The benefits of the Cloud for telefoonaanname.nl

“Can he call you back?”

In 1995, Edwin Smit and Monique Dekkers founded telefoonaanname.nl with the service of answering the phone for various companies. At the time, the main question was: “Can he call you back?” Today, it’s much more than that. They handle first-line work for around 400 companies in addition to answering the phone. Their 20 employees answer customer questions for these companies and also perform simple tasks, such as registering visitors for the annual Horecava event. How does telefoonaanname.nl keep up with the developments in customer contact?

For 25 years, telefoonaanname.nl has been a service-oriented company with a passion for their product and customers. They are a leading provider of telephone call answering, processing, and feedback. Although the core of their telephone service has remained the same over the years, a shift can be seen in companies that want to outsource their customer contact.

Edwin Smit, founder and owner of telefoonaanname.nl, said: “In the past, accessibility was mainly important for companies. We now see a shift towards supporting customer service for consumers. Companies are looking to outsource that piece. It often involves large call volumes, simple questions, and repetitive tasks. Why keep that in-house? You’d rather have your people available to dive deeper with your customers. Really add value.”

Where do you really add value to your customer contact? Let your employees take care of that and outsource the rest.

Customer Benefits

In addition to reducing call volumes for large companies, the services of telefoonaanname.nl are also perfect for smaller businesses that do not have sufficient staffing. “The biggest benefit for our customers is that we take care of things for them. This can be achieved by handling the contact independently or by ensuring that the customer is immediately transferred to the right person within the organization they are calling for,” Edwin continues, “We use the best techniques and have a database where the details of registered conversations are kept. Our telephone operators recognize regular callers, so people who call frequently do not have to provide their details repeatedly, which is very pleasant for them.”

“With new customers, we gather initial information about the company in the preliminary stage. Figuratively speaking, we then ‘sit on the customer’s lap’ and get to know each other better over time. Often, we see that the work expands as we go along. Because of the long-term relationships we have with our customers, the knowledge level of our employees also increases. We document this knowledge in a cloud-based knowledge bank, which is linked to our phone and CRM system. The employees quickly find what they need, and the customer is helped quickly.

A good example of this is the phone traffic we handle for VVV gift cards. Everything is automated: the call comes in to the employee with the right skills, and all the knowledge needed to handle the questions is digitized in the cloud knowledge bank. The entire customer history is recorded in the CRM system. So we have been working digitally and completely paperless for years.

In the clouds

Soon, telefoonaanname.nl will move to a beautiful new building. This also brought up a question about automation. Because how easy would it be if everything were in the cloud? So the question came to Frontline Solutions: what are the possibilities for bringing our telephony platform to the cloud?

Edwin says, “For years, we have been using Genesys PureConnect to our full satisfaction. Due to the upcoming move and a number of servers that were ‘end of life,’ the ‘Cloud’ question arose. Choosing Genesys Cloud was a logical choice for us. The eye also wants something, and Genesys Cloud looks a lot nicer. In addition, call transfers are even easier, and automatic updates are a big advantage. Clear reports and an organized dashboard give us insight to make immediate adjustments if necessary, and conversations are very easy to listen to.”

The transition from our old telephone platform to the cloud was really easy and has brought us many advantages

Edwin continues, “The flexibility that the platform offers is very useful for us. During busy periods, such as the annual Huishoudbeurs, it’s all hands on deck for us. I also make a lot of calls myself during that time. Scaling up is very well arranged with Genesys Cloud.

The platform also provides a chat function where employees can communicate with each other and where group chats are also possible. What I see as a major advantage of this is that the speed of responses to our customers improves because employees can help each other quickly. Collective knowledge increases in this way. And even though we are all working from home now, a group chat also strengthens the sense of group belonging. Essential during this Corona period.”

Past and present

Finally, Edwin shares a nice story that will undoubtedly be well received at parties: “When a Nortel system was put into use via KPN in the 90s, 40 people were walking around the work floor to complete the installation. How different it is now! I did the entire transition on my own on a Friday afternoon, including converting the phones to the cloud, with the help of Frontline Solutions’ remote support. And everything went smoothly. I’m sure anyone could do it with the group chat I had remotely. Really something to be proud of!

The future

As the name telefoonaanname.nl suggests, telephone is the most important channel. But what about other contact channels? “We saw the development of chat for businesses coming years ago,” says Edwin. “As a company, we’re ready for it, but we don’t get many requests from our customers. We’ve been working on developing an app for indicating availability for some time now. Now that we have a little more time, we’re fully focused on this and we’ll be rolling it out next week. I also see an increase in video during this crisis, which I think is a development that will be lasting. In any case, with our Genesys Cloud platform, we’re prepared for all developments.”