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Founded in 1989, Regal
Fish Supplies are a home
delivery company
specialising in
delivering quality fresh
and frozen seafood
direct to customers via
their own fleet of vans.
Regal Fish have built a
customer base of
approximately 80,000
over the past 20 years
this number is still
growing. They promote
their business primarily
through a door-to-door salesforce and their
website. They place a
huge emphasis on
retention of existing
customers so quality of
service is of paramount
importance. Regal Fish
used manual dialling as
an integral part of the
business process from
the outset in 1989. |
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By
2002, they invested in
dialler technology with
a TouchStar competitor
which reduced costs and
increased organisational
efficiency. However, by
2007 it was becoming
clear that a change of
supplier for their
dialler technology would
be required to satisfy
company objectives.
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The Business Challenge |
| Regal Fish are the
largest direct supplier
of fish and seafood
products in the UK. They
compete with a number of
smaller operations and
sole traders who provide
a similar service. On a
wider scale, they also
compete with
supermarkets,
fishmongers, market
stalls and any other
supplier with a
different route to
market. Mike Brummitt,
General Manager at Regal
Fish commented: As the
fish we supply is
market fresh, this
gives us a particular
competitive advantage
over other companies
supplying fish and
seafood products. |
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| Regal Fish
Supplies
Business Systems
Manager, Vicky
Griffiths and
General Manager,
Mike Brummitt |
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|
We
have a loyal customer
base but they demand a
very high standard of
both product and
service. Therefore, all
areas of our business
model need to be
responsive to the
demands the customers
make.
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The company has had a
call centre operation of
sorts since their
inception in 1989. The
purpose of the call
centre is to contact
existing customers on a
monthly basis to obtain
new orders of fish and
seafood products.
Therefore, the emphasis
is based on retaining
customers, placing a
high importance and
value on every call
made. |
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In common with many call
centres, there is a
degree of staff turnover
so the call centre
technology employed must
be straightforward to
use and have adequate
support provision. Regal
Fish felt that the
levels of support from
their original
technology vendor were
not of a sufficient
standard and was one of
the several reasons they
looked for an
alternative supplier. |
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Perhaps most
importantly, Regal Fish
need a cost effective
channel to market for
their unique
proposition. Mike
Brummitt added: “Our
business model dictates
that we have to keep
costs as low as
possible. And with
increasing fuel costs
for our delivery service
and fluctuations in the
costs of fish and
seafood, we need to be
assured in the knowledge
that our call centre
function, an integral
part of the business, is
as efficient in terms of
contacting as many of
our customers as
possible as it can be.”
In implementing a call
centre solution complete
with predictive dialler,
Regal Fish could
considerably reduce
staff overheads. |
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Why Did Regal Fish
Supplies Choose
TouchStar? |
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1. Difficulties with
Previous Supplier |
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After operating a
call centre solution
provided by one of
TouchStar’s
competitors for a
number of years,
Regal Fish were put
under pressure to
upgrade their system
to next generation
technology at very
high expense. Mike
Brummitt was
unimpressed with
additional features
provided by
TouchStar’s
competitor at the
extra cost: “We were
being forced into
upgrading as they
stated they would be
withdrawing support
for the system we
had. They basically
had us up against a
wall as we had all
the hardware and
they were saying
they would no longer
provide us with
support unless we
spent a considerable
amount of money! We
also felt that their
standard of support
had deteriorated
since the initial
period when we were
a new customer.” |
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2. TouchStar
Provided Perfect Fit
to Business
Requirements |
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Mike felt as the time
approached to upgrade
their system, it would
provide an opportunity
to research alternative
options. Regal Fish used
the internet and trade
shows to source
suppliers and at this
point, they came into
contact with TouchStar
who were exhibiting at
Call Centre Expo at
Birmingham NEC. After
discussing their needs,
they invited TouchStar
to their headquarters in
Barton-upon-Humber.
Business Systems
Manager, Vicky Griffiths
was immediately
impressed with
TouchStar’s proposals:
“We were pleasantly
surprised that their
sales team took the time
to listen to our
business requirement
rather than try to sell
us a one size fits all
solution. We were
reassured is would fit
with our existing CRM
and finance systems and
were very impressed with
the features of the
system such the
administrator function
and coaching facility.
It was also vitally
important that the
solution could handle
inbound calls to deal
with our customer
service function.” |
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3. Choice of Existing
Customers to Evaluate
System |
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As part of the solution
evaluation, TouchStar
invited Regal Fish to
view a live operating
system at an existing
client. Mike Brummitt
added: “They gave me a
list of customers and
said I could pick any
one. This was
immediately reassuring
as to me, that meant
they couldn’t just show
us around their best
customer and gave us the
proof that their system
was working effectively
for all customers. We
visited the nearest
centre to us and were
more than satisfied in
the efficiency of their
operation” |
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4. Support with Human
Factor |
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Regal Fish were swayed
by TouchStar’s standard
24x7x365 support. Mike
stated: “The issue of
support was one of the
main reasons for our
dissatisfaction with our
previous supplier. We
felt from meeting the
guys at TouchStar that
they were an altogether
more ‘human’ company –
friendly, affable and
easy to get on with.
This is an
underestimated factor
when sourcing a software
solution but one that we
feel is one of the most
important.” |
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5. Excellent Price |
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Naturally price was as
important issue.
TouchStar’s solution was
competitively priced and
Mike looked at the
longer term picture: “We
looked at the costs over
a five year period
including support and it
proved TouchStar was the
cheapest option.
Although my gut instinct
was to go with TouchStar,
the cost factor made it
much easier to sell to
the board!” |
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6. Complete Solution
with Adherence to Ofcom
Regulations |
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TouchStar implemented
the fully compliant
TouchStar Connect
blended call centre
system complete with ACD
& IVR, intelligent
scripting, call
recording and reporting
at Regal Fish in a
matter of days.
TouchStar Connect has
been fully integrated
into both their GoldMine
CRM package and their
Access Accounts finance
system. Vicky Griffiths
has been highly
impressed since the
implementation of
TouchStar: “The system
has been built to
incorporate our unique
needs and there has been
no disruption to the
business with the new
system employed.” Mike
added: “Since we have
started using TouchStar
Connect we can actually
use ‘predictive’ mode as
it was far too easy to
drop calls on the old
system and were not
prepared to take that
chance. We take the
Ofcom regulations very
seriously and do not
wish to drop a single
call as that could
potentially lose us one
of our customers.” |
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7. Value Added Services
including 24/7 Support,
Expert Account
Management and Annual
Customer User Group
Conference |
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Vicky is pleased the
system is more
streamlined than their
former solution: “We
don’t have to manage the
system so intensely now
and can get on with our
core business of
providing fish and
seafood supplies to our
customer base without
worrying about the
technology – it kind of
manages itself!
Obviously issues arise
as our knowledge curve
grows but by having an
appointed account
manager who visits at
least once a month and
having 24/7 support, we
know a TouchStar
engineer is at hand to
respond to any queries.” |
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Regal Fish staff have
attended both the free
annual TouchStar User
Group Conference at the
Hilton Hotel in
Manchester and one of
the free monthly
TouchStar system
training courses. Mike
commented: “The User
Group Conference was
very valuable as gave us
some excellent insight
into a variety of call
centre issues such as
improving agent morale
and making best use of
data. The monthly
training course is more
about the system itself
– very handy for filling
any knowledge gaps that
our experienced
supervisors may have.”
Regal Fish have booked
TouchStar’s consultancy
service to deliver
motivational training
for staff. |
| Implementation |
| The TouchStar Connect
system was installed
with no disruption to
the Regal Fish business.
Mike was especially
pleased with the speed
of the changeover from
their old system. He
went on to add: We
finished with the old
technology on the Friday
evening and by Monday
morning, the TouchStar
system was up and
running. |
| TouchStar engineers were
on site for the first
couple of days of
operation to ensure
there were no issues.
Vicky stated: The
TouchStar people made
sure both the
supervisors and agents
knew exactly what they
were doing with the new
system. Naturally as we
had been using dialler
technology, I was
familiar with how such a
system works but there
were obviously some
differences and extras
that were not on our old
system. |
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Features and Benefits of
TouchStar Connect |
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Regal Fish have
experienced the
following results and
benefits since
implementing TouchStar
Connect: |
- Their agents
talk time has
increased
considerably.
- Increased
customer
satisfaction
obtained from not
dropping any calls.
- A system that
fully complies with
and exceeds all
Ofcoms regulations.
- The ability to
report with detailed
statistics from all
campaigns in real
time has made
management of the
call centre
operations more
focused.
- A seamless
integration with
their GoldMine CRM
system which meant
streamlined business
processes.
- Free training on
an ongoing basis,
has continually
updated staff
expertise.
- 24 x 7 x 365 UK
based engineering
support proving
invaluable when
requiring advice at
any time of the day
or night.
- An appointed
expert business
development manager
to optimise use of
the technology.
- Ability for
further developments
as their business
grows.
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Mike Brummitt concluded:
“The software is as good
if not better than any
on the market. All
aspects of the TouchStar
Connect system fit
perfectly to our
particular business
model and has standard
features that satisfy
all our call centre’s
requirements. We are now
investigating the
possibility of acquiring
further utilities that
TouchStar have developed
to make operation of the
system even more
straightforward! We feel
we have a good rapport
with TouchStar which is
something we never had
our previous supplier.
The human touch is
evident throughout the
company from the MD
through to the support
engineers.” |
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