Author: matt

We are constantly being told that in business communications terms ‘voice is dead’, but in this world of cyber scam and cyber threat we ask might it not be the ultimate saviour?

“Madness!” you say “what are these people going on about?” we hear you ask. But picture this. One of the most successful scams of recent times has been that where spoofed emails encourage employees to authorise payments from apparently bona fide internal email instructions. That email where the Managing Director asks for many £000s to be paid to ‘XYZ’ urgently!  Many companies have lost £10,000s in these scams with the poor person that made the payment getting into very serious trouble. So here’s the idea. Why not pick up your phone and call the apparent email sender be it the MD/Chairman/FD or whoever and just double check it was indeed from them. Simple.

What is more, we are often hearing about an increase in bank fraud, much of which where criminals have called the bank themselves pretending to be husband, spouse or authorised company director. These days banks call record these transactions or attempted interventions. So, when you call the bank (usually the Fraud Team alas) it is very simple for them to pull up the call recording of the attempted fraudulent action and compare that voice to yours – the bona fide account holder that they are now talking to.

So, in a world where we are being driven more and more on-line, don’t forget about good old-fashioned voice. It still has a very important job to do and, in many scenarios, could serve as your ultimate cyber security check.

If you would like to know more about how we can help you better use voice or other unified communications’ in your business then please do not hesitate to contact our super helpful team at hello@evoketelecom.localor smile whilst you dial 01509 278278 – or if you want to save a penny or two you can call our freephone number on 0800 840 3688

So, the threatened cold weather finally arrived, as we look at the thermometer reading -6 and look out the window at the frost and snow.

For many it has meant school closures with either mum or dad having to change plans and work from home. For some it has meant cancelled meetings or even cancelled journeys to the office. And for some businesses a combination of the impact on staff and in some cases a degradation in the performance of their services has seriously affected their ability to deliver a BAU (Business As Usual) customer experience.

But in simple terms how can you put systems and solutions in place to minimise the affect that bad weather can have on your business, your customers and the effectiveness of your employees? Well here are a small handful of some very simple and high-level hints and tips as to how telecommunications might be able to help.

The weather has taken down our broadband line.

It is not only bad weather that can affect an internet or broadband line, so why not put a second line in as back up?

The weather has taken down our telephone lines / or no one can get into the offices to answer the telephones. 

With today’s VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) calling technology calls can be redirected to another office, emergency mobile telephones, another landline number, by an immediate and simple internet process on a PC, Laptop or even via a smartphone app. You never need to miss a call.

One of our directors hasn’t made it into the office today and his/her desk phone just won’t stop ringing! 

Well there are many helpful answers for this one. Perhaps the handset could be redirected to an available helpful colleague. Perhaps calls could go to voicemail and that voicemail could be attached to an email as an attachment and sent to the director’s email inbox. Perhaps the handsets could be twinned with the director’s smartphone so when the desk phone rings the smartphone rings at the same time. Or, the director’s desk phone could be temporarily diverted to the director’s home phone … and many many more.

How can I work from home but make it look to the outside world that I am at my company offices?

Easy, all Evoke Telecom’s systems have the ability for you to plug a business handset into a socket at your home and connect all the way back to your office or company ‘cloud’ telephone system. So extension 216 can be at their desk, be you at home or in the office.

What if we don’t have a spare handset for me to work at home, can I use my mobile phone as an extension of my company telephone system?

Well yes you can. All Evoke Telecom phones systems have the ability to add a specialist mobile application that turns your mobile telephone into a remote extension of the company telephone system over wifi or 4G. Be it Ericsson-LG UCS or Avaya Equinox, your smartphone can also be your company system extension.

But I prefer face to face meetings, to share presentations and documents that are in my PC!

Well that too is not a problem. Known as Unified Collaboration phone systems now have additional features that can allow users to video conference one another, share presentations, share documents, white board and much more.

Well, we said a small handful – and we hope that has provided some food for thought. With planning and some good clever telecoms advice (we know a super company that can help of course) you can prepare yourself for that next snow flurry, cold spell, unseasonal downpour or just simply set your business up to work more efficiently.

If you would like some knowledgeable support and guidance from a super friendly group of specialists in this field you know exactly what you need to do. Feel free to contact our helpful team at hello@evoketelecom.local or smile whilst you dial 01509 278278 – or if you want to save a penny or two you can call our freephone number on 0800 840 3688.

News stories would have us believe that our Town Centres and High Streets are in decline, but is that really so? Well, here at Evoke Telecom our customers would have us think otherwise.

At the back end of last year we had two retailers join us for their superfast broadband and telecommunications needs. We would like to share their stories. What is more one of our other customers has been set up exclusively to help and support businesses in our Town Centre and High Street. We would like to share their story too.

Of our two highlighted retailers, one is a long establish business since 1971 and the other a new start up adventure, their stories could not be more different. Set up 47 years apart, the secret to their success is the same for both: a vision, a commitment to their team, a commitment to their customers, and an absolute passion for everything that they do. For Mark Nelson and Nel Chapman this is not work, this is a pleasure and a vocation. No wonder they are both so successful.

We thought you might like to hear their wonderful stories.

Barnett Opticians

Barnett Opticians who are based at Pinner in North London are an independent optician that were establish by brothers Peter and David Barnett back in 1971.

Following his graduation back in 1985, Mark Nelson, a school friend of Peters son Andrew, joined the practice. Little did he know then that some 34 years later he would still be there!

Barnett Opticians specialise in delivering high quality one to one eye care to the local community. As an independent practice they aim to provide that extra time, care and attention that some feel is missing from the larger chains more commonly found on the high street these days. And with 48 years of successful care in the community behind them they would certainly seem to have the magic formula.

With his 34 years’ experience Mark now manages the practice alongside his team of Opticians, Dispensers, Administrators and Receptionists. However, having a real appreciation for the value of a good work life balance, when not at work Mark is a keen cricket, rugby and football fan with regular sojourns that take him to Lords, Wasps Rugby and Watford football fixtures. Quite right too!

In December Mark moved the practice’s communications across to Evoke Telecom and we are very pleased to be able to work with and support this successful and vibrant business. Clearly a shrewd chap!

If you would like to know more about Barnett Opticians you can find out more at:-

Website – www.barnettopticians.co.uk
Twitter – @BarnettOptician
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/barnettopticians

Hair by Nelly

At the other end of the ‘how long has your business been established’ scale is Nel Chapman and her wonderful adventure that is ‘Hair by Nelly’.

Nel is an exceptionally talented hairdresser and has been building a delighted and loyal customer base since as far back as 2010. However, in 2018 she decided that it was time to ‘really go for it’ and open up her own salon. Being a Leicestershire local she chose nearby Markfield for her new venture and completely refurbished what she saw as the perfect premises for her vision of ‘Hair by Nelly’. And we must say, the result is absolutely stunning we feel sure you will agree.

How relaxing does that look? It’s more health spa than hair salon – what a super job! What is more the products that Nel offers and sells are so very 2019 too! Nelly uses and retails the amazing environmentally-friendly Maria Nila (vegan), O’Right and Macadamia product ranges, which are not only kind to your hair but are kind to the planet too!Nelly’s mission is to create a second to none experience, innovative hairstyles and most importantly of all FUN. In her own words…

“Hair by Nelly offers very special individual attention, creative innovative styling, laughter and fun. It’s a truly special salon experience!”

If you would like to know more about Hair by Nelly you can find out more at:-

Website – www.hairbynelly.com
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/Hairbynelly-1542643462704030/
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/hair.by.nelly/

Is it me, or was this Christmas the longest holiday ever, with many companies finishing up the week before Christmas and some still not back by until 3rd and in some cases 7th January? How wonderful! If that’s the new trend, then I must confess that I for one am a fan.

Well, now that we are all back at our steering wheels and desks, we thought we would wrap up December and indeed 2018 with our end of year Newsletter.

So, how was Christmas for you? Restive, festive, reflective? Everybody has their favourite thing about Christmas and for me, one of my firm favourites are the jokes to be found in Christmas Crackers. Yep, very sad I know 😊  ~ but, in the spirit of sharing, my personal favourite this year was:-

“What do you get if you cross a caterpillar with a parrot? A walkie-talkie!”

Admit it, you smiled 😊… just a little bit.

Well, what an eventful year that was! We started with the winter to end all winters, as we had a rather lively visit from Siberia, catchily nicknamed ‘the Beast from the East’. We then had a stonkingly warm summer which seemed to go on and on. Then we closed the year out with what must have been one of the mildest Christmas’s on record. It does make you wonder, doesn’t it?!

December for us epitomised the transport challenges we faced across the year, with signal and line issues affecting major rail networks and then the appearance of ‘Drones’ bringing Gatwick airport to a standstill for a couple of days. But on a positive note, at least we didn’t have thousands taking to the street in high viz vests blocking motorways, roads and generally partying on down with ‘home made pyrotechnics’ in our cities. Ever thankful for small mercies.

As always, December was also a very interesting sporting month as ‘the special one’ left Manchester United with his carpet bag crammed full of cash. Love him or hate him, somehow English football will not be quite the same without him. Liverpool continued their winning spell and appear to have opened a small gap on the chasing pack. Will the trophy be returning to Anfield after an extraordinarily long absence (One year of which we looked after it here in the East Midlands YAY)? We will see, but for sure can expect Manchester to have a say in things once again.

Not just 2018, but very much December too became synonymous with the dreaded ‘B’ word.  I’m not so sure it’s not more about ABC – the C for Compromise and the A for Armageddon. As so-called ‘learned members’ in several houses of ‘representatives’ both sides of the English Channel posture and pontificate, I think it is fair to say we have many more moments ahead between now and a prospective March B-Day (or bidet as the French might call it).  What might ‘project bidet’ mean for East Midlands businesses in the coming months? Are we all ready for BREXIT? Well, just in case we are not I suspect Evoke Telecom will be putting together a telecommunications ‘Brexit Checklist’ for our customers and followers, so watch out for that hitting your mailboxes at some point in January.

Well, did we actually do any work in December I hear you ask? In reality, December turned out to be the busiest one we have had since Evoke started! Here are a couple of projects from the last 2 weeks of the month alone, that kept us from an early sherry:-

• The upgrading of a large college system, out of hours, to Avaya’s latest release 11 software and adding some spiffing new J series handsets
• The installation of a new Ericsson-LG iPECS telephone system at a holiday park
• The installation of our first FTTP at a local Derbyshire gate manufacturer
• and we moved a major school from ISDN30 to SIP lines, across their entire estate

… Exhausting stuff!
Then, when we came back to work at 09.00 on Wednesday 2^nd January, we managed an office move for one of our customers who was moving to larger new offices, removing, re-installing and upgrading their Avaya telephone system for them. Needless to say, all went exactly to plan. But more about that in January’s update.

Finally, we did have a disappointing moment too when we were called in to help a local religious establishment who were being threatened with service removal by their existing telecoms provider. Shocking stuff! Needless to say, we have provided all the support and reassurances that “Father J” could need to ensure one and all could relax and enjoy their Christmas. Phew!

Read our December updates here:

• Customer Corner – What a fabulous and varied year as we look back
• Evoke Informer
  • How Avaya helped the children of the world to track Santa this Christmas
  • Whoops – O2 drop the ball
  • Leasing your telephone system and what to avoid

Subscribe to our once-monthly updates:

Each month we email out our updates which include sneak previews of the latest comms technology, exciting case studies on how we’ve employed different solutions for our customers, important updates which may impact your own communications, business and communications tips, competitions and offers.

Click here to see our past editions and subscribe to future editions. 

It is recognised by all canny leaders across the UK that to deliver success, good business grade communications systems are an absolute must. Telecommunications are not a cost, they are an investment. However, when that time comes to upgrade, replace or invest in that very first telecoms solution, sometimes the necessary funds simply are not there!

For many, this is where the lease finance option comes into play. It provides an opportunity to secure access to a state-of-the-art solution via Operating Expenditure funding (Opex), paid monthly or more usually quarterly over a set contract period. Occasionally lenders can finance at 0% interest (when there is a vendor support program running in the background), but more likely there is a cost of cash associated over the term, making the system slightly more expensive than an outright purchase. However, for many this and the fact that the solution can be accounted ‘off book’ as an operating expenditure is an extremely attractive investment that some feel is worth considering.

“Fool proof” I hear you say! “What could possibly go wrong”?

Well, leasing really is another of those areas where the devil is in the detail. For example, there are many leases currently in place where customers can never own their equipment and they do not realise that this is the case! They will find themselves continuing to pay, long after the lease term has expired (or risk having the equipment removed from site). The worst example of this we have seen at Evoke (not provided by us of course) is a company in the Southern Counties that have been paying for their small 8 user telephone system, obtained on a 5-year lease, for more than 15 years now! We also heard recently about a London company that has over the years paid £100,000 for what should have been a £5,000 system. Crazy!

This goes on more than you might imagine with, for example, many leases through BT Local Business providers being ‘lease rentals’ as opposed ‘lease purchases’.

So, how can this be avoided? Well, the secret lies in knowing the different types of leases that are available as options. In simple terms there are two types of lease. Let’s look at these individually:-

Lease Purchase

Here the customer pays for the equipment over an agreed period, via Direct Debit to the finance company, then at the end of the term is given the opportunity to purchase their equipment outright for a pre-agreed nominal fee (e.g. a paperwork admin charge).

But, what are the watch-outs here?

Do be sure you have an understanding of what that buy-back price is upfront. Evoke charge a small administration fee to buy title from the finance company and then to pass title to the customer… however we have known of cases where customers have been charged an additional 6 month or 1 year rental rate to buy their own kit back, by other telecoms companies.

Lease Rental

This is where the customer pays for the equipment over an agreed period. But, at the end of that period they do not have the opportunity or indeed the contractual right to purchase the equipment outright. At the end of the term the client continues to pay at exactly the same rate … in perpetuity or the lease company / seller might ask that the kit be returned at the owner’s cost. Alas, this tactic is often used as a vehicle to encourage the customer to take out a new lease on a brand-new replacement system.

You might also have heard of the term “peppercorn rental”. This can happen at the end of a lease rental as an ongoing payment thereafter. This might be as low as a small monthly or annual payment, but invariably tends to be the quarterly lease payment rate. Over the years this soon stacks up!

The watch-outs?

Lease rentals in general. If you can lease purchase then why get locked into a rental (unless of course you want to avoid putting an asset on the company balance sheet)?

Agreements where telephone line rentals and support rentals run side by side. These are often over shorter terms, causing co-terminating date issues and general demarcation issues.

We have even come across a case where a customer was threatened with removal of a system on a 7 years lease, when they refused to renew an expired telephone line and broadband contract 5 years into the 7 years term.  Dreadful!

So, as you can see, there are areas to mindful and wary of. Do you have a current lease agreement in place? And if so, do you know for sure what the arrangements are when your term expires?

Are you currently negotiating a deal at the moment that includes a lease agreement?

Or are you considering a telephony refresh and didn’t realise that a fabulous and reputable company like our good selves could help you with an Opex option through lease arrangements? Well you know what you can do!

For any queries, guidance or just free advice, please do feel free to contact us at sales@evoketelecom.local or smile whilst you dial our friendly sales team on 01509278278.

December 6^th 2018 will be a day for ever etched in the memories of O2’s customers, when its 3G and 4G data networks crashed leaving nearly 32m users, including affiliated Tesco Mobile, Giffgaff and Lycamobile customers without voice, text, data or in some cases no mobile network services at all.

Unlike the previous 40 minute outage back in October, it soon became apparent that this event was more significant as it stretched through the whole day leaving customers lost for alternatives. Indeed, 3G services were not fully resumed until 9.30 that evening with 4G services taking longer, coming back on at 03.30 Friday morning!

Some were able to overcome the data issue by connecting their handset or smart device to an available WiFi point.  However, for many that were mobile and on the move that simply wasn’t an option. The knock-on effect on businesses small and large across the length and breadth of the UK was significant: –

• Many business users could not receive calls, emails, messages
• Could not use their mobile SatNav to find appointment locations
• Could not communicate timings to clients
• Could not use key business app, mobile billing or Customer Management software
• Could not access new jobs, schedules, or essential day to day information
• Could not use their mobiles as hotspots
• Even bus timetables at bus stops were affected

The impact, and consequent uproar was quite incredible – and the problem was not exclusively a UK problem, with customers of Y!Mobile in Japan suffered a similar outage too.

This in itself was a clue as to the nature of the problem. It soon transpired that the problem was caused by 3rd party switching equipment in O2’s UK network that had experienced software licence issues. Many red faces and profound apologies on websites, ads and social media platforms ensued. To be fair, we do feel that Mark Evans (CEO) handled the situation admirably, with care, honestly and much humility … well done Mark!

What it has of course highlighted is our dependence on and the fragility of technology. But what steps can we mere mortals take to protect ourselves against future incidence? Well of course there’s nothing you can do regarding the technical integrity of the mobile networks themselves. Be it O2, Vodafone. EE or 3 it’s feasible that any could suffer outages in the future. However, there is one small step that you can take, as already being explored by several of our clients. By having a dual SIM handset you can put a 2nd SIM card into your phone connected to a second network, just in case your day to day primary network goes down. Not ideal but will certainly ensure you are contactable and have some form of data connectivity to retain access to those business-critical apps and services that keep UK plc business on the move.

Want to know more or explore what your options might be? Please do feel free to contact us at sales@evoketelecom.local or smile whilst you dial our friendly sales team on 01509278278.

Rudolph pressed the ‘on button’ for his shiny red nose, Santa loaded his sack of wonderful presents onto his sleigh and then off they went as they took to the skies on the biggest global distribution contract of the year.

Meanwhile around the world and with much reluctance, children went to their beds, wide awake waiting for the magic moment when the big fella appeared with their presents. Some children were good and went off to sleep straight away, but many of the remaining 99% wanted to know exactly where Santa was on his journey and when he might arrive to sip his glass of sherry and pass the obligatory carrot to Rudolph?

“Muuuuuum, Daaaaaad,… where is Santa now?”
“When will he be here?”
“Hey ALEXA where is Santa?”

Well, those in the know, knew that every inch of Santa’s Christmas Eve flight all the way around the world was being tracked by the guys n gals at NORAD (just in case he gets lost – what with all that sherry n all).  NORAD (the North American Aerospace Defence Command) has an Operations Centre at the Peterson Air Force base in Colorado, manned especially at Christmas by volunteers tasked with tracking Santa and keeping children large and small around the world updated on his progress. They do this via the use of radar, satellites, planes and Santa-cams strategically positioned worldwide. More than 1,500 volunteers share updated information on progress, with the waiting children of the world, via web, text, Alexa (yep) and telephone.

The figures from 2017 show what a massive operation this is, with much of the web and call traffic being handled by technology delivered by the team at Avaya.

24^th December 2017 was incredibly busy: –

• With 1,500 hotline volunteers working across 20 hours of shifts,
• 126,103 telephone calls were taken
• The website had 18m visitors – in 8 languages
• 3m people tracked Santa via the NORAD mobile app
• Over 1.5m people asked, ‘Hey Alexa, where is Santa’.

“We are hoping for another record setting year for “NORAD Tracks Santa” and a delightful experience for each and every caller and volunteer. As we know each call matters, so we’re happy to have Avaya’s trusted technology behind us ensuring that we can support the hundreds of thousands of calls and interactions jammed into a very short 24 hour period.”

~ Major Mark Lazane, NORAD Tracks Santa Program Manager.

Well done to the team at AVAYA, adding magic and supporting the wonder of Christmas for children big and small around the world.

Welcome to our November update, as I think it is safe to say that Autumn is bidding farewell and Winter is definitely waiting backstage to make its annual appearance. Autumn has not failed to disappoint, what with the high winds and epic rainstorms. Indeed, some areas have already had their fair share of snowfall. Unfortunately, (or fortunately depending on your point of view) the snow bypassed us here in both Quorn and Loughborough, but we do still have fingers crossed that we will get our fair share 😊.  Our offices and grounds look absolutely amazing when the snow comes and we feel truly blessed to be able to work in such beautiful surroundings.

Well, following the excitement of October, which included a rather raucous Halloween (including a guest appearance from Cedric the Skeleton), November has been somewhat sedentary by comparison, Bonfire Night notwithstanding.

Like many other companies, November at Evoke Telecom has been all about forecasts and budgets as we make plans for 2019 – 2020. To be fair, we are actually very well organised and tend to have everything agreed and signed off by the middle of December. I mention this as you can’t go anywhere at the moment without the dreaded ‘B’ word being mentioned. Well, I can confirm that Evoke Telecom is a ‘B’ free zone and as a part of this November planning process we are ensuring we have ample access to stock and key supplies should even the dreaded worst-case scenario occur.

As all of our customers know, Customer Service is at the heart of everything that we do. With that in mind you will not be surprised to learn that we are also currently working on a new customer service portal, with direct access via our website. You can learn more about this exciting development further down in this newsletter. What is more, we hope to be live by early Spring – “yippee”, we hear you say.

Well, even the ostrich with his head in the sand knows that Christmas is definitely coming and very much in everyone’s thoughts. With this in mind, much of this month’s newsletter is dedicated to Christmas thoughts and plans, although I can confirm that in so far as our offices are concerned, neither tree nor decorations have made their appearance of yet. But… I can feel them coming!!

Read our November updates here:

With a very Christmassy theme, here’s this month’s articles: –

• Merry Christmas!
• Tuff Phones update as we field test the TUFF T1
• 118 numbers – Ofcom step in
• Ericsson-LG industry awards update
• Coming soon – the new Evoke Telecom service portal
• Is your telephone system ready for Christmas?
• Our Christmas hours for this year

Subscribe to our once-monthly updates:

Each month we email out our updates which include sneak previews of the latest comms technology, exciting case studies on how we’ve employed different solutions for our customers, important updates which may impact your own communications, business and communications tips, competitions and offers.

Click here to see our past editions and subscribe to future editions. 

It seems like now would be a good time to share our plans this year for holiday support and office closure hours.

Needless to say, like many of our customers, outside of the statutory holiday days, the vast majority of our team tend to take the whole Christmas period off.  Certainly, this year none of the sales, marketing and accounts teams plan to be heading into the office between Christmas and the New Year.

Service Support is the key area for most of our customers, and so as always we will have a ‘skeleton’ team available for any emergencies outside of the main statutory holiday days.

If you are a 24/7/365 customer the team will be contactable out of hours as usual, using your dedicated service line PIN number.

Here are our Christmas 2018 and 2018/19 New Year holiday hours.

But don’t worry, whatever happens we will be here for you, with plenty of Christmas cheer and the occasional ‘Ho Ho Ho’ 😊

As Christmas approaches, the decorations go up in the office, the tree gets dressed in the corner, Christmas cards that you have received from your customers and suppliers get put up ..…. But is your telephone system ready for the Christmas break too?

Ok, so when we say is your telephone system ready, obviously we don’t mean has it been decked with baubles and wearing a hat 😉. What we mean is, have you considered what you will need to do with your system so that it manages calls exactly as you want it to during your Christmas and New Year holidays?

Here is a little checklist that might help:-

• Will you phone system automatically know which days your offices are open and which days they will be closed – or does it need programming for this?
• Do you need a different ‘our offices are closed’ greeting recorded to your telephone system for callers during the Christmas and New Year break?
• Would it help your business to pre-warn customers of your Christmas working hours maybe via an updated and professionally recorded ‘on hold marketing message’?
• Or perhaps you would just like a nice Christmassy ‘on hold recording’ for December?

If you do need any engineering work on your system to get it set fair for the Christmas and New Year breaks, then please do call us so that our engineers can get you booked in nice and early for what is always a very busy schedule.

You know what to do – call the tech guys on our dedicated service line 0344 8118727 or drop the sales guys a line on sales@evoketelecom.local

Ofcom steps in with a rate cap.

What do your teams do when they need to find a telephone number and just how much might it be costing your business?

Well back in the day, (a long long time ago) if you needed to know someone’s telephone number you would call directory enquiries on 192.  Then this all changed in 2002 following the replacement of the 192 service with 6 digit 118 numbers. And with this came a whole new approach to pricing and indeed the marketing of 118 services. We soon became used to the moustachioed guys with running vests getting up to all kinds of antics on our television screens. But is 118 big business and do people really actually call Directory Enquiries or what is the 118 service these days?

Well apparently, yes they do and 118 is really big business. Ofcom have reported that upwards of a million users are still calling these services. More often than not this is four times more likely to be an elderly or over 64 years old person. It is estimated that more than £2.4m is spent on these calls above and beyond what callers would have expected to pay. Calling prices vary between providers but a 90 second call to the market leader 118118 charging £11.23, with some providers charging close to £20.00 for a similar call.

Not everyone is on the ‘highest price possible’ bandwagon, and some of the larger provider do already provide services below the new cap level that will be imposed by Ofcom. Here is a list of what you would expect to pay from some of the larger and well known brands.

Source: Ofcom

£11.23 for a call to 118118 – is it only us, or is that simply outrageous!? Well Ofcom agree too and is bringing in a cap in April next year at which point a 90 second 118 call will cost of a maximum of £3.65 for 90 seconds. £3.65 still sounds a bit steep to us, but hopefully it will stop those rather silly adverts on the telly, you just never know, (and of course help the elderly too!).

If you would like to know more about this article, please feel free to contact the team via sales@evoketelecom.local and we will be delighted to help.

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year from David, Susie & the Evoke Telecom team.

This year we are not sending Christmas cards but instead, we will be donating to Rainbows charity. Rainbows is a wonderful organisation in Loughborough that gives children with life-limiting conditions and their families care and support.  Click the logo to find out more:

We love to share new and exciting things that are happening in the world of technology and in particular the world of telecommunications and connectivity. So, when we heard about the new HTC Exodus 1 we simply could not resist grabbing some details to share with you.

HTC are about to launch the world’s first cryptocurrency smartphone. Yep, you did read that correctly – a BITCOIN telephone – we kid you not!

What exactly is a BITCOIN telephone? Well the Taiwanese manufacturer describes it as ‘a hardware wallet in your pocket’ – actually where else would you put your wallet – and P.S. can it be a purse too, please?

HTC have developed their own cryptocurrency wallet, called Zion, which acts as the secure platform against which bitcoin activity can be managed. By running a separate second operating system in parallel with the traditional Android OS, the Exodus 1 can securely manage cryptocurrency activities and dealings for the user away from the less secure Android environment. So, by integrating blockchain technology HTC have managed to secure the user’s information and assets on a mobile device – very impressive. In essence a secure node for Bitcoin transaction in your pocket.

This offers something very new and, to be fair, extremely impressive for those already using or seriously looking into the benefits of blockchain technology. But, of course, the Exodus 1 has to operate just like any other premium smartphone too – so needless to say it come with an impressive specification which includes:-

• A super 16 megapixel dual rear and an 8 megapixel ‘selfie’ camera with 4K video
• A qualcom snapdragon processor with 6Gb of RAM and a massive 128Gb storage
• A large 6 inch display with HD+ picture resolution

The Exodus 1 will be available in for pre -order in December, in up to 34 countries including the UK but interestingly NOT in China – HTC stating that this is because China ‘have their own rules’.

Should you wish to get your hands on this techno-baby then then guess what – you will only be able to buy it in Cryptocurrency. Clearly HTC are directly targeting their key audience – the bitcoin community.

And the price? Well the Exodus 1 can be yours at the bargain price of 0.15 bitcoin which is about £750.00 at my high street bank 😊

Driving Customer Experience, Opportunities and Brand Awareness 

Despite today’s ever-expanding choices of how you communicate with friends, family and businesses, many of our new and existing customers still rely heavily on the telephone as the most popular way of communicating.

We do have a little chuckle or sometimes a snooze when we hear some Information on Hold messages. In today’s world, we all want to get to the right person in the quickest possible time that can help with the question or solution we require, whilst having a jolly good experience to boot! Putting calls on hold is inevitable. A massive 70% of all business calls are placed on hold for an average of 30 seconds.

What is our experience often like when we are put on hold or queuing for a department?

First hand – we can re-count many examples of valiantly sitting through boring beeps, shocking silence or monotonous lift music, sometimes at the end of long automated options for selecting the right department to speak to (IVR). Once you have sat through 6 repeat cycles of Ping Pong remix 1994, how are you feeling? How inclined are you to want to talk to this business unless you absolutely have no choice? If there was ever a time to create a solid on-hold marketing strategy, it is now.

At Evoke, we don’t just see professional Information on Hold as a nice to have – we see it as an essential part of the caller experience and the perfect opportunity to represent your brand, create the right impression and introduce new value to your callers, whatever industry you represent.

On hold information shortens the perception of time spent on hold, which reduces caller abandonment, whilst telling existing or potential customers about your products and services.

• What do you do?
• What services do you provide?
• Do you have any special offers or promotions?
• What is unique about your business?
• Why should your potential customers want to choose you?
• What could your existing customers benefit from?

Here are 4 whopping stats about Information on Hold/On-hold Marketing:

1. 30% of callers make a buying decision after hearing an on-hold message.
2. Businesses can experience a 50% increase in request for additional products/services mentioned on hold.
3. 80% of caller prefer On Hold messaging versus silence or music.
4. Many UK call centres report that without On Hold information, over 60% of callers will hang-up in less than one minute and not call back (ouch!!).

Simply put….

Information on Hold or ‘Marketing on Hold’ = improved customer service, margin opportunities and brand awareness.

Monotone ‘ping pong’ music = down with the dark ages – a missed opportunity!!

For more information, please speak to one of our lovely team sales@evoketelecom.local or CLICK HERE and have a play with our Information on Hold tool to see what you can create. We can also offer professional voice overs too if you want to crank up the professionalism even further!!