24-hour customer care – courtesy of The Message Pad

24-hour customer care – courtesy of The Message Pad

Keywords Computers, Call centres

If you have ever wondered how your competitor is able to offer its customers a 24-hour call-out service, it may be that they have turned to The Message Pad – the nationwide call centre operator offering a range of outsourced telephony solutions specifically tailored to the needs of other service providers.

A combination of CTI technology (computer telephony integration) and the advantages that economies of scale brings, means that The Message Pad offers call centre facilities which are manned round-the-clock by highly-trained operators adept at dealing with the most sensitive and urgent of calls.

For service providers in all sectors this can finally mean a permanent move away from the answer machine and mobile phone and a solution which does not incur the high costs involved in running an in-house call centre.

The technology employed in the network of call centres allows clients access to all the latest methods of communication – from paging and SMS (short message service to a digital mobile phone), to link ups with palm-top computers, used increasingly by field engineers.

One aspect of The Message Pad's service which makes it particularly attractive to critical response services, is the automatic escalation procedure. When a call-out request is made, the system logs the time the message is passed on to the duty personnel. The client company will specify a time period in which their operatives must respond to the call-out request.

If this confirmation is not received in time, an alarm prompts the operator to go to the next stage, which may be to contact the duty manager and this escalation continues until a response is received.

Facilities managers, fuel oil companies and a variety of public sector departments, among many others, have found this to be the key to them providing the proactive service their own customers demand.

Managing director of The Message Pad, Christopher James, is convinced that as the notion of a 24-hour society is accepted by both commercial and domestic service consumers, many companies will struggle to meet the expectations their customers have of them: "Many companies set up their own facilities when the technology first became available and when the in-house call centre was essentially a trendy accessory! A lot of those companies are now our clients – having accepted that their skills lie elsewhere.

We have the technology, staff and experience to provide the most sophisticated call-out support service through to help desk and customer care lines, enabling our clients to remain competitive."

The Message Pad offers a range of tailored solutions for private and public sector organisations – from overflow facilities to a complete outsourced solution. Services include general telephone answering through to media response and fulfilment for business of all sizes.

For further information contact: Amanda Frith, Public Relations Officer, The Message Pad Ltd, Innovation Centre, Warwick Technology Park, Warwick CV34 6UW. Tel: +44 (0)1926 623500; Fax: +44 (0)1926 623523; E-mail: amandaf@message-pad.com Web: www.message-pad.com