Vivantio helps Hays Recruitment boost productivity and eliminate the paper trail in its customer service team
Vivantio, the leading UK service desk software provider, has helped recruitment group Hays plc to revolutionise its customer service team by transferring paper-based call reporting onto the Vivantio Service Desk solution.
Europe, Australia and North America (March 20, 2008) –
Vivantio, the leading UK service desk software provider, has helped recruitment group Hays plc to revolutionise its customer service team by transferring paper-based call reporting onto the Vivantio Service Desk solution.
A global leader in specialist recruitment, Hays plc has a central customer service team based in its London headquarters, supporting some 7,750 employees around the world, as well as acting as the front line contact point for all external job applicants and potential recruiter clients.
The team of eight form the first point of contact for jobseekers and recruiters, handling service queries as they arise and answering compliance and processing questions from Hays staff – handling up to 2,000 calls per month.
The introduction of Vivantio’s Service Desk On Demand has meant that all the enquiries coming into the team can now be inputted directly onto the system from the customer service team members’ desktop computers, normally immediately following the call.
Records are now instantly created for each enquiry which can then be tracked, shared and even exported to other desktop applications such as Microsoft Excel and Outlook. Call trends reports can be created instantly and the resulting analysis used to help manage resources and improve administration and processes.
Prior to 2006, the department was almost entirely paper-based, with team members filling out forms by hand after calls and creating physical paper files for each enquiry. These were then collated and relevant data manually inputted into spreadsheet-based management reports at the end of each month.
When Mark Brooks, customer services development director, joined Hays in 2005 he immediately identified the need to streamline this procedure and started to investigate various customer relationship management (CRM) systems.
Brooks explained how he found Vivantio:
“All the CRM systems that we looked at seemed too expensive, cumbersome and complex for our needs so we turned to helpdesk and service desk solutions and discovered Vivantio.”
Unlike its competitors, Vivantio offers both on site installation or a hosted, subscription-based service where the software is provided through a standard internet browser. Vivantio’s offering is also quick to set up; highly intuitive and simple-to-customise in house without the need for IT experts. Vivantio provided initial training and after just two morning sessions it was possible for Hays customer service team to roll out Vivantio Service Desk to all eight members of the team.
Because Vivantio Service Desk On Demand is a hosted solution it avoids organisations’ slow IT procurement processes. It also offers easy upgrades via the internet and 24/7 access to the system even if team members are taking calls while on the road or working from home. It also meets firms’ requirements for business continuity and disaster recovery planning
Overall the system has allowed the team to make better use of their manpower; monthly reports which usually took two team members up to three hours each to complete per week, are now available online and updated within minutes of calls being completed. Customer service staff no longer have to break away from tasks to leaf through filing cabinets for call records, as the data is now available in seconds through running an online search on Vivantio Service Desk.
The system has also now been extended to four users in Hays’ accounts department for handling of payroll issues for recruits for example. One further user within Hays construction and property recruitment division is also now using it to help manage recruitment processes.
Relevant records on the Vivantio system can be easily exported to Microsoft Outlook without the need to retype the enquiry, allowing data to be easily emailed to staff around the group.
Brooks, added:
“One of the surprise benefits of the system was a facility within it to track responses to outgoing direct marketing and advertising – we now use the system to trap details of why prospective candidates and recruiters are coming to us. Naturally our marketing department finds this very handy.”
“The On Demand offering is easy to access and compared to Vivantio’s competitors the system is incredibly cost effective. It has paid for itself in under a year and productivity gains in the customer service team alone were nearly 10 per cent.
“In my opinion, Vivantio’s Service Desk On Demand is an ideal solution for companies trying to measure and report on the quality of customer service they provide.”
Russell Wiltshire, director, Vivantio Ltd; said “Vivantio has clear advantages for companies like Hays that recognise they cannot go on increasing the paper trail as they deal with more and more calls. We offer an intuitive web interface which is easy to pick up, encouraging team members to complete call logs and communicate results more widely across the business.
“For many of our customers Vivantio is acting as the key platform of a customer service revolution in their businesses. We also find being able to offer a cost effective hosted as well as On Site Service Desk makes it possible for customer services directors to move fast to implement changes if they need to do so without having to go through often lengthy IT department procurement processes. “
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About Hays plc
Hays employs over 7,753 staff around the world and places around 40,000 people in permanent jobs and the same number in temporary assignments per year. Their largest market is the United Kingdom and Ireland where they have over 230 offices. This market accounts for 70% of the net fees for the group.
About Vivantio Ltd
Vivantio is a specialist service desk software and Software as a Service provider. Vivantio provides an easy-to-deploy and use suite of service desk tools which are designed for their simplicity, whilst offering the functionality that service desk teams need to increase productivity through the automation of processes and the enabling of customer self-service. For more information please visit www.vivantio.com
For all UK media enquiries for Vivantio please contact
Russell Wiltshire
Tel: +44 (0) 1934 424 840
Email: enquiries@vivantio.com
Source: Vivantio