LeadStream, a Portsmouth-based company specialising in generating business leads for life insurance brokers, set Onecom an interesting challenge; it wanted to appear ‘local’ to everyone in the UK, regardless of where they lived.
LeadStream wanted this virtual local presence because it had found that when calling someone who had registered an interest via its Quotesearch.com website, people were significantly more likely to answer their phone if the caller ID displayed a number local to them.
The solution Onecom provided centered around Caller Line Identification Flexibility (CLI Flex), an ingenious system that allows a call to appear to originate from any pre-determined area code in the UK.
LeadStream Chief Executive Matthew Milnes gives an example of how CLI Flex works in practice:
“It means if you live in Southampton we’d call you from an 02380 number; if you live in Bristol we’d call you from a 0117 number – but the ultimate idea is that if you’re called from a number local to where you live, you’re more likely to answer the phone; or equally if you don’t answer, call back to find out who it was.”
Providing CLI Flex was just one element of the comprehensive telecoms solution that Onecom designed and implemented for LeadStream. Onecom also significantly cut LeadStream’s call costs whilst doubling its outbound call volumes.
Call cost reduction was achieved by installing one of the latest Mitel phone systems, which allowed calls to be made using a VoIP innovation called SIP Trunking. Each of LeadStream’s SIP Trunk includes 2,000 mobile minutes and 5,000 landline minutes of talk time each month for a fixed low price – essentially making call spend all but disappear.
To improve outbound call volumes, Onecom integrated LeadStream’s existing contact management application with its new Mitel telephone system giving LeadStream agents the ability to ‘screen pop’, or in other words, dial prospects using the information on their computer screens, with the click of a mouse.
The introduction of these facilities has had a dramatic effect on LeadStream’s productivity as Matthew Milnes explains:
“It’s provided a much more efficient platform from which to work. With our old telephone system we found that our agents would make around 300 calls per day. With the new system they’re making anywhere between 700 and 800 calls per day. So it’s doubled the productivity of the agents in our call team and lowered our overheads, because we need less staff to make the same number of calls.”
So, working together with LeadStream, Onecom provided a futureproof telecoms solution which:
- Seamlessly integrates with LeadStream’s existing contact management software
- Significantly reduces the company’s call expenditure
- Gives LeadStream the ability to make virtual ‘local calls’
The effect on LeadStream’s business has been transformatory:
- Call costs have been substantially and permanently cut
- Productivity has doubled, delivering higher business returns with no increase in staff levels
- CLI Flex ‘local calls’ have improved customer contact rates, i.e. more prospects answer and more lead conversions are made
Matthew Milnes is delighted with his choice of telecoms partner and would happily recommend Onecom to other businesses seeking similar solutions:
“I’d definitely recommend Onecom to anybody looking for a phone system where that phone system is a really core part of their business. It’s very important to us that the phone system’s reliable; it’s very important to a lot of people and I think that’s one key area where Onecom have really got the edge over a lot of other similar phone companies that I’ve used before.”
So, what began with a challenge to make a business ‘appear more local’ ended with Onecom delivering a comprehensive unified communications solution delivering discernible business benefit – another great example of what Onecom does best.
If telecoms are a core part of your business, talk to Onecom on 03300 24 00 00 or visit onecom.co.uk.
See the case study in full here.
