An Engineering company with offices in Perth and Welshpool and Bunbury recently approached Host Tel to see if we could help with the telecommunications of their sites. A quick discussion with the client revealed that the three sites were all running separate independent phone systems this was also causing disruptions to the staff at the Welshpool workshop as they were frequently being interrupted with incoming calls that needed to be directed to the other 2 sites. The Perth and Bunbury locations were also unable to directly transfer calls to the other sites but this wasn’t causing interruptions to them as they had dedicated receptionists at those sites.
The solution that Host Tel presented to our customer was to connect all 3 sites with a Host Tel Phones and have the Bunbury receptionist act as the primary call handler with the Perth receptionist being the secondary call handler in case of overflow.
This solution has had a dramatic impact on the sites, the Welshpool site now only receives calls being transferred to staff members there eliminating their need to stop work to answer and direct calls. The Perth receptionist is now able to focus on administrative duties which in the client’s eye is a far more efficient use of her time. The Receptionist at Bunbury is now being fully utilised. The client has also mentioned to us they may look into adding a second receptionist at the Bunbury site to assist in call handling is required as the labour cost and site costs of accommodating staff there is significantly lower than the 2 Perth metropolitan sites.
To summarise the final results of this case study, by integrating the three sites into a single phone system the limits of geographical location have been removed this has allowed the customer to make better use of the existing staff and maximise their efficiency. Being able to utilise staff in the lowest cost centre has also opened up opportunity’s to make savings.