When TouchStar presented
their proposals, David
was very impressed by
the professional yet
down-to-earth, friendly
and helpful attitude of
their staff and was
encouraged by the simple
notion that TouchStar
saw it as a business
relationship rather than
purely selling a
software solution. “The
guys from TouchStar
certainly knew inside
out the product they
were selling – but even
more importantly, they
were passionate about
what they could do for
us as a business and to
me, that really made a
difference.” |
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The issue of support was
a key selling point for
David. “In this line of
business you need
someone at hand for all
eventualities. It’s
absolutely no good for
this company to have
support that works
standard office hours as
we work right through
until 10pm and often
later than that for some
of our technical staff.
In that sense, the key
fact that TouchStar
offer around the clock
support every single day
of the year from
engineers based in the
UK really was a massive
selling point.” |
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David was also impressed
with the price quoted
for the system.
“Obviously, price was an
issue but features and
benefits with a value
added wrap needed to be
achieved. What TouchStar
offer for the price goes
way beyond any
competitor offering – it
was easily the best
value for money. There
were slightly cheaper
diallers around but they
offered none of the
functionality of the
TouchStar Connect. And
this functionality
allows us to run a very
streamlined operation
which would not be
possible with cheaper
solutions – in fact,
they would not be a
solution at all.” |
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David also mentioned the
fact the flexibility of
LCR programming was
another key point. He
added: “Costs would have
been far greater if this
facility wasn’t
available.” |
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Finally, Axis required a
system that could
operate in ‘Power’ and
‘Preview’ mode. This is
because business selling
often needs to be slower
paced due to the
technicalities of some
products and services
being explained and is
less reliant on volume
to generate higher
levels of sales.
TouchStar Connect
provides the option to
operate in ‘Predictive’,
‘Power’, ‘Preview’ and
‘Manual’. |
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The Solution |
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TouchStar implemented
the fully compliant
TouchStar Connect
blended call centre
system complete with ACD
& IVR, intelligent
scripting, call
recording and reporting
at Axis Telecom in a
matter of days. And with
immediate effect, they
could see the
productivity gains that
were being achieved. |
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David said: “I knew
there would be increases
in contacts but I did
not expect productivity
to increase by this
much! We could quite
clearly see the agents
had gone from speaking
to customers from 15-20
minutes an hour to over
40. And it does not take
a genius to work out
that the more people we
contact, the more sales
we will make!” |
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TouchStar Connect
integrated with their
CAS accounting package
and thus streamlined
their business
processes. David
commented: “The
TouchStar engineers
developed the system in
a way that the two
systems operate
seamlessly. People talk
about the ‘paperless
office’ but having the
system automatically
managing the data means
that we have truly got
rid of paper! This is
just another example of
how TouchStar Connect
has been instrumental in
streamlining the actual
business itself.” |
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Implementation |
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Axis was impressed with
the speed of
installation. David
commented: “The actual
installation took a day,
none of our agents were
down, they simply
carried on dialling on
the old manual system
until the switchover to
the predictive dialler.” |
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However, the TouchStar
engineers provided
further service to
simply installing the
hardware and software.
Full training on how to
operate the system
subsequently took place.
David stated: “They
showed us exactly how to
use the system, things
like running in
different dialling
modes, how to use the
different modules such
as Supervisor and
Administrator, remote
agent monitoring and
they went round to all
the agents and showed
them individually how to
use the system and
things like the actual
headsets.” |
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Axis were running to
their full potential
within a week and
functions were coming to
light that they had not
previously considered –
call back schedule was
one of these. David
commented: “We had
previously been reliant
on agents remembering to
call prospects back if
they hadn’t been in or
the answer machine had
been switched on, now
the system does it
automatically so we can
be 100% confident all
the data that we have
paid for is being used.” |
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Features and Benefits of
TouchStar Connect |
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Axis Telecom has
experienced the
following results and
benefits since
implementing TouchStar
Connect: |
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- Their agents’
talk time has
trebled.
- A huge increase
in sales meant a
very quick return on
the investment.
- A system that
fully complies with
and exceeds all
OFCOM, DMA and FSA
regulations.
- The ability to
report with detailed
statistics from all
campaigns in real
time has made
management of the
call centre business
more focused.
- Flexibility to
build campaigns in a
variety of sectors
has allowed new
products to be
introduced.
- A seamless
integration with
their current
accounting system
which meant
streamlined business
processes.
- Free training on
an ongoing basis,
has continually
updated staff
expertise.
- 24 x 7 x 365 UK
based engineering
support proving
invaluable when
requiring advice at
any time of the day
or night.
- An appointed
expert business
development manager
to optimise use of
the technology.
- A suite of value
added services
(including network
services, cabling,
headsets, data
backup, data
management, etc) has
meant they have to
make one single
phone call to one
supplier.
- Ability for
further developments
as their business
grows.
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David Meyers concluded:
“We are hoping to expand
our operation within
this building and open
new call centres within
this area. We have every
confidence that
TouchStar will help us
all the way as we moved
towards enterprise size.
I would certainly
advocate the TouchStar
offering to anyone
wanting a call centre
solution – I know it
sounds simple, but I
would say they really
should not make a
decision about a dialler
without first consulting
TouchStar!” |
Copyright 2008 TouchStar Call Centre Software. All Rights Reserved