Challenge
BELFOR needed a reliable and scalable telephony solution that would meet the needs of its growing UK operation and in particular its call centre. This would need to enable the company to manage normal business operations comfortably and respond swiftly to rapid increases in the number of incoming calls and levels of activity. In addition, BELFOR wanted to ensure it could deliver a consistently high standard of service and provide seamless connectivity between its two locations in Tamworth.
Solution
Two networked Avaya IP Office switches with an Avaya Compact Call Centre solution for up to 25 call centre agents
Avaya PC Wallboards
Avaya Contact Store Call Recording Solution
Avaya Phone Manager Pro
Value Created
Scalable system enables BELFOR to react swiftly and decisively when the number of calls and incidents increases, to maximise effectiveness and responsiveness
Call routing enables BELFOR to manage high call volumes with optimum efficiency
Full integration between the two offices
Real-time visibility of call waiting and response time
"Call centre staff are organised into two teams within the Tamworth office. Our system allows us to route all calls to the correct respondent."
— Jamie Brennan,
IT Technician, BELFOR UK
Case Study: BELFOR Relectronic (UK) Ltd
Business Challenge
BELFOR is a global recovery company that specialises in responding to insured incidents through a network of 16 response centres located throughout the UK. It provides an immediate and effective response to any disaster, from a flooded basement in a residential terraced house to huge fires in manufacturing plants. Over the last 30 years, the company has helped countless numbers of home owners, shops, supermarkets, restaurants, hotels and businesses to take immediate and decisive action when fire, water or storm damage renders a property or business premises unusable or inaccessible.
The company’s UK operations are located in Tamworth, Staffordshire, where it employs around 35 staff in its main call centre (25 agents and 10 finance personnel) and a further 20 management and administration staff in a separate office.
At any one time, BELFOR has around 25 agents working in its call centre and 100 field-based engineers located throughout the country. When a customer calls to report an incident, an engineer will be allocated to the job and will visit the site as quickly as possible. They will subsequently provide reports for the insurance company and co-ordinate the efforts to repair and recover the situation. All this activity is co-ordinated through the call centre.
The company deals with thousands of incidents every year and the initial alert to every emergency is always received through a telephone call. Once a recovery is underway, it will receive numerous calls from its own engineers and from customers and other parties related to individual jobs. At peak times the call centre can be handling as many as 600 calls a day. This makes good, reliable communications essential.
BELFOR aims to always provide a prompt, responsive and professional service. In order to deliver and maintain its high standards, the company needed a telephony solution that would enable it to operate efficiently and cost-effectively during normal periods and scale-up to meet the extra demand for its services when adverse weather conditions or other events increase activity levels.
Solution
At the start of 2006, it became clear to BELFOR that its current telephony system would not be capable of meeting the growing company’s needs for much longer. Taking the recommendation of a trusted contact, it got in touch with Avaya accredited partner, mason information technologies (Mason Infotech) for expert advice and guidance.
Mason Infotech recommended the deployment of an Avaya Intelligent Communication solution comprising twin IP Office switches with Networked Voicemail Pro deployed in each of the offices to manage conventional voice calls. Avaya Compact Call Centre was recommended to provide the flexible call routing, group hunting and managementes functionality required in the call centre. Phone Manager Software would provide users with the ability to control calls through their PC.
In addition, the use of Avaya Wallboard Manager and PC-based wallboards was proposed to provide a means of displaying up-to-date information on call waiting and response times for managers and agents. Avaya Contact Store was recommended to provide the call recording functionality required for quality control and training purposes.
Results
BELFOR has been impressed with the reliability of the Avaya systems and both call centre and management staff are benefiting from its broad functionality and versatility. Jamie Brennan, IT Technician at BELFOR UK, states:
“We like the facilities the system offers us such as the hot-desking, hunt groups, and voice-mail system. We have about 100 field engineers who call in from their mobile phones and their numbers are stored on our call centre system and then routed to the specialist call centre agent that is handling the case. This saves time and ensures that the most appropriate person, with the information at their fingertips, will take the call”.
The company can set up virtual teams of agents – some of whom have specialist skills or experience – to manage specific incidents within minutes. When engineers or customers call in with updates, they can be routed to the individual agent or team managing that particular job instantly. This makes the call centre more effective and responsive.
In addition, the use of Avaya Wallboard Server and PC Wallboards provide up-to-date information on performance and enable personnel to monitor activity in real-time and re-allocate resources and adjust priorities to meet requirements.
As the system is fully integrated, calls can be routed to and very easily transferred between different members of staff at the different locations, and the use of IP-based systems (Avaya IP 5410 Handsets) makes it easy for users to hot-desk around the building, these capabilities add to overall the efficiency of the system and to BELFOR’s ability to provide customers with a responsive and professional service.
Key Benefits...
