latest call handling & answering news

In just three weeks time Ansaback 24/7 call centre will be sending two teams to undertake the National 3 Peaks Challenge.

Call handling agents and back office staff will be travelling to Scotland on the 8th of June ready to climb Ben Nevis on the morning of the 9th. As soon as Ben Nevis is completed the teams will be travelling to the Lake District to climb Scafell, the second mountain in this challenge. On completion of Scafell, the teams will travel to Wales to climb the third and final mountain, Snowdon. The challenge is to complete all 3 mountains within 24 hours!

Everyone is surprised at how quickly it has come about. Training has been underway for some time now consisting of lengthy treadmill sessions and long walks around the beautiful Suffolk countryside. Unfortunately Suffolk is notoriously flat meaning it has been an uphill struggle (excuse the pun) to find anywhere that offers terrain similar to that of the 3 mountains.

The teams are really pulling together and helping each other to make sure everyone has the right equipment for the challenge. Some of the team have never previously climbed any mountain, some have climbed all 3 individually, but not of the team have climbed all 3 within 24 hours, therefore it really is a huge challenge for every team member.

Everyone is feeling confident and the support received from friends and family is certainly helping to motivate, but the biggest motivator is that they are raising money for Ormiston Childrens Charity, who help children to get the very best start in life, whatever their circumstances.

With not long to go, we will find out soon enough if Ansaback returns victorious in the National 3 Peaks Challenge, please stay posted for latest news, or follow Ansaback on twitter to find out more 'as it happens' throughout the challenge!

May has just begun and everybody is holding their breath as to what the weather will be doing this month. April was awful with constant showers, high winds and dark clouds putting a shadow over everything including everyone’s hopes for a nice summer.

People in the Midlands were badly affected with gale force winds accompanied by lashings of rainfall- 10 days worth in just 12 hours. Trees blocking streets and flooded fields were a common sight in Birmingham towards the end of April along with roof tops ripped off shopping centres. Rail commuters in Kent also had a hard time when a tree lay on the railway tracks causing havoc as people were told to expect delays on their journeys to London.

When unforeseen events like this take place it is very important to have procedures in place to make sure your business can carry on as normal. Staff shortages are very common in these times as people struggle to get to the office, but something like the loss of power to an office can be crippling especially if you do not have a back up source of power.

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plans are becoming more and more important, companies can not afford to miss a days worth a trading especially with the current state of the economy.  There are no set Business Continuity or DR plans; each business requires different levels of cover depending on their business activities. Some may require the use of an external data centre in the event that theirs go down, some require the use of external office space in case they need to evacuate and relocate. Other business’ continuity plans consist of using an external call centre to handle the telephone activity. 

What ever plans you have in place, it is important to make sure they can be easily implemented and readily tested. There is nothing worse then paying for a DR Service for it not to work when you need it the most. Ansaback provide a wide range of professional and reliable DR services, from 24/7 call handling services, automated telephony solutions, through to the use of a purpose built DR site.

On Sunday 6th May over 550 participants took part in the 2012 Heritage Coast Run / Walk. There are 3 seperate events, the full marathon, the 1/2 marathon and the 6 mile course.

The 3 courses are set in some of the most attractive countryside that Suffolk has to offer and presents a unique challenge to the participants. The event, which is hosted near to our Ipswich based contact centre attracts not only local competitors but also competitive runners and clubs from all over the country.The weather was not particularly kind, being both wet and windy however this did not detract from the event or deter the competitors.

Ansaback 24/7 call centre Managing Director Christian Pawsey and his partner Abi (pictured below) both took part in the event. Christian did the 1/2 marathon which was 13.1 miles with a finishing time of just 1 hour 43 minutes. His partner Abi, who is 6 months pregnant, took part in the 6 mile walk, finishing in approximately 1 hour 30 minutes.

Whilst both Christian and Abi and regulars to marathons and other sporting events, it was a 1st race for their unborn child!

As part of the on-going development of our North West office, Ansaback 24/7 Contact Centre are pleased to announce that they are now members of the Lancaster District Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber provides an excellent platform for Ansaback to network with local businesses and promote their call centre services. As Lancaster Chamber of Commerce also partners with other district Chambers in the North West the business development opportunities are not just restricted to Lancaster. Iain Murray, Ansaback’s Business Development Manager says “Joining the local Chamber of Commerce was always in the forefront of our plans when setting up the office here in Lancaster. We have a fantastic range of call handling services to offer and the Chamber provides an excellent platform to do business with local companies”

The team at the Ansaback Contact Centre division, Fault Solutions 365, would like to say a big thank you to everyone who came and met us at the Convergence Summit North exhibition, last week at the Manchester Central convention centre.

Fault Solutions 365 was exhibiting their 1st line technical support services, showing how our call centre can support telecoms providers and ISP’s. Fault Solutions 365 Business Development Manager Iain Murray said “once again we were thoroughly pleased with the show. It’s a great platform for us to demonstrate our 24/7 call centre support services and having the opportunity to meet new potential customers and existing customers helps us yo reaffirm that we are the leading fault handling call centre in the UK”

A motivated workforce is a key factor to any business, in the call centre industry it is vital that the call handling agents feel valued and motivated as they are fundamental to the success of the services that a call centre provides.

At Ansaback 24/7 contact centre and business services bureau we have various schemes in place to ensure our call handling agents feel happy in the workplace and feel engaged with the work they are doing. In previous posts you would have seen that we adopt a ‘Call Centre Superstars’ scheme and ‘Call Centre Agents of the Month’ which are just two of the ways we motivate our employees and reward them for exceptional service.

The health and wellbeing of our agents is also something we are keen to promote. The agents have access to fresh fruit throughout the day which encourages healthy eating which in turn leads to healthy agents. The Bike to Work scheme is another system we have in place where we offer assistance to our staff in purchasing bicycles to enable them to cycle to work, offering a healthy alternative to driving to work, which also promotes the reduction of our carbon footprint.

Call handling agents are on the front line when it comes to operating a contact centre. They are the face of the business and our success is directly linked to their customer service abilities, so it is unquestionably important to make sure they are motivated and well looked after which will help Ansaback continue to be at the forefront of the contact centre industry.

Fault Solutions 365 are today and tomorrow exhibiting at Convergence Summit North, at the Manchester Central exhibition centre.

Our Call Centre offers unrivalled 24/7 fault reporting services, if you are attending the event please do come along and see us on stand 69. We will be demonstrating our full range of 1st line support solutions that we can offer Telecoms providers and ISP’s. If you are attending, Fault Solutions 365 look forward to seeing you there!

There is  just two weeks to go before Fault Solutions 365 exhibits at Convergence Summit North (on the 17th and 18th April), which is being hosted at the Manchester Central exhibition centre. We invite any visitors to come and see us on stand 69 at this prestigious event.

Any companies interested in our Telecoms call centre support services can meet with our Business Development Manager, Iain Murray, or if you are an existing Telecoms client then this is a great opportunity to meet your new Account Manager, Georgina Gray.

Fault Solutions 365 will be demonstrating our full range of their 1st line support solutions that we can offer Telecoms providers and ISP’s. Our Call Centre offers unrivalled 24/7 (365) fault reporting services.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Did you know that Maundy Thursday is the beginning of the Easter celebrations and it was tradition for the reigning Monarch to wash the feet of the poor.  This went on until 1699 at which point the Monarch would send an official in his place. Things have certainly changed since way back then and the tradition has been altered whereby instead of washing the feet of the poor, our Queen will give out money to a group of pensioners.

At Ansaback we have our own tradition; Every year our Chief Financial Officer Stuart Gordon goes and collects an enormous amount of Hot Cross buns to be enjoyed by call handling agents and back office staff alike.

Keeping with the Easter theme, two call handling Agents also received chocolate related prizes for winning the the Ansaback Superstars draw. When a call handling agent receives 100% on their call monitoring report they have their name added to the Superstar board, two names were picked at random from the superstars featured on this board. The winning agents were Carla Thomas and Emma Stokes. Well done to both agents and we hope you enjoy your prizes. Ansaback will also be having 2 dress down days over the Ester period, raising money for Ormiston Childrens Charity.

As Ansaback is a 24/7 (365) contact centre our call handling agents will be busy handling calls over the Easter period, but for those that have time off we wish everyone a very happy and enjoyable Easter break.

Ansaback gave six call handling agents the opportunity to find out what happens behind the scenes of a busy 24/7 call centre. The six lucky applicants have been able to experience different areas of the business covering sales, accounts and client services. 

It was also an opportunity for the call handling agents to experience other areas of IPPlus PLC, such as CallScripter- our call centre software provider, IP3 Telecom- our telephony network providers and Ancora Solutions- the shredding, removals and archiving branch.

Everyone has been very impressed with the amount of effort each candidate put in to their temporary rolls, which included tasks such as script building, proposals for prospective clients, website design and even chipping in with the occasional tea run.

It has been a wonderful experience for all the back office staff, as well as the agents and it's certainly a scheme we would like to implement again in the not so distant future.