Founded in 1989, Regal Fish Supplies are a home delivery company specialising in delivering quality fresh and frozen seafood direct to customers via their own fleet of vans. Regal Fish have built a customer base of approximately 80,000 over the past 20 years this number is still growing. They promote their business primarily through a door-to-door salesforce and their website. They place a huge emphasis on retention of existing customers so quality of service is of paramount importance. Regal Fish used manual dialling as an integral part of the business process from the outset in 1989.
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By 2002, they invested
in dialler technology
with a competitor of
Daviker’s which reduced
costs and increased
organisational
efficiency. However, by
2007 it was becoming
clear that a change of
supplier for their
dialler technology would
be required to satisfy
company objectives.
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The Business Challenge |
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Regal Fish are the
largest direct supplier
of fish and seafood
products in the UK. They
compete with a number of
smaller operations and
sole traders who provide
a similar service. On a
wider scale, they also
compete with
supermarkets,
fishmongers, market
stalls and any other
supplier with a
different route to
market. Mike Brummitt,
General Manager at Regal
Fish commented: As the
fish we supply is market
fresh, this gives us a
particular competitive
advantage over other
companies supplying fish
and seafood products |
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| Regal Fish
Supplies
Business Systems
Manager, Vicky
Griffiths and
General Manager,
Mike Brummitt |
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We have a loyal customer
base but they demand a
very high standard of
both product and
service. Therefore, all
areas of our business
model need to be
responsive to the
demands the customers
make.
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The company has had a
call centre operation of
sorts since their
inception in 1989. The
purpose of the call
centre is to contact
existing customers on a
monthly basis to obtain
new orders of fish and
seafood products.
Therefore, the emphasis
is based on retaining
customers, placing a
high importance and
value on every call
made. |
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In common with many call
centres, there is a
degree of staff turnover
so the call centre
technology employed must
be straightforward to
use and have adequate
support provision. Regal
Fish felt that the
levels of support from
their original
technology vendor were
not of a sufficient
standard and was one of
the several reasons they
looked for an
alternative supplier. |
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Perhaps most
importantly, Regal Fish
need a cost effective
channel to market for
their unique
proposition. Mike
Brummitt added: “Our
business model dictates
that we have to keep
costs as low as
possible. And with
increasing fuel costs
for our delivery service
and fluctuations in the
costs of fish and
seafood, we need to be
assured in the knowledge
that our call centre
function, an integral
part of the business, is
as efficient in terms of
contacting as many of
our customers as
possible as it can be.”
In implementing a call
centre solution complete
with predictive dialler,
Regal Fish could
considerably reduce
staff overheads. |
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Why Did Regal Fish
Supplies Choose
TouchStar? |
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1. Difficulties with
Previous Supplier |
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After operating a
call centre solution
provided by one of
Daviker’s
competitors for a
number of years,
Regal Fish were put
under pressure to
upgrade their system
to next generation
technology at very
high expense. Mike
Brummitt was
unimpressed with
additional features
provided by
Daviker’s competitor
at the extra cost:
“We were being
forced into
upgrading as they
stated they would be
withdrawing support
for the system we
had. They basically
had us up against a
wall as we had all
the hardware and
they were saying
they would no longer
provide us with
support unless we
spent a considerable
amount of money! We
also felt that their
standard of support
had deteriorated
since the initial
period when we were
a new customer.” |
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2. Daviker Provided
Perfect Fit to
Business
Requirements |
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Mike felt as the time
approached to upgrade
their system, it would
provide an opportunity
to research alternative
options. Regal Fish used
the internet and trade
shows to source
suppliers and at this
point, they came into
contact with Daviker who
were exhibiting at Call
Centre Expo at
Birmingham NEC. After
discussing their needs,
they invited Daviker to
their headquarters in
Barton-upon-Humber.
Business Systems
Manager, Vicky Griffiths
was immediately
impressed with Daviker’s
proposals: “We were
pleasantly surprised
that their sales team
took the time to listen
to our business
requirement rather than
try to sell us a one
size fits all solution.
We were reassured is
would fit with our
existing CRM and finance
systems and were very
impressed with the
features of the system
such the administrator
function and coaching
facility. It was also
vitally important that
the solution could
handle inbound calls to
deal with our customer
service function.” |
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3. Choice of Existing
Customers to Evaluate
System |
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As part of the solution
evaluation, Daviker
invited Regal Fish to
view a live operating
system at an existing
client. Mike Brummitt
added: “They gave me a
list of customers and
said I could pick any
one. This was
immediately reassuring
as to me, that meant
they couldn’t just show
us around their best
customer and gave us the
proof that their system
was working effectively
for all customers. We
visited the nearest
centre to us and were
more than satisfied in
the efficiency of their
operation” |
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4. Support with Human
Factor |
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Regal Fish were swayed
by Daviker’s standard
24x7x365 support. Mike
stated: “The issue of
support was one of the
main reasons for our
dissatisfaction with our
previous supplier. We
felt from meeting the
guys at Daviker that
they were an altogether
more ‘human’ company –
friendly, affable and
easy to get on with.
This is an
underestimated factor
when sourcing a software
solution but one that we
feel is one of the most
important.” |
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5. Excellent Price |
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Naturally price was as
important issue. The
TouchStar system was
competitively priced and
Mike looked at the
longer term picture: “We
looked at the costs over
a five year period
including support and it
proved the TouchStar
system was the cheapest
option. Although my gut
instinct was to go with
Daviker, the cost factor
made it much easier to
sell to the board!” |
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6. Complete Solution
with Adherence to Ofcom
Regulations |
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Daviker implemented the
fully compliant
TouchStar blended call
centre system complete
with ACD & IVR,
intelligent scripting,
call recording and
reporting at Regal Fish
in a matter of days.
TouchStar has been fully
integrated into both
their GoldMine CRM
package and their Access
Accounts finance system.
Vicky Griffiths has been
highly impressed since
the implementation of
TouchStar: “The system
has been built to
incorporate our unique
needs and there has been
no disruption to the
business with the new
system employed.” Mike
added: “Since we have
started using TouchStar
we can actually use
‘predictive’ mode as it
was far too easy to drop
calls on the old system
and were not prepared to
take that chance. We
take the Ofcom
regulations very
seriously and do not
wish to drop a single
call as that could
potentially lose us one
of our customers.” |
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7. Value Added Services
including 24/7 Support,
Expert Account
Management and Annual
Customer User Group
Conference |
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Vicky is pleased the
system is more
streamlined than their
former solution: “We
don’t have to manage the
system so intensely now
and can get on with our
core business of
providing fish and
seafood supplies to our
customer base without
worrying about the
technology – it kind of
manages itself!
Obviously issues arise
as our knowledge curve
grows but by having an
appointed account
manager who visits at
least once a month and
having 24/7 support, we
know a Daviker engineer
is at hand to respond to
any queries.” |
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Regal Fish staff have
attended both the free
annual Daviker User
Group Conference at the
Hilton Hotel in
Manchester and one of
the free monthly
TouchStar system
training courses. Mike
commented: “The User
Group Conference was
very valuable as gave us
some excellent insight
into a variety of call
centre issues such as
improving agent morale
and making best use of
data. The monthly
training course is more
about the system itself
– very handy for filling
any knowledge gaps that
our experienced
supervisors may have.”
Regal Fish have booked
Daviker’s consultancy
service to deliver
motivational training
for staff. |
| Implementation |
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The TouchStar system
was installed with
no disruption to the
Regal Fish business.
Mike was especially
pleased with the
speed of the
changeover from
their old system. He
went on to add: We
finished with the
old technology on
the Friday evening
and by Monday
morning, the
TouchStar system was
up and running. |
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Daviker engineers
were on site for the
first couple of days
of operation to
ensure there were no
issues. Vicky
stated: The
TouchStar people
made sure both the
supervisors and
agents knew exactly
what they were doing
with the new system.
Naturally as we had
been using dialler
technology, I was
familiar with how
such a system works
but there were
obviously some
differences and
extras that were not
on our old system. |
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Features and Benefits of
TouchStar Connect |
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Regal Fish have
experienced the
following results and
benefits since
implementing TouchStar
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- Their agents
talk time has
increased
considerably.
- Increased
customer
satisfaction
obtained from not
dropping any calls.
- A system that
fully complies with
and exceeds all
Ofcoms regulations.
- The ability to
report with detailed
statistics from all
campaigns in real
time has made
management of the
call centre
operations more
focused.
- A seamless
integration with
their GoldMine CRM
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.
- Ability for
further developments
as their business
grows.
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Mike Brummitt concluded:
“The software is as good
if not better than any
on the market. All
aspects of the TouchStar
system fit
perfectly to our
particular business
model and has standard
features that satisfy
all our call centre’s
requirements. We are now
investigating the
possibility of acquiring
further utilities that
TouchStar have developed
to make operation of the
system even more
straightforward! We feel
we have a good rapport
with TouchStar which is
something we never had
our previous supplier.
The human touch is
evident throughout the
company from the MD
through to the support
engineers.” |
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Copyright 2009 Daviker
Limited. All Rights Reserved.