New telephone system goes live 23rd May 2011
New telephone system to help us serve you better
With effect from 23rd May 2011, a new hi-tech telephone system will go live at Farmplan.
The aim of the system is to help Farmplan provide a better service to customers when they call in. All Farmplan staff including those who are not office based will be on the same telephone system.
"We take more than 35,000 calls a year from simple 'how do I questions' through to complex queries that require more indepth answers" says Jacqueline Earl, Customer Support Manager, Farmplan. "The new system means these calls can be handled more effectively."
The telephone system enables staff to transfer customers to a relevant member of the team, even if that team member isn't office based; a call that's been transferred and not answered can be diverted back to the previous person so there's no need to repeat the reason for the call; and all the teams will be better able to see whether there are calls waiting.
"There are certain times in the year where our call volumes are extremely high, for example, April with payroll and financial year end's" commented Jacqueline. "The new phone system means we can closely monitor the number of calls and establish the busier times of day. This gives us the information we need to help us adjust staffing levels accordingly. If callers are in a queue and don't want to wait they will now more easily be able to leave a message for us to call them back".
Customers should also experience less disruption to the support service in unusual circumstances such as exteme weather conditions. "For the last 2 years, heavy snow has, on occassions, stopped us from opening the office or forced us to leave the office before 5pm" Jacqueline states. "What we now have is a system which helps us to manage this better and enables us to transfer calls, in the event of extreme weather, to staff working from home."
Piers Costley, Director, Farmplan said "What prompted the change was recognition that our old telephone system wasn't working as well for us as it needed to. Farmplan customers are our priority. With thousands of farms, estates and rural businesses entrusting us as their software provider we can't overestimate how important our customers are to us. That is why we've invested over £70k in this state of the art telephone system".
"It may take us a few days to get used to the new system once it goes live and there may be a few initial teething problems so please be patient with us" says Jacqueline.
Customers are advised to ring the correct number of the department they wish to contact as their calls will get processed more quickly.
All our existing numbers will stay the same but to ensure the quickest response please dial the correct department number
01594 545022 Software Support team
01594 545033 Hardware Support team
01594 545000 Sales Department
01594 545011 Reception