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SpliceCom's maximiser helps T G Lynes to provide "Business as Usual"

1st March 2005 - Chorleywood, UK; When you're totally transforming your organization and investing £3m+ in new state-of-the-art premises to completely revolutionise your customer service capability, sometimes all you want your customers to know is that it's 'business as usual'. On the face of it a simple requirement - but in the case of T G Lynes one that was far from simple to fulfil, taking the absolute latest in communications technology - the maximiser business telephone system from SpliceCom - to provide the solution.

With over 100 years of heritage and an established customer base, all T G Lynes wanted as they expanded was to make sure that everything continued as normal. And for customers that meant picking up the phone and calling the same number they always used, to get the service they had come to expect. Thomas George Lynes founded T G Lynes as a Builders Merchants and Ironmonger in 1885, just ten years after Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Today, the 4th generation of the Lynes family still run T G Lynes, serving trade contractors throughout the South East of England from three branches. During this time the business has developed and expanded, needing to do more each day to meet customers expectations. In the same time, telecommunications technology has also developed and expanded, becoming more sophisticated to meet the individual requirements of companies like T G Lynes. The company's success over the past 100+ years has been achieved thanks to the experience of their staff, the wide range of stock they carry and most importantly, the quality of their customer service. As one of the leading independent suppliers to the mechanical services, heating, plumbing and air movement industries in the UK today, T G Lynes needs to help its customers hit deadlines by supplying contractors with equipment on time, every time. To achieve this, contactability and responsiveness are two critical considerations - and as such, quality of telephone response is a pivotal part of their effective customer service capability.

T G Lynes needed to relocate if they were to maintain and develop their existing customer service levels, whilst also ensuring that they build a strong platform for future growth. One requirement was vital though. They simply had to retain their main sales number 0207 837 6455, which customers knew off by heart and had used over many years. But there was a problem. Their new purpose-built warehousing and distribution facility was in Enfield, and would require a different dialing code and a different telephone number. Changing this number would not only cause confusion and inconvenience, it could potentially result in lost customers - something that T G Lynes had specifically set out to avoid. To overcome these business-threatening issues and not disrupt service levels, T G Lynes needed to allow customers to contact the new Distribution Centre by whichever phone number they wanted - the new one or the older more established one.

The main option offered by suppliers involved Call Diversion or the use of an 0800 number. This option would cost the company money for every call made and the 0800 number would also provide a frustrating announcement to all callers calling from mobile phones. A time-consuming and irritating experience for T G Lynes' customers, most of whom tend to use mobiles these days. If T G Lynes could not find a way to overcome this challenge, it looked as if their £3m+ investment, designed to improve customer service, could actually be about to make things worse!

T G Lynes called on Echo Communications to help them solve their dilemma. Echo looked at their requirements and quickly involved SpliceCom, UK manufacturer of the maximiser business telephone system. SpliceCom immediately recommended that TG Lynes invest in a data network which would also support Voice over IP capability. They were then able to use spare bandwidth on the network for the seamless transfer of all incoming calls across the data network, from Kings Cross through to the new facility in Enfield. And all at no cost to T G Lynes or to their customers.

In the end an 0845 number was chosen as the main company telephone number for ease of future marketing messages. However, the Kings Cross number was retained and simply routed to the Sales Team at Enfield. A perfect solution, which enabled customers to continue to call the same telephone number and speak to the same people, even though those people were now situated over 12 miles away. And with the added benefit of there being no additional call costs involved, T G Lynes were extremely pleased with the result. Their profile in the industry was maintained, their customers' did not have to remember any new numbers or receive annoying messages on their mobile phones about freephone numbers - and yet they were still able to provide all the benefits and advantages that the new Enfield facility could offer.

The final word goes to Steve Lynes, Operations Director at TG Lynes. "Since we went live in our Enfield Distribution Centre, maximiser has achieved everything that was part of our original requirements, whilst the single unified telephone system has successfully allowed us to centralise our Sales department. Because the system links across all three sites, it has given us the flexibility to deal with the demands of our customers more efficiently than ever before."

Project Highlights

• All incoming calls are transferred at no cost across the IP network, allowing centralised customer service management from the new Enfield distribution centre.

Commercial Benefits

• Maximised the effectiveness of the new investment.
  

• Avoided any additional call costs for T G Lynes.
  

• Ensured long-standing customers were given continuity of contact via their preferred method.
  

• Maintained 'small, friendly, family business' profile.

Customer Benefits

• The key customer benefit has been no apparent change!

Notes for Editors
SpliceCom is a privately funded company, whose management team were behind the two most successful UK voice and data convergence companies of the 1990's - SDX Business Systems and Network Alchemy. SpliceCom's maximiser product family combines voice, video and web enabled IT applications within a single system, providing tangible business benefits for all types of companies, irrespective of their size. These products are only available via selected dealers, value added resellers and systems integrators - they are not sold directly, nor are they available via distribution. Having commenced shipments in early 2003, maximiser was voted the "Most Innovative Product" at one of the UK's premier communications trade events, Comms Channel Expo 2004.