Surge in calls means new call centre for windscreen company

FACED with a surge in demand, Autoglass sought to increase its number of call centre agents.  With its call centre already full, the choices were: hire an outsourcer, increase the number of home workers or open in another building.

The company opted to open a new call centre, at Bardon Business Park, near Coalville, which has 39 seats and 50 staff, most full timers.

Autoglass’ head of customer contact centres, Bill Kalyan, explained that they pinpointed a huge warehouse, owned by a sister company, with a large training room on the first floor which made an ideal location.

The new Autoglass call centre, before and after opening for business

It is about 60 miles from its head office, at Priory business Park, Bedford, which also houses its original 200-seat call centre.

Training typically takes six weeks, but the new recruits were fast tracked and carefully supervised by experienced staff and three team leaders.

Apart from the weather, the main reason for the increased number of calls was an advertising campaign, taking advantage of cheaper rates at present offered by TV companies, which was tested regionally and then rolled out nationally.

It encourages drivers to have windscreen chips repaired before they develop into cracks and stresses that in most cases the repair is covered by insurance, without affecting any no-claims bonus.

In fact, said Mr Kalyan, about 85 per cent of calls — initially identified by DNI — were to numbers given by insurers with which the company has contracts.

The advertising campaign helped increase the number of inbound calls from 40,000-42,000 per week to 55,000.  And in the last two years, bookings by email/webmail have risen from 220 to 3,000 per week.  These, said Mr Kalyan, were mainly non-emergency bookings.

Autoglass has 109 UK branches and 1,200 mobile technicians.  It is owned by Belron which has operations in 29 countries and more than 8,000 technicians.  The building which houses the new call centre is owned by another Belron company, a glass distribution firm called Laddaw.

Mr Kalyan, 40, has been with the business for 23 years, starting as a fax operative.  He and his wife, Christine, have two children, aged five and 13.

Mr Kalyan joked that, in fact, Autoglass has 32 sites — because, as well as the two call centres, it has 30 home workers, headed by two team leaders.  They could fit in their work around their children and holidays.

Autoglass call centres fact file

Opening hours: both year-round - Bedford, 24 hours; Bardon, 8am-7pm

Equipment: Avaya system and Verint monitoring

Service level: 95 per cent of calls answered within 20 seconds; 2.5 per cent abandons (achieved)

Staff: Bedford, 300 (200 seats); Bardon, 50 (39 seats)