We at Digital Angels were invited to propose a solution for an energy switching firm and were informed that they were moving locations to a larger office; they also planned to add another 4 members of staff who would each require phones. They wanted a better solution than 8 individual numbers and 1 ring group (current solution offered 4 lines with numbers and 1 ring group).
After the discovery phase we proposed and then implemented the following solution;

• We arranged for a new range of local numbers for their customers to call free within their mobile phone packages, ending in 00 and gave them 6 additional numbers to use as direct dials if they felt the need.
  


• We forwarded the 0845 number and all the original local numbers to the new main incoming number, giving a message for the old numbers saying that these numbers were to be discontinued after a certain date.
  


• We then added an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) to allow the customers to decide which area of the business they would like to speak to, giving them a much better call experience and much shorter call times.


• We then added phones to certain queues and pickup / hunt groups (as defined by the company) to allow for calls to failover from busy queues to less busy ones after a certain amount of time queuing, we also presented to the answering agent which area of the business the call was originally routed to, providing continuity to the caller and helping the agent help the customer more efficiently.

The increased functionality not only reduced the average handle time of each call which pleased the customers but enabled the staff to increase productivity which pleased the management. The cost of this solution was only 30% more than they were originally paying even with double the staff and double the outgoing calls meaning a saving per agent overall.