With plans for expansion, the directors at TEC Fire and Security knew that the firm’s telephone system would have to be updated to make room for growth.
Until the fire safety and security firm moved to new premises, they had been managing with one fixed landline. Handling calls was difficult and field engineers needed to be on call out of office hours.
ACS were called in to provide a solution and implemented an 8×8 system that would allow for multiple users and easier call management.
TEC Managing Director, Simon Philp, said: “It had become virtually unworkable, having just one landline. We didn’t want to push on and advertise the business because we weren’t confident we would be able to cope with extra calls coming in.
“We moved our offices to Marston Moretaine last year, a better location to grow our market in Milton Keynes, Northamptonshire, and Bedfordshire, and that seemed like the ideal time to see what we could do.
“As well as taking a higher volume of incoming calls, we also needed a system where we could manage the redirection of emergency calls to the engineer that was on duty. Before, we had to go into the office and manually put the phones on redirect, which was a pain if someone was sick or if the person on call changed, during a long weekend, for example.”
The ACS experts met with TEC to discuss their needs and complete a connectivity check before suggesting the 8×8 system.
The demonstration was impressive and included desk phones and soft phone applications, so that the administration team could work from any location without having to give out their personal mobile numbers.
A call queue was set up on a mobile app so that the engineers can log in and out of the queue when it’s their turn to be on call, while the management team can manage the redirection service should the rota change, someone forgets to switch redirection on, or to get round any change in working arrangements.
It’s not a complicated system and ACS brought everyone up to speed on a ‘train the trainer’ basis, so there was someone within the company that could make sure everyone else knew how everything worked.
Switching to the new system opened new opportunities for TEC in a cost-effective manner, and with the understanding that the 8×8 system can easily expand to allow further growth down the line.
“It’s been a great solution for us, it makes life a whole lot easier and we’re more efficient. But the most important thing is that when you work out the costings, it’s not actually any more expensive to have this system than the one we had before.”
Contact ACS, email info@acs365.co.uk or call 01604 704000
