Swinton Insurance has deployed anIP telephony packageacross 450 sites
to increase the number of sales agents are able to make. The £1.9m
installation, providing more than 3,000 insurance advisors with
improved call-handling capability, was completed over seven months
by Alcatel-Lucent.
Swinton installed the software because of its statistical
reporting features. This included in-depth call information such as
talk times, abandon rates, and internal calls - which Swinton uses
to improve overall performance.
"The primary goal of the new solution was to answer more calls.
Thanks to Alcatel-Lucent and Amillan, we have already increased
revenue from insurance policy sales, reduced abandoned calls by 25%
and improved customer service," said Adrian Hazeldine, IT director
at Swinton Group.
Swinton provides a personalised service for its customers
through its network of high-street branches, and ensuring that
enquiries from each of its two million policyholders are always
handled locally. The
routing capabilities of the software, automatically routes each
call first to the caller's local branch, or alternately to a
cluster of 10 other area branches.
As a result, transfers to the overspill call centre have been
reduced by 40%. Additionally, branch advisors' handsets are now
able to display call type, driving
improved market intelligence to focus on call handling.
The network IP telephony system is based on the Alcatel-Lucent
OmniPCX Enterprise platform, OmniTouch Contact Center software and
OmniVista 4760 Network Management platform. VoIP has improved
internal communications and enabled free telephone calls among all
Swinton sites and branches, resulting in estimated savings of more
than £100,000 per year.