Intuitive phones make happy partnership
Jul 31 2008 by Iain Laing, The Journal
IT specialist Croft Technology has completed a telecommunications contract to support the partnering of two of the region’s housing associations.
Newcastle company Croft worked closely with Bernicia, formerly Cheviot Housing, and Wansbeck Housing Association to implement a new multi-site call centre.
Croft was responsible for introducing an intuitive call centre system, which directs people to the relevant department or adviser.
In addition, Bernicia was also provided with a call recording and legacy system integration. The new technology has allowed Bernicia to benefit immediately from efficiencies and cost savings of the system.
A gateway between the merging organisations’ phone systems has also eliminated the need for extensive staff retraining.
Newcastle group Bernicia has almost 8,000 rented properties in the North East for single people, families, elderly people and those with special needs.
Croft business development director Mick Keeble said: “Bernicia offers accommodation to people across the region, so it is important that the organisation has the communication facilities to answer inquiries quickly and effectively. The investment in the intuitive call centre ensures people speak to the correct department or adviser rather than being transferred from department to department – we are all too aware how frustrating an experience this can be.
“Using the latest technology, Bernicia now has advanced facilities to deliver excellent customer service and support to people across the North East.”
Gary Hind, head of ICT at Bernicia, said: “Good communications between multiple sites and the ability to provide a single point of contact for our tenants and stakeholders is critical to the process. As Wansbeck Homes will occupy council premises for the foreseeable future, it made sense to make use of the well established voice and data infrastructure.
“Being able to dovetail the existing telephony systems with the latest in call centre technology has enabled the group to realise efficiencies and savings on several fronts.
“The virtual nature of our systems has meant that we have been able to take the contact centre to our customers, allowing them to benefit from efficient call handling in a much shorter timescale.”
