MK Transportation: a logistics company that needs flexible telephony
MK Transportation is a freight management company with one main office, 12 satellite offices and 36 employees located around the UK. For 24 hours every day, MK Transportation has 900 vehicles making deliveries and collections. Accurate and timely deliveries are the lifeblood of the business and the telephone is critical to keeping track of all of these activities.
MK Transportation's current telephony presents a number of problems
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There is no centralised telephone directory. The receptionist in the main office maintains a directory using a spread sheet to record the office extensions and all of the 900 drivers’ mobile telephone numbers. Employees and drivers change regularly and so the receptionist emails updated directories across the company once every fortnight. Keeping this directory current, accurate and with everyone on the same version is becoming an impossible task and is having a negative impact on customer service. Customer complaints are increasing.
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30 of MK Transportation’s employees spend all day on the telephone. Today, they cannot answer any incoming call which means some callers have long waiting times before they speak to someone. This is adding to customer complaints.
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The company’s business is seasonal. There are times of the year when they need more telephone lines to handle demand. Their current system does not scale.
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The current telephone system supports a maximum of 10 speed-dial numbers per office. With 900 drivers in the field, office-based employees spend a lot of time just dialling mobile telephone numbers.
The Simply Better Business Telephony solution from inclarity
inclarity can solve MK Transportation’s problems by providing a single 0845 number and an integrated Outlook toolbar which supports a centralised directory with click-to-dial facilities. Using inclarity’s online Phone Manager, MK Transportation can add and remove lines to track seasonal demand.
Consistent, responsive, service results in more sales
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When customers dial in to the 0845 number, calls are blasted automatically and simultaneously to every extension that is not currently handling a call. In practice, this reduces call wait times significantly and eliminates unanswered calls. Customer satisfaction improves.
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All employees and drivers have an account on the new telephone system where they enter and maintain their contact details. This data populates a central telephone directory that any employee or driver can access over the Internet using a secure login and password. There is no longer any need for the receptionist to manage the unwieldy spread sheet directory.
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MK Transportation’s 30 call handlers can now click to dial colleagues, customers and drivers from outlook. In practice, this increases productivity by over 8%.
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MK Transportation takes advantage of this increase in productivity to introduce customer courtesy calls. When a delivery is completed, every customer receives a call to confirm the delivery and to say thank you for their business. This has had an unexpected upside because it has directly resulted in a 7% increase in sales.
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Call costs between offices fall to zero, saving MK Transportation money in a tough climate. Overall, their telephone bills fall by 35%.
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Call reporting helps the business monitor and improve employee productivity as well as more accurately forecast the resources needed to manage busy periods.
Peak periods
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MK Transportation hires temporary staff to cover the busy periods. Using the information from inclarity’s Phone Manager, MK Transportation can predict how many lines it needs to add over what period to make sure that no calls are missed and customer satisfaction remains high. With Simply Better Business Telephony, the company can add and remove lines with just 24 hours’ notice, scaling its telephony up and down with demand and only paying for the lines used.
