News
- 12 Million Calls Answered! more...
- Ansaback Call Centre - Investing in their people more...
- Ansaback call centre is credited for helping client win Gold Award more...
- Weathering the Storm more...
- Ansaback Raise Money For Haiti more...
- Santa Fun Run more...
- Ransomes Olympics 2009 more...
- Martlesham's Music On The Green 2009 more...
- Ansaback raise an impressive £1327.56 for Macmillan Cancer Support!! more...
- Moonwalk 2009 more...
- 10 Million Calls Answered! more...
- The benefits of registering with Immobilise more...
- IP Plus... so much more more...
- Landmark 9,000,000th Call for Ansaback more...
- Ansaback Finance Director Organises 12 hour Music Festival and Wows the Crowd more...
- Ansaback Raises Money for Macmillian Cancer more...
12 Million Calls Answered!
On Saturday 20th February, at 8.43 a.m, Ansaback call centre passed yet another milestone in its 12 year history. Call
centre agent Karen Porter took Ansabacks 12,000,000th inbound call, winning herself a Debenhams voucher.
It's an exciting time in the call centre when an important milestone is nearing, with all agents wanting to take that all
important call. Ansaback awards prizes and fun activities for the call centre agents to mark the celebration of another
great milestone.
Ansaback continues to go from strength to strength and we look forward to announcing the 13,000,000th call very soon!
Sharon Ball, Operations Director added "This is great news and as we continue to increase our daily averages for calls
answered, these milestones come round quicker and quicker each time!"
Ansaback Call Centre - Investing in their people
Ansaback has held the 'Investors In People' accreditation for the past 3 years and continue to adhere to the standards
required. A productive and efficient working environment is key to this to achieve continuous business improvement. We
know that our staff play a fundamental role to our success and we strive to ensure that they are recognised for their
hard work and effort. This includes opportunities to progress and further their careers here at Ansaback.
A recent survey demonstrated that 73% of vacancies and 81% of promoted posts are filled internally demonstrating that we
really do invest in our people.
A prime example of this is Sharon Ball, who is our Operations Director. Sharon began her career at Ansaback as a call
centre agent, she actually took the very first call in our call centre almost 12 years ago!
Ansaback call centre is credited for helping client win Gold Award
The RSPCA "Biggest Animal Rescue Ever" campaign (the Donation Line), has been awarded GOLD in the Direct Marketing
Association Awards for Best Business Performance or Improvement.
The RSPCAs creative and media agencies won the award for their design, promotion and
targeting performance, however Ansaback call centre are a big part of making this work for the RSPCA by ensuring that
not only do we pick-up every call that is generated by the advertising, but more importantly that the supporters receive
an excellent first impression of the charity, improving campaign results dramatically.
Ansaback call centre agents really enjoy handling the RSPCA calls as they appreciate it is for a such worthy cause and
every donation really does make a difference.
Weathering the Storm
Whilst some companies struggled during the recent weather conditions, The Ansaback call centre had one of its busiest
periods. With many staff across the UK not able to get into their place of work, companies utilised our professional
inbound and outbound call centre service to ensure their business did not suffer the consequences of the weather.
Ansaback also introduced various measures to help their own staff, which included hiring a 4x4 to provide free transport
to and from the call centre for those unable to get themselves to work during the period of heavy snow. Ansaback also
provide their staff with daily, free fresh fruit, to help keep the winter bugs at bay!
Ansaback Raise Money For Haiti
After the massive earthquake (which measured 7.0 on the Richter scale) hit Haiti, the loss of life and the widespread
devastation was immense.
Employees in the call centre were keen to do their bit and raise some money for the HAITI appeal, so Ansaback
held an impromptu dress down day on Friday 22nd January, with all participants donating money towards the appeal on the
day. Staff managed to raise a fantastic £300.00!
Ansaback generously offered to double the amount donated by the staff, resulting in the total raised by the call centre
and CallSctipter of £600.00!!
Funds have been donated to the DEC Haiti Earthquake Appeal.
A big thank you again to all who donated - every penny helps.
Santa Fun Run
It takes more than a bit of inclement weather to put off members of the Ansaback call centre staff! The game employees
braved cold and rain to take part in this years SANTA FUN RUN at Christchurch Park in Ipswich on Sunday 13th December.
The event involved dressing up in a well fitted Santa Suit complete with beard and hat and running or walking round the
Park. The 3 km course was a piece of cake for the seasoned runners within the group whilst others followed on at a
slightly more sedate pace alongside young, old, push chairs and even dogs!!
For their efforts all contestants received a medal and hearty congratulations from the organisers at EACH, who are this
year's designated charity for the call centre. This resulted in more funds being added to the already impressive total
raised by Ansaback - all in a good clause!
Ransomes Olympics 2009
Ansaback call centre team China scooped 1st prize at their local Ransomes Olympics event. Rival Ansaback team Kenya were
close behind, coming in 3rd. The annual event was held in aid of East Anglian Childrens Hospice (EACH), organised by
accountancy firm PKF, with participants all raising funds for the charity, which is also the Ansaback nominated charity
for fundraising events throughout 2009.
From left to right, Kofi Darko, Matt Lawrence, Matt Taylor and Steve Brown, all from the call centre Client Services dept,
savoured their victory and pole position. Team captain, Matt Taylor, was especially happy at coming in ahead of rival
Ansaback team Kenya, made up of Christian Pawsey, James Barham and call centre agents Carla Thomas and Sian Matthews.
Matt said "It's great to have won, but all that mattered, was beating the other Ansaback team"! Gold medallist Team China
won a month's membership to David Lloyd sports and fitness gym, while Bronze medal team Kenya won a golf day at the
Seckford golf centre in Woodbridge. All are looking forward to competing again next year.
Martlesham's Music On The Green 2009
Friday 2nd October saw friends, family and committee members of the Music on the Green spectacular gather for the awards
presentation evening, at the Martlesham Heath Douglas Bader.
The fantastic event, which took place on Saturday 11th July, drew record crowds and was a wonderful day out for everyone.
The weather held out (all bar a few drops of rain) and with picnic blankets, musical celebrations and an age range of 8 to
80, it really was a day to remember for all involved.
The volunteers worked tirelessly, and took to fundraising throughout the day, whether it was selling raffle tickets or
rattling their collection buckets, and their hard work paid dividends.
On Friday we were absolutely thrilled to be able to present EACH (East Anglian Children's Hospice) with a cheque for
£3,000 to go towards their dedicated commitment to the children of our region.
Friday was a great chance to thank all those involved and a raffle to start next year's fund took place. Everyone was
also treated to the musical delights of Blue Wave, playing their distinct sound throughout the evening.
Stuart Gordon, Chairman of Music on the Green, commented: "We are delighted that although costs have increased and the
credit crunch has had its part to play we have been able to match last year's donation. It was a wonderful day with
another enormous turnout on the Green which helped a very worthy cause."
Next year it is the "3 Tenners" with the 10th Music on the Green taking place on Saturday 10th July 2010. We hope to see
another incredible turnout as this year past, and it's a date to get in your diary now!
Ansaback raise an impressive £1327.56 for Macmillan Cancer Support!!
The staff pulled together during the year and through a variety of events including Dress Down Days, Abseiling,
Competitions, Auctions and Raffles managed to collect well over a thousand pounds to donate to Macmillan. This coming year
the chosen charity is East Anglian Childrens Hospice and once again the company hope to rise to the challenge and beat
last years total!!
Moonwalk 2009
Local company 'Ansaback' supported 5 of their employees recently when they took part in the 'Moonwalk Challenge'. The
girls were given warm coats along with warm wishes by the management and all successfully completed the 26 mile walk
round London through the night to raise money for Breast Cancer. Ansaback Angels were not surprised by the company
backing as they provide all employees with free fruit on a daily basis as well as having a nominated charity that
benefits annually from regular staff activities. The walk, which took approximately 7.5 hours was exhausting and
emotional but the atmosphere created by the 18,000 women (and men!) all dressed in bra's made it a thoroughly worthwhile
experience and the Angels collectively raised a heavenly £1,000.00 + for the charity!
(Left to right: Lisa Carrington, Coral Amey, Jackie Powell, Cathy McClean and Sherryl Eastell)
10 Million Calls Answered!
On the 11th March the company passed yet another landmark in its 11 year history. Ansaback set up shop in 1998 & now
employs 175 staff, achieved through steady performance based growth. Constant investment in new technology has seen the
recent instalment of a new state of the art phone switch, helping them to handle calls 24 hours a day 365 days a year for
a client base in excess of 1,000, including many household company names, as well as local businesses.
Christian Pawsey, the General Manager commented that 'celebrating the 10 millionth call was a really exciting event and a
testimony to the professionalism and versatility shown by our dedicated team of employees'. All agents answering calls
were entered into a prize draw with a prize of an iPod being awarded the 10,000,000th call handler.
Ansaback are moving from strength to strength and look forward to the next 10 million calls!!
The benefits of registering with Immobilise
Upon receiving an email from Suffolk Police Direct outlining the benefits of registering personal property on
Immobilise - the website aiming at return stolen property to their rightful owners, Finance Director of IPPlus PLC,
Stuart Gordon, promptly forwarded the email to all of IPPlus's employees. IPPlus is the parent company of Ansaback - a
dedicated 24/7, 365 day Call Centre, CallScripter - a software house providing Contact Centre solutions, and IP3
Telecom - a network solution provider.
Upon receiving the email Judith Schulen, Shift Supervisor at IPPlus Call Centre Ansaback, promptly registered her mobile
phone. To her delight, she then received an email from Immobilise advising that simply by registering, she had become
one of 10 people selected at random to win a brand new iPod.
Needless to say, Judith has immediately registered her new iPod on Immobilise also! To find out more, or register your
personal possessions simply register at
www.immobilise.co.uk.
The service is completely free and should you find yourself in the unfortunate position of having property stolen, there's
a good chance you could have it returned safely to you if you have registered it on Immobilise.
Immobilise is the world's largest FREE register of possession ownership details and with its sister site CheckMEND
(
www.checkmend.com) the largest database of stolen property and
blocked mobile phones.
Immobilise can be used by members of the public and businesses to register their valued possessions or company assets.
This online checking service is used by all the UK Police forces to trace owners of lost and stolen property. In addition
Immobilise is checked daily by a huge range of recovery agencies and lost property offices.
As a direct result of Immobilise there are over 250 cases a week where property is returned or information collected that
assists the Police in investigating criminal activity involving stolen goods.
Immobilise is also the only ownership registration service supported by all the UK Police forces, the Greater London
Authority, Transport for London and The Mobile Phone Industry.
back to top...
IP Plus... so much more
County Contact Centres (UK) PLC is delighted to announce they are re-branding as IPPlus PLC.
IPPlus PLC is an AIM-listed business services group, with their Headquarters in Ipswich, Suffolk. Since the acquisition
of Ansaback, a 24/7 Call Centre and Business Services Bureau, back in 2001 the group has grown and diversified
significantly. The group now has three distinct divisions - Ansaback - a 24/7 Call Centre, CallScripter - a software
house providing solutions to the Contact Centre industry, and IP3 Telecom, a network solution provider. In light of this
diversification, it has been decided to re-brand the group to better reflect the wide-ranging business interests.
So why IPPlus? IP has a number of significant meanings within the industry, including Internet Protocol and Intellectual
Property, as well as IP being the Ipswich postcode. IPPlus removes the boundaries perhaps suggested by County Contact
Centres, enabling the brand to reach out globally, whilst also providing a strong sense of ownership and identity to the
175+ staff.
Commenting on the developments, William Catchpole - Managing Director, says "Whilst these are difficult trading times, we
are thrilled to be moving forward with a strong new identity and aggressive growth plans. All three divisions of the group
are performing well, with steady growth and encouraging plans for the future. IPPlus PLC represents the dawn of an
exciting new phase for the company, and we are all looking forward to a challenging, but prosperous future."
back to top...
Landmark 9,000,000th Call for Ansaback
Ansaback reached a landmark recently, with the 9,000,000th call answered on Friday 15th August 2008.
Ansaback handles calls for over 1000 different clients and currently employs around 175 staff. They received the prestigious Investors in
People accreditation in 2007. Celebrating the handling of their 9,000,000th call, Operation Director Sharon Ball commented "This is an
exciting time for Ansaback having just handled our 9,000,000 call, which underlines our growing strength within the Call Centre industry. We
pride ourselves in being a professional, customer focused call centre and we couldn't have done it without our dedicated team of employees".
Agents handling the calls at Ansaback were entered in to a prize draw, with a special prize for the 9,000,000th call answered, pictured below.
Sharon Ball said "Business should show healthy growth again this year and we are looking forward to answering the 10,000,000th call soon!"
back to top...
Ansaback Finance Director Organises 12 hour
Music Festival and Wows the Crowd
On 12th July the ninth annual 12 hour music festival took place at Martlesham Heath, Ipswich and Stuart Gordon, the Ansaback FD, was heavily
involved in its organisation. The free event, which features 22 bands giving continuous music on 2 stages from 10:30 in the morning to 10:30
at night, is supported by BBC Radio Suffolk.
It is a key day on the East Anglian Music calendar, with all bands playing for free and the proceeds going to two local charities the Ipswich
Children's Hospice and the Martlesham Responders. Stuart also got the chance to take to the stage when his band - Cool Remedy - treated the
crowd of 3,000 to half an hour's country rock in the evening. All in all a fantastic day - but Stuart is not giving up his day job - just yet.
www.musiconthegreen.com
www.coolremedy.co.uk
www.flickr.com
back to top...
Ansaback Raises Money for Macmillian Cancer
Every year staff at Ansaback vote for a preferred charity, the winner this year to raise money for is Macmillian Cancer. Ansaback holds various
events such as pumpkin growing competitions, dress down days and pub card quizzes.
Members of staff have also taken part in a sponsored abseil down the side of the 150ft Ipswich hospital, which raised hundreds of pounds for
Macmillian Cancer and other various charities.
back to top...
