Centrix and Dacon Win Deal to Upgrade Travel Call Centre
Centrix, a leading provider of contact centres and IP-telephony solutions, and Dacon, the specialist contact centre distributor, have secured a deal with travel company APH (Airport Parking Hotels) which will see the channel partners working to upgrade APHs existing call centre’s functionality and ultimately migrate it into a full contact centre. The first phase, which is already underway, is to give APH the ability to effectively managed and distribute voice calls and provide management tools so the company can plan for future growth. Integrating emails and back-office systems will be rolled out once the voice element is fully implemented and utilised.
APH (Airport Parking Hotels) sells travellers the UK element of their trip, whether that’s travel to and from the airport, accommodation the night before or secure parking. The business takes bookings for 30 car parks covering 16 airports in the UK and has many hotels on its books. While the company has a web site where bookings can be made, most sales enquiries come via the phone and so it is crucial that all calls are effectively handled so that they can be maximised.
The company was previously using a BT Option II PBX to handle its incoming calls, but this only gave them the ability to route calls on a basic level and offered limited management tools i.e. they knew how many calls the centre was receiving. Centrix therefore recommended implementing Rockwell’s FirstPoint Business Edition, an all in one contact centre solution, supplied through Dacon. This would not only deliver the level of functionality required for voice, but was suitable for the future requirements of adding other contact touch points.
Having ‘dumbed down’ the existing PBX so that it is now only used for connectivity voice path, the new solution is currently being used by APH to prioritise its calls based on the importance of the enquiry and the skill set and experience of agents. Tailored messages for call waiting have also been created, which is an essential tool for APH who provides branded services for a number of affiliate companies, such as the AA.
Nick Caunter from APH commented: “The benefits we have seen on the voice side from upgrading our PBX and implementing Business Edition has been beyond our expectations. Not only are calls being dealt with quicker and more efficiently, as the first point of contact is generally the most appropriate person to handle the sale, but when our affiliate’s members call to receive their specific offer, while waiting to be routed to the correct agent they have a branded message”
The solution is also providing APH with essential management information, such as the quiet and busy times of the day. This has enabled APH to plan their staffing levels accordingly, so that a high level of service is maintained throughout.
While Business Edition has the ability to integrate other contact touch points, such as email and web chat, and also link agents with back-office systems, a decision has been made to initially focus on getting the voice management as efficient and effective as possible. Ian Calder of Centrix explained: “The call centre is an organic entity which needs constantly tweaking, we therefore took the decision, with APH and Dacon, to roll out the functionality at a manageable level to ensure each element of the solution is being fully maximised before introducing new functions”.
Andy Seath, general manager contact solutions, Dacon, comments on the future: “While voice remains the immediate priority, we are already identifying areas where the solution will deliver benefits to APH when migration to the contact centres occurs. For example, during the busy seasons APH employ students, but the transient nature of this meant they constantly have to retrain staff. The new solution will allow them to integrate their back office systems so that agents will have access to what they need, without needing such high levels of training”.
> More about APH
> More information from Centrix
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