Trans-It (WSM) Ltd Case Study

October 20th, 2009 3:12pm

Express delivery is just one quick, well-managed phone call away!

Trans-It (WSM) Ltd operates three franchises for FedEx UK covering Gloucestershire, Somerset & Wiltshire. Customer expectations of service are high in this sector, especially with a globally-recognised brand name like FedEx on the door. Effective use of telecoms technology is vital in enabling the company to maintain its competitive edge and excellent customer retention rates.

Adding flexible, 100% reliable software applications to a world-class Avaya IP Office hardware platform has provided Trans-It with powerful tools that help to drive improvements in customer service. The Oak software specified is fully compatible with the telcoms hardware and IP routing options and has dovetailed neatly with Trans-It’s existing business processes, so its positive impact has been perceivable from day 1.

The express parcel delivery business is now heavily IT-led, and Trans-It uses its franchisor’s proven tracking and tracing software. Nevertheless, real and effective human contact is still a priority. Customers will always like to get on the phone and talk to real people.

Trans-It runs three offices with 24 office based staff and 48 collection & delivery drivers. Telecoms was always a major cost centre and awareness of IP telephony’s coming of age for SMEs was growing. So Trans-It set out to identify a partner who could help them take advantage of this and it did not take long for them to identify Solar Communications as a services provider that came highly recommended by other local businesses, and a long-term partnership was established between the two firms.

The Avaya IP system recommended and installed by Solar delivers the savings through both reductions in call costs and increased operational efficiency throughout Trans-It. All calls are routed through the Group’s main office in Weston-super-Mare, and there are IP links to the Frome and Gloucester branches, providing complete flexibility for staff in the main office to pick up calls destined for the other two branches at busy times.

What Trans-It did not realise at the time was that Solar Communications’ vision of providing a complete service would go beyond hardware, and call recording and call management applications were soon added to the new system .

“For us it is a no brainer to make telecoms work as hard as possible within a business,” says Solar Communications MD Mark Colquhoun. “Why keep all that potential added value locked up when software can so easily be added?”

Leigh Morris, Operations Director, of Trans-It was quickly won over by the argument and, five years and a few software upgrades later, he is an increasingly enthusiastic about the Oak call recording and logging applications that Solar installs, not least because they provide all the features he looks for as standard and are so easy to use.

Interestingly, he cites staff training at the top of his list of main advantages of call recording above dispute resolution. “Well trained staff can avoid disputes in the first place,” he comments.
Call logging with a wallboard display gives the Trans-It management team a window on what is happening at all three locations so they can quickly reallocate staff resources and ensure that incoming calls are dealt with promptly. The company is run as a close-knit and friendly team with mutual trust so there is no desire to ban all private calls. So it has been pleasing to the Trans-It directors that the abuse of excessively long private conversations that did exist is an issue that quietly resolved itself once call logging was known to be in place.

Oak joint CEO and software developer Phil Reynolds said: “Trans-It is a prime example of how and why software should be a part of every reseller proposal: the customer has become a delighted and long-term partner and advocate of Solar’s services.”