Ansaback News

Dear team at Ansaback

On behalf of the member agencies of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), I would like to thank you for your very kind donation of £600 towards our Haiti Earthquake Appeal on 28th January 2010!

The Haiti earthquake on the 12th January 2010 measured 7.3 on the Richter scale. It left thousands of people without homes and in need of humanitarian aid.  Your donation will initially help provide life-saving aid such as water, food, household items; medical supplies and shelter equipment.  

In addition to providing immediate aid relief, the DEC Member Agencies in collaboration with other organisations, are assessing the recovery needs to support destroyed livelihoods and reconstruction of homes and schools over the next three years. To date £101 million has been donated to our appeal and your donation will make a significant contribution to this work.

Once again thank you for your donation!

Please donate to the DEC Haiti Earthquake online at www.dec.org.uk

The January 12th earthquake was the worst to hit Haiti in 200 years. Up to three million people live in the most affected areas. Survivors lost family, homes, livelihoods and essential services. The DEC needs your support to help the Haitian people rebuild their lives.

The DEC launches and coordinates national fundraising appeals for public donations on behalf of its member aid agencies.

New independent research by GfK Mystery Shopping, shows that smart companies are improving their customer service to beat the economic recession. The findings reveal that contact centre queues overall are getting shorter, with 96% of callers getting through the very first time compared with 93% last year and that 66% of customers speak to agent's in less than 1 minute compared to 58% in 2008.

The report looked at elements such as menu options, transfers between agents and follow up calls and finding that 92% of callers felt that contacting a contact centre was easier than it has been in the past. Agents remain very knowledgeable with 83% agreeing that contact centre representatives had good product knowledge and the ability to resolve customer queries effectively. 94% of customers enquires where resolved in the first call.

86% of callers were either satisfied or extremely satisfied with their contact centre experience, with 43% of these being extremely satisfied. These happy customers are having a positive impact on brand perception; only 33% of callers had a high regard for the organisation prior to the call whereas after the call experience, 59% of callers said that they had an enhanced perception of the organisation.

The results are taken from the 2009 Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service benchmarking initiative, sponsored by Genesys and Noble Systems, which is one of the largest mystery shopping exercises in the UK. Over 17,000 mystery enquiries were made to the leading contact centres in the UK, in retail & distribution, financial services, telecoms & utilities, public sector and entertainment, leisure and travel. Each call was rated using over fifty criteria across five key areas: timeliness, ease of use, reliability, staff knowledge and personalised service and awarded a customer service rating in % terms.

The most improved sector was entertainment, leisure & travel which saw its score rise from 82% in 2008 to 86% in 2009. Telecoms and utilities also improved year on year, increasing their overall customer service rating by 3% to score 85%. The overall average score for the call centre industry increased from 83% in 2008 to 84% in 2009, with those contact centres taking part for the second year seeing an average 2% increase.

For the first time the study looked at email communications, which is becoming more important in this digital age. However the report shows that there is still room for improvement. With more and more contact centres realising that it is important to be able to communicate with customers effectively via their preferred method, they are working to improve the standards of their email communications.

“With overall consumer and business spending reduced, it is more important than ever for organisations to deliver outstanding customer service, this will help attract new customers and retain existing ones in these tough economic times. The results of this study clearly show that call centres are rising to the challenge and that smart companies are investing and encouraging outstanding customer service” commented Simon Thorpe, Programme Director, Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service.

Source: Press Release (Top 50 Call centres) www.callcentre.co.uk

The Institute of Fundraisers National Convention is a 3 day event that is put together by fundraisers, for fundraisers. The convention hosted a wide range of seminars presented by highly experienced and interesting speakers which proved to be very popular.

The exhibition featured many different companies from various sectors, from promotional items, software solutions, inbound/outbound call handling and many other services designed specifically for the Charity sector.

Ansaback were very pleased to be part of this prestigious event. 

Following the disappointment of England's early departure from the World Cup, all eyes are now firmly 'set' on the tennis and Andy Murray for a win at Wimbledon.

 To get our call centre agents into the spirit and following the Wimbledon tradition, the management team ‘served’ all employees with fresh strawberries and cream throughout this week, which went down a treat!

In addition to this, employees had the added ‘advantage’ of an extra dress down day.

Good luck Andy, we are all behind you!

Christian Pawsey, Ansaback Call Centre Commercial Director, competed in the 2nd annual Great East Swim, at Alton Water near Ipswich recently.

3,000 swimmers braved the 40 mph gusts and driving rain that day, to complete the 1 mile course on the reservoir near Holbrook, Ipswich. 200 people set off at 30 minute intervals, with different coloured swim hats for each wave. Christian, pictured here before the race, was in the ‘sky blue’ wave with the start delayed for 20 mins to wait for the not-so-sky-blue wind and rain to subside.

The choppy waters and horizontal rain eventually died down a little and they all set off, hoping just to complete the course rather than record a good time, as the conditions were so difficult.

One or two brave (!) competitors decided not to wear wetsuits and a Spiderman wetsuit lifted spirits of those waiting to take the plunge...

38 minutes and 22 seconds later, Christian emerged exhausted and relieved after zigzagging round the course and beating last year’s time of 39 minutes. All the training had paid off and the improved time was a personal achievement, especially given the wind, waves and rain that day. “I’ll be back next year” he said.

Ansaback (part of IPPLUS (UK) Ltd) has received The Investors In People accreditation, passing  with flying colours following their 3 year review.

Investors In People (IIP) is a prestigious award, and is gained by companies that can show that they invest in their staff and that the staff are involved in a big way in what the company is trying to achieve. Therefore we are extremely pleased to have been awarded this accreditation for a second consecutive time.

The feedback received by IIP from staff interviewed was extremely positive, with comments such as:

‘This is a great place to work’
‘I could earn more in town but its relaxed here and I prefer that’
‘I just love it here’
‘They try and offer you the hours you want’
‘It’s corny I know but it really does feel like a family’

Individuals confirmed they have the opportunity to develop their skills and strengths, with the company giving the opportunity where possible for them to move into a role they may feel more suited to. This not only retains key skills for the organisation but contributes towards individuals feeling their contribution is valued. Some 87% of promotions are internal, which also ensures that the culture and ethos of the organisation are retained.

The culture and values of our organisation are set and led from the top with a clear understanding about strategies that create a good working environment to make people feel valued.

The calls received within our contact centre and our dedicated desk service are continuously monitored, as a result this is a superb opportunity for us to reward the most hardworking and dedicated agents within our company. 

Each month Ansaback team leaders and supervisors nominate call centre agents for the ‘Call Centre of the Month Award’.

The winner is based on various factors such their overall call quality and performance, best adherence to schedule and generally going above and beyond the call of duty.

The reward gives them well deserved recognition for their extra hard work and the cash prize given shows our gratitude. Junes' winners are Louise Cousins (above) and Karen Pryke (right).

Ansaback call centre have unveiled a brand new addition to their team this week… a new car with a personalised number plate.

Ansaback took the decision to purchase a new company car to replace the much-loved, but very tired Volkswagen Golf nicknamed BOT (due to the last three letters of the number plate), who has sadly been put out to pasture. BOT has travelled to numerous places in his time and has been with us through thick and thin, seeing in various changes of the company name throughout the last twelve years of dedicated service. However it was time for a newer, greener and younger model, so farewell BOT and we all wish you a very happy retirement. 

With this subtle advertising message for our UK contact centre, it is hoped that people will recognise the brand image as we are driving around the country. People have already made comments about it locally and we are hoping this will spread the word further afield about the excellent telephone answering service that we offer.

The new number plate reads: AN54 BAK and once it was spotted by our Financial Director, he thought it was the perfect finishing touch.

Ansaback call centre agent Lora Caie took some time out from call handling to complete the charity cycle ride from London to Paris last month. Lora has so far raised a staggering £1800 with donations still being pledged, and her choice of charity was the Addenbrookes Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. 

The 309 mile event had its up and downs throughout with the worst being the 25% gradient hills, riding parts of it in the dark and the burning thighs!  However the highs certainly outweighed the lows, with fantastic views whilst entering Paris and the immense buzz of passing the finish line. Lora also met lots of people on the bike ride who were riding for various different charities.  

Lora says of the ride, ‘it was an amazing experience and worth every achy muscle.’

What a tremendous achievement, a huge well done to Lora from everyone at the call centre and a massive thank you to everyone who donated to such a worthy cause. 

By utilising our contact centre, we can help you manage your calls during the World Cup period. Scroll down for the 2010 World Cup fixtures list.