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Tag: #telecoms

A simple telecoms hack to help your marketing budget!

Written by Laura Swatton on . Posted in Blog, Uncategorized.

As businesses look to grow their customer base as we all emerge from lockdown, telecoms could be the answer that provides that critical insight into how well your marketing spend is performing.
Generating new business enquiries

With 45% of businesses reporting turnover below what is normally expected, business growth and recovery is high on the agenda for post lockdown Britain.

However, despite many predictions and speculations, we are not crystal clear yet as to what ‘the new normal’ will really look like? How far will our businesses need to adapt and change in line with new consumer habits or changing market demands?

It is a fine balance between reinvigorating your market opportunities to drive that essential increase in sales and investing your marketing budget in the right areas to achieve the best return.

When you do make the decisions on how and where to invest your valuable time and money, how do you then measure success?

Do you currently have a way of identifying where a new inbound lead was generated from? Was it from an advert in a local magazine? An industry article? A radio ad? A social media post? A blog? Or even from a visit to your website?

There are many complex and often costly systems on the market that provide analytics and management information that can be used to predict success strategies. But these come at a price and greater the cost of the analysis, the more leads you must generate to cover your spend, right?

This is where we share our super simple telecoms hack of the month, ‘the inbound telephone number’.

Where did those enquiries come from?

Evoke Telecom can help you with your campaigns analysis by providing dedicated inbound telephone numbers. This can be per campaign, per medium, or even per publication.

As a result, our customers can easily see where their leads are being generated and how many prospective new customers are being attracted!

The inbound bill and associated analysis provides insightful key metrics such as:-

  • How quickly each campaign generated a response
  • How many total responses were generated
  • Identification of calling trends – most popular time of day/day of week
  • Whether prospects called from a landline or a mobile telephone
  • Average call length per campaign

Inbound numbers are a cost effective yet powerful solution that enables businesses to identify how successful a campaign has been. Also, how best to shape future campaigns using the valuable data and insight collected.

How can I find out more?

Would you like to know more about how inbound telephone numbers can drive that key critical insight and make your marketing spend go further? If so, then please talk to a member of our helpful team at Evoke Telecom for a no obligation discussion. You can contact us by email at hello@evoketelecom.com or why not pick up the phone and call our free of charge sales line on 0800 840 3688 . We can’t wait to help you.

 

Pictures courtesy of Andrea Piacquadio and Ivan Samkov (Pexel) 

PCI compliance shown with icons and large tick in the centre

Business Lock-Down Checklist ~ Managing Incoming Calls.

Written by matt on . Posted in Blog.

Keeping your Business Connected – Incoming Calls.

In a new series of blogs on keeping your business connected during the lock-down period – today we look at managing your incoming calls.

As a country we are now moving into week two of the nationwide lock-down. To help, we thought we would put together a simple checklist of hints and tips on managing incoming calls from your employees, customers, suppliers or even parents.

So, what are the options for getting your customer calls to your teams at their homes.

    1. Diverting your telephone lines. You can easily have a divert put onto your telephone lines. Theses will re-route your incoming calls to a single designated landline or mobile number.
    2. Diverting calls from your phone system.  You can have a divert programmed onto your telephone system for incoming calls. These can be diverted by telephone number or DDI. They can be routed to a single landline or mobile number per each company telephone number that you have. You can also have a divert programmed by extension or individual desk phone. This will require engineering time and remote access to your phone system. 
    3. Putting a message on your phone system. You can have a message put onto your telephone system. There are some professional recording companies that can do a super job of this for you should you wish. This will require engineering time and remote access to your phone system.
    4. Diverting calls to multiple mobile telephones. If you are a  SIP user this will give you some additional options. Some SIP providers are able to put a cloud solution ‘in front’ of your SIP lines (our Gamma Product is called SIP trunk call manager). This will enable you to divert incoming calls to a series or mobile telephones or landlines, all at once or in a chosen hunt sequence. If you would like to manage your call routing yourself you can do this via your own user portal.  These do need engineering set up but are wonderfully flexible once in place.
    5. Enabling your teams to receive incoming calls whilst at home. A simple solution to this conundrum is via mobile telephones. We for example are able to provide temporary 30 day mobile SIM cards on O2, EE and Vodafone. These SIM’s come with unlimited calls and text messages and are being offered at very supportive prices. It’s our way of helping companies the length and breadth of the UK as we all work through this current situation. If needed we also provide great value Samsung or other brand Android OS handsets.

This is the first in what will be series of helpful blogs – so do keep your eyes peeled for our next post.

If you need any help at all with any of the above – or indeed anything else then please do not hesitate to contact us. We can be contacted either by phone on 01509 278278 or by email at hello@evoketelecom.local  or you can find us on twitter @evoke_telecom.

~ Stay Safe, Stay Home and please do Stay Well ~ the team at Evoke Telecom

5G letters with lights connecting buildings

As Coronavirus escalates we ask, do you have the technology to enable all your employees to work from home if they need to?

Written by matt on . Posted in Blog, Schools.

Microsoft and Chevron are among 13 of the largest global companies who have asked their employees not to come into the offices and to work remotely, as a precaution against the Coronavirus or COVID-19 to use its scientific name.

This coupled with the inclement weather and unprecedented flooding makes Business Continuity planning and the capability for workers to be able to work remotely a ‘must have’ alternative for any business.

As the COVID-19 virus spreads across other parts of Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, major companies like Microsoft, Hitachi and Chevron are asking their workers to work remotely as a measure against the rapidly spreading disease.

What is more we are starting to see school closures, meaning parents will have to stay at home, which in many cases will mean ‘work from home’.

We now see reports on BBC news that schools, colleges and universities could be closed for up to 2 months should “the UK be hit by a global pandemic of Coronavirus”.

If the number of UK cases increase and further precautions are required, such as homeworking and mass self isolation, can your business support this?

The key to effectively preparing for any business continuity scenario is to consider the needs of your workforce and what you will need to do to enable them to carry on working without compromising corporate standards, security protocol and customer experience. A significant part of this planning should focus on your telephony and IT environments as they provide the solutions which enable seamless flexible working. Today, existing technologies offer us increasing possibilities.

Many people think that by reverting to mobiles and logging onto the corporate network via broadband/wi-fi at home will solve the challenge but let’s think about how that could potentially compromise your business.

  1. Mobile telephones – some businesses issue business mobiles to workers and some don’t. For a business mobile phone, if workers need to make outbound calls, they will be displaying their mobile number, not business number. Calls will also not be recorded if this is a usual or mandated requirement for your industry. If workers only have a personal phone, they might not want to use this and again, they will be displaying their personal mobile number to any customers. It will also potentially make it complex for workers to be compensated for call costs as well as the overall impact to customer experience and brand quality.
  2. Telephony – If an office worker relies on a telephone on their desk or on their PC to make/receive calls, how will business quality voice calls be delivered to the worker if they need to work from home?
  3. Home Broadband – whilst effective use of security within your IT network (Session Border Controllers/Firewall rules) can create secure VPN less connectivity into your corporate network. How many of your workers have sufficient broadband at home and has access been tested remotely to ensure there are no SIP ALG or router settings that might prevent access? This can be a common problem and one that can be time consuming and cause unnecessary delay should a homeworking or business continuity situation be unexpectedly declared.
  4. IT Equipment – If office workers normally use a PC within the office with access to various corporate systems/CRM. Can the same secure access be replicated if working on a business or personal laptop? What would the impact be to your business if workers cannot access the systems they need to remotely?

Checklist – what do you need to do to prepare for the worst case scenario?

Use Case 1 – A standard office worker that usually works in the office 100% of the time.

  • Can they take their laptop/headset home?
  • Do they have sufficient broadband at home and has remote access been tested?
  • How will they make/receive telephone calls?
  • Do their telephone calls need to be recorded?
  • Do they have a suitable space to work?
  • What do they need in addition to be able to do their job?

Use Case 2 – An agent/call centre worker that usually works in the office 100% of the time.

  • As per use case one with additional considerations….
  • Can all systems and verifications be accessed from home and are there any gaps?
  • How will log in/log out/breaks/busy periods be monitored and reported on remotely? Do you have the systems and software to do this?
  • How will the agent ask for help if they need it?

Use Case 3 – A worker that is based partly in the office or home and partly on the road.

  • How do they currently communicate with colleagues and the corporate office/s?
  • How will their job/customer relationships be affected if they can’t visit customers for any length of time?
  • Do they have the ability to provide virtual meetings/quality remote support/video calls with their customers using their mobile device or laptop?
  • Can you record any virtual/remote meetings to share with a wider audience or ensure any confusion is eliminated further down the line?
  • Can customers see the presence of your remote based workers and contact them via their method of choice?

Please contact Evoke Telecom Services Ltd for free impartial advice about any of the above topics or areas. Evoke have been working with businesses throughout the UK for the last 6 years to provide simple and effective Business Continuity planning support as well as world class telephony solutions that enable flexible and effective working, no matter what your job role or where you are working from. Our Evoke Business Continuity solutions are compatible with any existing telephony system or contact centre.

Contact the team today on 01509 278278 or hello@evoketelecom.local or simply click here to chat to one of our knowledgeable team now.

For Education customers, we have a separate suite of award winning ‘safe school’ solutions to address Business Continuity and Lockdown scenarios. Please do contact us for more information on 01509 278278 or schools@evoketelecom.local

David and Susie Wardell David and Susie Wardell

Valentine’s Day article posted about Susie & David

Written by matt on . Posted in Blog.

A wonderful surprise for Susie & David this Valentine’s Day as an article is published by Informi / aat.

 

The article was the final installment of a 3 part series, focusing on couples in business.

Here is the article and link to the informi site where the piece was published ~ https://informi.co.uk/articles/we-found-love-perfect-workplace-evoke

 

Working with your partner is not supposed to be the done thing. It’s bound to ultimately end in both personal and professional disaster, right? This week, to tie in with Valentine’s Day, we’re profiling three businesses who prove that theory wrong. For these couples, mixing business with romance is a match made in heaven. 

Today we join David and Susie Wardell. Partners since 2010 and married in 2012, they have two daughters aged 6 and 4. They set up Evoke Telecom, offering business telephone systems and connectivity services in the Leicestershire area, in 2013

 

How did you meet?

David: We were both senior managers at our respective employers. My large corporate bought Susie’s company. I was tasked with integrating all of the sales teams, which required me to work with Susie as one of the sales leads. Our relationship took off following a heated disagreement at a management meeting. The glass of wine to ‘make up’ helped us to get to know each other and the rest, as they say, is history.

Susie: Our employer was disapproving of intercompany relationships, so we had to keep our romance under wraps. We formally announced ourselves following our wedding!

 

How did you come to start a business together?

David: Our employer was restructuring whilst Susie was on maternity leave with our second daughter. I had tired of the hamster wheel and decided that this was the time to start our own business. The first thing we did was jump on a plane to the Canary Islands for 6 weeks whilst we set the business website and processes up.

Susie: Following my maternity leave I resigned and joined David to get our fledgling company up and running. We had no investors or bank loans – totally self-funded with just an empty pad and a mobile telephone on day one.

 

How do you divide each other’s roles and responsibilities?

David: In simple terms – Susie drives Sales and Marketing and I look after finance and operations. In reality, we are wonderfully cross-functional except for HR where Susie makes sure that I focus more on my work and less on her!

 

How has the business grown in your time together? Have there been any particular milestones?

David: We have enjoyed 80% – 85% YOY growth over the last 4 years. Susie had to leave in 2015 to earn an external salary whilst I grew the business to a level such that we could afford to live without the need for external income. Susie came back January 2017 and we have been flying ever since.

Susie: It was the perfect storm, in that once we had been trading for more than three years the market suddenly opened up and accepted us as a serious going concern. We are now able to sit at tables in much larger organisations and quote for substantial projects.

 

How do you separate your professional and personal lives? Do you ever feel that you get the balance wrong?

Susie: Until we got our own offices we always struggled to shut the back-bedroom office door. However, since moving we are extremely good at managing our Monday to Friday hours. We chose an office that sits on the route between our home and our daughter’s school. This means that most days we can take and collect our girls together – which we think is the greatest gift of all.

David: We are our own bosses and so can determine our own hours. We have an amazing support team so are able to let go when we need to even when we go away for family holidays. In fairness, Susie is much better than me at switching off, so she polices me if I am putting too much time and thought into Evoke.

 

How do the highs and lows of business impact on your personal life?

Susie: We are extremely close as a couple and are pretty intuitive, supportive and understanding. When things go well we share the excitement. When things go less well we share the learnings. Never have we ever blamed the other for a negative outcome.

David: I would be lying if I said we do not worry when things are not going how we would wish, but we seem to be very good at spinning to the positive and moving forwards again.

 

What do you love about working together? And what don’t you like so much?

David: I feel blessed that I can spend so much of my life with the woman I love!

On the rare occasion that we don’t agree I tend to just crack on anyway. It’s worked so far and long may that continue.

Evoke Telecom offices

 

What advice would you give to other couples thinking about starting a business together?

Susie: We both agree that you must totally respect each other’s views and opinions, you must love being in each other’s company, and be in no doubt about how tough it is. Don’t fall foul of the maxim ‘when money problems come in the door love flies out the window’…

 

What’s the biggest priority in your life: your partner or your business?

David: In ‘Corporate Land’ we fully understood that jobs come and go. After getting together we felt determined that nothing would ever come between us.

Susie: Our business is an inextricable vehicle that supports our love and our ability to spend our time with our family whilst providing for them.

 

Many thanks to the guys at Informi / aat for this wonderful article.