Case Study: Leading UK estate agency chain.
Unifi deployed Cisco Unified Communications Manager for Estate agency group with over 2,500 staff across 250 branches resulting in massive customer service improvements and cost reductions.
Unifi deployed Cisco Collaboration for UK's leading estate agency group.
As one of the UK’s most innovative estate agency groups, our client serves thousands of customers each year, making effective communication and collaboration central to their operations. By leveraging cutting-edge technology, they empower clients to achieve the best possible prices for their properties while providing robust support to those buying, renting, or letting.
With a dedicated team of 2,500 staff across 250 branches, our client is well-positioned for ongoing success. They stand out as one of the few UK estate agencies with their own Contact Centre, giving them a competitive edge and shielding them from disruptions caused by new online-only entrants in the market.
Customer experience is a vital differentiator for the business, driven by strategic investments in technology. It is essential for all branches to keep customers informed throughout the sales process and to make them aware of the services available to them. However, operational challenges arose due to each branch operating its own legacy and isolated PBX systems. To address this, it became clear that centralising communications within the head office’s customer service teams was necessary. This shift would enable consistent contact with customers, ensuring they are kept informed about developments and any additional services that may benefit them.
Purpose-built foundation for collaboration.
Deployment highlights.
- Consolidate legacy PBX systems to improve reliability and performance
- Drastically reduced line rental and maintenance costs
- Boost staff productivity and provide a vastly improved customer service experience
- Simplify reporting on key contact centre metrics with call recording
- Eliminate isolated systems that increased contact centre costs and reduced effectiveness
- Platform is ready for video. Adding endpoints would allow video calls from desktop clients or room systems
- Cisco Jabber allows instant messaging included at no extra cost
- Easy addition of firewall traversal services will enable telephony and video services to be consumed by users outside of the corporate environment
- Centralised inbound calls with flexibility to route calls depending on what the customers’ needs are.
In collaboration with Unifi, a robust MPLS network was established to deliver a high-quality WAN connection between the head office and all branches. With this network infrastructure in place, Unifi proceeded to deploy a comprehensive Cisco Communications Manager solution across the organization. Central to this rollout were two Cisco Business Edition 7000 Servers installed in the head office data center. After a successful trial involving 15 branches, Unifi transitioned all head office users from their outdated telephony system to the Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) platform. By utilizing Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE), all ISDN30 channels were successfully migrated to SIP, resulting in significant savings on line rental costs while providing the flexibility needed for the branch rollout.
With the advanced collaboration features of Cisco Communications Manager implemented at the head office, Unifi initiated the deployment to the remaining 250 branches. Each branch received a Cisco 800 Series router and Cisco 300 Series switches, establishing seamless connectivity back to the head office over the MPLS WAN. Every staff member was equipped with a Cisco 7821 IP Phone, which registered across the WAN with the Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition 7000 Servers. Through single sign-on, branch users could easily log into their phones to access their telephony profiles, enabling them to work from any location while enjoying the same user experience as if they were in their home branch.
Flexible centralised SIP Trunk deployment.
The cost savings made from consolidating ISDN rental at each branch to the centralised SIP service has been significant. When we add in sales growth from improved customer experience plus the productivity efficiency gains we will get a very quick return on the investment we have made in this technology."
Group Telecoms Manager
“Our customers were telling us that they were frustrated at not being able to reach an agent who knew the history of their sale, purchase or let” added the Group Telecoms Manager, “by using this feature our customers can reach the agent handling their case more often. This is improving customer service and decreasing our withdrawal rates, which is very important for our business.”
Improved collaboration for increased productivity across the business.
With extension-to-extension dialing across the WAN and a unified corporate directory, all users and branches can connect seamlessly. Given the high volume of incoming calls at each of the 250 branches, any unanswered calls are efficiently routed to the head office contact center, which answers as the branch the customer dialed. Before this centralised system was implemented, unanswered calls went to branch voicemail boxes, often leading to customers hanging up without leaving a message or receiving a delayed response the next day. Now, with the contact center acting as a “virtual branch,” extended calling hours have been introduced, further enhancing customer satisfaction.
The centralised system has also enabled the establishment of a New Business Unit that generates additional revenue for the branches. These support teams facilitate crucial connections to financial and legal services, as well as valuations.
Thanks to Unifi’s sophisticated unified communications solution, our client can deliver consistent and regular customer collaboration, which is vital to their business success. By keeping customers informed about new developments and the range of services available, customer satisfaction and sales have significantly increased.
Moreover, the Cisco Unified Contact Center Express streamlines centrally managed sales tasks. The Cisco Dialer Outbound Option is utilised by sales teams to make calls and set up customer appointments and valuations, resulting in substantial time savings. “We’re finding Cisco Unified Contact Center Express to be very easy to use, maintain, and deploy. We’re very pleased with it.”
In addition to the advanced collaboration features of the communication platform, some users leverage Cisco Jabber for enhanced capabilities, including presence, instant messaging (IM), voice and video calls, voice messaging, desktop sharing, and conferencing.
Next steps.
With many employees working remotely, Cisco Expressway enables seamless access to all collaboration features for users outside the office. This solution provides remote staff with secure, straightforward access to essential collaboration tools, including video, voice, content sharing, instant messaging, and presence information. Moreover, Cisco Expressway facilitates collaboration with individuals using third-party systems or those from other organisations.
With Cisco Jabber available on mobile devices, users can work efficiently from their preferred devices. Cisco Expressway supports simple, clientless connectivity back to the Cisco Communications Manager servers, ensuring that users can communicate effortlessly. By utilising Cisco Jabber on their mobile devices, employees can stay connected and responsive while away from the office, significantly enhancing workflows and overall responsiveness throughout the organisation.
Trials are also underway to utilise Cisco WebEx to improve staff training. Additionally, with video conferencing easily managed on the same CUCM infrastructure plans are underway to trail video conferencing facilities between head office and the major branches. This is expected to further improve collaboration, reduce travels costs and increase productivity.
