Espria supported a specialist insurance company in Midlands who have provided Motor Trade and Commercial Insurance for over 30 years. Their aim is to provide 1st class service, with single point of contact, from quotation to renewal, with a promise to be available when their customers need them the most.
The company’s issues : Declining ISDN impacting their ability to provide high levels of customer service
Having been on a traditional ISDN phone system our client recognised that the PSTN/ISDN switch off meant that their soon to be end of life phone system needed updating; and they didn’t want to leave it too late and be caught out in potential price rises or supply issues.
When COVID hit, their customers still needed insurance quotations, renewals, and claims to be processed. With a promise of always being available when their customers needed them, the work from home order caused challenges with meeting core business values as the on-site legacy phone system was unsuitable for remote workers.
Even after the lockdowns, with customers on the phone, it was important that our client could recognise and adapt to busy periods to ensure they had sufficient resources available when their customers needed them.
To provide a 1st class service they wanted to ensure that no call went unanswered and that holding times were kept to the minimum. It was therefore going to be challenging to maintain high standards during lockdowns and with staff required to work from home.
Our solution: A VoIP based phone system providing operational agility.
Espria moved the business to a VoIP based phone system, away from the legacy ISDN lines. As part of this digital transformation, Espria provided resilient connectivity to ensure the client was future proofed against the PSTN/ISDN switch off.
When the lockdown hit, the solution was scaled up to add mobile apps to enable agents to access the phone system from anywhere. Calls could be transferred, incoming calls had the correct caller ID and outgoing calls could still present the correct company contact number. Even as the pandemic kicked in, agents were easily able to switch between in office desk phone and softphones or mobile applications so that no customers were affected by our client’s team having to work from home.
Call reporting and call recording features were enabled so that our client had a holistic overview of their customers’ experience ensuring their 1st class service levels continued.
Wall boards have since been installed in the offices so all agents can see their call stats, waiting times and ensure no customers are left on hold or calls missed.
