ICT installs fibre optic network and upgrades call centre for Red Letter Days

Information Converged Technologies Ltd (ICT) has completed the installation of a new fibre optic voice and data network backbone, and the upgrade of a 100-agent call centre, for the London office of Red Letter Days, the UK’s No.1 Experiences company.

The new fibre optic network extends voice/data communications to an additional floor of the building, which was needed to cope with Red Letter Days’ growing staff numbers. The contract, which also included the provision of 40 additional extensions together with extension cassettes and programming work, was carried out by ICT over a weekend to avoid disruption to business.

Red Letter Days’ five year old call centre was having difficulties in meeting the need to reduce call response times, avoiding bottlenecks which could arise when incoming calls were transferred between agents, and handling a growing number of DDi numbers for individual sales campaigns. ICT made a detailed study of the system, produced schematics for upgrading the centre on its existing platform, and carried out extensive reprogramming. Enhancements provided by ICT included a utility which transfers the call centre’s reporting statistics into a new Windows-based format to increase flexibility and improve working practices. Chris Webb, Red Letter Days’ IT director, commented:

“Efficient handling of customer calls is crucial to our success, so keeping our call centre up to the mark is essential. ICT is that rare find – an independent telecoms company that not only knows its business, but also reacts positively and quickly to our needs. As a result, they are now our comms system supplier of choice.”

Created in 1989, Red Letter Days pioneered the concept of providing experiences as personal gifts and corporate incentives, and a Mintel report (Activity Days Out, November 2001) identified Red Letter Days as the clear market leader. The company’s range of more than 300 experiences cover fields such as driving, activity, airborne, water, sport, pampering and gourmet. Corporate clients include Camelot, Virgin Atlantic, Logica, Bupa, Abbey National and Ford Motors. For more details, please visit: www.redletterdays.co.uk.