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Okay, I got some responses today on this.
Basically, to do what we want it to do it will cost money, the trick is in the routing of the calls which is the technical bit of it all. I had a long chat with John Presscot (unfortunate name I know) of http://www.call-ids.co.uk this afternoon and they can do all we want as wll as a lot more besides for the future. There seems o be only ahandful of companies that can actually do what we want/need th system to do.
Because of the routing we would not generate revenue from calls since that is eaten up in the routing charges, although it won’t cost us anything either to be fair.
Postcode routing is not advised as it’s far to complex to use for users and, like using the STD codes, is too much hassle for mobiles as well. So the suggestion isto use STD as afirst level routing, with further routing as needed, for mobiles etc.. What that means is that the punter calls in and it asks “is this your home number, if yes key 1, if not key 2”, you can see where this is going can’t you? Mobiles are recognised as such and the system immediately asks for the home STD code. We can then break it up into exchanges etc. after that, the nice hting is that this system is scaleable and can b adapted at any point.
Voices cost money! 🙁
Cost wise they reckon bout £2.5K to set it up, roughly that was a ball-park figure that I asked tem to give. Monthly rental I have no idea on.
But….
What we can get is web-based call reporting to see throughput on the number as well as to individual agents we can also see how long it took to answer the call we can also see the number of calls missed! So the reporting is excellent. It also means that we can produce figures to justify the cost of the system to people almost instantly.
So let’s say we all chip in £100 each over 60 members, that’s £6K up front! Allocate £4K to the initial system, £2K left in DASA’s coffers thanks you very much. Get another £50 or £100 off each agent and the number could be put in every Yellow Pages in the UK in a nice little box, not expensive really when the load is spread across all the agents and it would raise out profile as well as DASA’s.
Food for thought.
K.
Fair few links added today, if I’ve missed any or if anyone’s url is not added can you please add it or PM/email me and I’ll add it for you?
I’m still looking for reviews etc without much success, come on I *KNOW* you lot have seen a couple of washing machines etc.! 🙄
You may also have noticed we passed 40,000 page views in under two months from launch! 😯
K.
I’ve emailed Paragon for more information/costings and we’ll see what comes back to us. I’ll post it here or mail the info on.
K.
Dave_Conway wrote:Is anyone from GIAS signed up here ?
Not yet, but I’m working on it. 😉
Dave_Conway wrote:I wonder when the Merloni/GDA service ops will go tits up now they have shafted their agents.
Not for a while until they realise in isn’t paying them. Then they’ll have to weigh up the pros and cons of it all but they’ll bang away at it for a year or two at least I’d imagine.
Dave_Conway wrote:All interesting stuff aint it ?
Very, but where one leads another follows and they do all talk regardless of what they tell you or the Competitions Commision. 😉
K.
Update!
I had a call from a friend at Bolton today begging me to do a call for Candy on Monday, fair enough I’ll do it for them since I’m attempting to win brownie points there. 😉
But….
In the ensuing conversation it came out that (as I already knew) that they are having major problems with servicing built-in, integrated and gas appliances. For those of you that don’t know this, Hoover service is mot CORGI approved, nor is it ever going to be as it would cost them just way too much cash to do it. So and, this was the reason for the news above, who the hell are they going to get to do teh servicing on this range and the Candy that’s out there now?
Anyway, the point is that we could be in a position to pick this up and they have formed an internal team (this is VERY hush hush) that has to deal with the servicing problems. They have been told to solve the issues case by case for the moment irrespective of the cost! 😀
So they’re in the shit, big time.
Next up, the most interesting titbit of it all:the Hoover service as is is not working, period! My friend in the camp, who hapens to be heading this team says, and I quote, “it’s going to collapse and it’s only a matter of time I think before we are forced to go back to agents.”
There was more but nothing as relevant to this group as that was.
My problem is that I understand Candy, I *know* how Candy work from the ground up but Hoover management is a different kettle of fish, they’re all chuffin’ insane! If Candy wins the internal power struggle in the UK it will go back to agents of that there is no doubt. but right now we may have an opportunity to seize the day here as they are really struggling.
K.
Dave,
Why don’t you try D&G etc. and explain that you are trying to move away from NESN as they’re not really doing you any favours or tell them that you have another engineer now, something, anything! As if they do go titsup you could well get caught in the crossfire and the general consensus seems to be that NESN are living on borrowed time.
K.
Okay, so I got all worked up abou this idea and decided to find out some more, just ’cause I’m like that and I know how to use Google! 😉
Anyways, take a look at this http://www.paragontel.co.uk *very* interesting stuff indeed. It would appear to me that the line could be almost self-financing as they pay a 2.5p a min. rate on calls recieved, which could put funds back into DASA’s coffers. But it gets better still…
If we did this then we could still make a charge to the members using the service but make it extremely reasonable generating more funding for DASA still! Charge the connection fee to each member, it’s only £60 at cost as well, so virtually **NO** setup cost for DASA!! DASA and the members can only benefit from it, I can see no downside at all it really appears to be a win/win situation here.
Not only that you get automatically entered in every single UK telephone book and probably Yellow Pages as well.
It’s a no-brainer!
K.
Dave_Conway wrote: Are we talking about royaly shafting the WP’s here ? A topic Ken and I have discussed a few times before by going direct.
Yes, exactly that, settting up a national linkline number to direct t/p traffic to the relevant agent via postcode/phonecode.
Dave_Conway wrote:IMO it is the ONLY way forward for us and the manfucturers, retailers and insurance co’s.
Agreed, strongly.
Dave_Conway wrote:We get paid more, they save on the management fee 👿 and get a far better service by cutting out the middle-man.
Yes and any price increases over time get passed to *US* not the WP as has been happening in a great many cases!
K.
Yes this is extremely encouraging and hopefully the shape of things to come and with other contracts other people can get a shout at some work. I was just impressed at the response to it all, it really has been good overall.
The thing is that MFI had this done literally within days, which is seriously impressive to set up a network of agents to cover almost the entire UK mainland and, if MFI are impressed word will soon get about what has been achieved and the potential can only increase for more work IMHO.
As both Dave and I know, this site is being watched by some serious players now and I do believe that we are being taken seriously by some big hitters. That being the case things can only improve for us through time.
K.
Dave_Conway wrote: I’ve been expecting it ever since the recent announcement of the parting of ways.
Yup and you’re a prime target as well! 😉
Dave_Conway wrote:It will probably come in the form of an email on friday night as usual, so no-one will be there to scream at ’till Monday morning.
Yes, an interesting tactic but once youo see through it all it does is make you still angrier as it has some time to fester with you over the weekend.
Dave_Conway wrote:It won’t affect us as we weren’t offered the MFI work anyway 🙁
You may well find that you are not getting offered other work because of the fact that you are working for NESN. There is some people that think NESN is going to go titsup.com in the not too distant future without some serious capital investment, which they are unlikely to get from anyone bar the likes of Currys and if they go they may well take quite a few agents with them!
K.
So the usual threatening bullshit we get then! I really don’t know why we all put up with that crap from anyone let alone this mob, TBH, I’m glad I’m out and they did me a favour as I don’t have to put up with that kind of shit for the three month run-down period.
K.
Yes Daf I kinda thought that way myself.
I reckon it can’t pay at the rates and I agree that the 1/2 fee for a BER is a scam, even a reduced fee for a BER is ludicrous for anyone as it doesn’t cost any less to get an engineer to the call and, after all, that’s the risk of the manufacturer or insurer and not us. Last time I checked I was not a registered insurance company.
You’re quit right, the admin costs alone of BER calls are more than it’s worth in this case particularly.
K.
Agreed, we really need to do more than just talk about this. I think it’s perfectly do-able and could well not just eliminate the competition, but crush it totally. NESN against a force of that nature with the speed of service we could offer for the money and limited administration that would be required for any contract.
Yes, I truly think this could fly and I think it’s well worth a shot.
It would also maybe allow DASA to advance into being an organisation worthy of respect and also to do a lot more for it’s members for the future.
K.
