Chris and Louise recently invested and took over as franchise owners of Wiltshire Farm Foods, Worcester. The new offices located in Bromsgrove initially had no telecommunications services so they were starting from scratch, with nothing in place. Chris sought a recommendation from a fellow franchisee (Graham Davis) on who to approach to get his telecoms set up as quickly as possible. Based on his personal experience, Graham recommended TMC.

TMC team member, Simon, met with Chris and spent some time understanding Chris’ aims and how he needed his business to work. It was clear that the business needed to support a mix of inbound and outbound calls to and from the main site. The business also needed to support mobile users out on the road. We agreed that the best product to support those needs would be TMC VoIP Select (a cloud-based Unified Communications Solution). After some initial checks, it was established that internet connectivity in the area was sufficient to support VoIP technology to carry a quality service - and Chris was keen to embrace the new technology along with all of the benefits it brings. TMC installed a dedicated VoIP Connect superfast fibre to the cabinet broadband to carry the voice traffic and started to configure the system as per their requirements.

Although it would take only a few days to install, it was clear that Chris ideally needed a way to start taking orders immediately using a contact number to publicise on the main Wiltshire Farm Foods site and a having way to handle incoming telephone orders. So we made it happen. Despite the short timescales, we didn’t just focus on the necessities: there was time for Chris to have exactly what he wanted. In this instance, he wanted a 01905 area code for the main number rather than the 01527 number the local phone exchange would have typically offered him. We gave Chris his 01905 number that day. As a temporary measure for the first day or two we forwarded calls coming in on that number to designated mobile phones. The orders started flooding in!

When the office was established, the main number was ported to the TMC VoIP Select Solution.

The system works exactly the way the business needs it to. For example, the delivery drivers (who carry iPhones provided by TMC) can stay in touch seamlessly while on the road thanks to TMC VoIP Select. As business owners, Chris and Louise, are often busy keeping tabs on staff in the warehouse or at meetings off site. Through the Office UC mobile app, staff members can see their availability via the ‘presence’ feature. If they are available, they transfer calls to them. Chris and Louise can then also handle those calls with ease as if they were in the office on their desk phones.

The cloud-based VoIP system offered this client all the flexibility and features far more advanced than a traditional phone system but at a fraction of the cost.