Testimonials
The good the bad and the ugly - what our clients have to say
"Open Contact agreed to provide a unique service for us by arranging that all their operators
experience our unique attraction and most of them have actually done so. This means that they have
a better understanding of what the experience is and can therefore offer a better level of customer
service. Open Contact also makes sure that there is always an experienced supervisor on hand and an
Account Manager for us at to contact with any issues so that they can be quickly resolved.
It is crucial that customers have a good experience in the booking process and Open Contact are
happy for us to listen to calls on a regular basis to monitor that this is the case. Open Contact
have also increased their opening hours providing a better service for our customers."
Communications Director - Nationwide visitor attraction operator
"Thanks for your e-mail asking if I would be prepared to back OpenContact's entry for the
Customer Care Award. I am happy to do so as the work that you have done for us has been of a high
quality and I feel we have created a good relationship between our organisations.
As you know, my main area of involvement is the handling of telephone calls which, due to
limitations in our resources, both human and equipment, I have outsourced to OpenContact on a
number of occasions. Your willingness to set up systems to suit our particular needs has been
appreciated, as has your ability to respond quickly to those needs. The nature of the work we have
passed to you has varied and the flexibility of your company and its staff has enabled you to cover
it. Your response, even when we ask for changes to the specification at short notice, has been
excellent.
Whilst taking calls from supporters wishing to make donations for an emergency appeal is relatively
easy to brief, covering our switchboard during prolonged office closures, such as Christmas and
Easter, is obviously more complicated. However, OpenContact has risen to the challenge and we have
been happy with the outcome as, I believe, have the callers. The resolution of queries has also been
very good.
The fact that the company is family owned and run is also in OpenContact's favour and the staff with
whom I deal are friendly, knowledgeable and helpful...in fact a pleasure to work with. I hope that
the opportunities to work with OpenContact continue for a long time".
Supporter Enquiries Manager - International emergency aid charity
"OpenContact have provided our outsourced call centre services since the company began back in 2000. We also have our own in-house call centre operation, but we have always chosen to use OpenContact for some of our key customer-facing operations, notably:
- our outbound B2B sales operation to recruit hotels to the our network in the early days of our business
- inbound B2C voice booking service more recently
That we've stayed with them until now is testimony to the quality of service, flexibility and
responsiveness they have provided. When we've needed them to provide us with additional services or
to handle greater volumes of calls, they've done so and often at very short notice.
Although the vast majority of our business is on-line, the call centre business remains an essential
service to our customers and so the quality of that service remains key to our business performance
and growth expectations.
OpenContact is a safe pair of hands in which to entrust the care of our customers, especially when
repeat purchase plays a large part in our success"
Chief Operating Officer - Leading hotel reservation business
"OpenContact has provided a booking service for our Working Holidays
programme since 2000. The programme offers the opportunity for up to 4,000 volunteers to be involved
with the work of our organisation every year and to experience the many and varied landscapes in our
care. Our volunteers are generously giving us their time and energy. As the public face of the
organisation, it is imperative that our booking office recognise this fact and nurtures the
relationship we hope to create.
Accommodation for the holidays is usually in buildings that have been converted to volunteer
basecamps and as such, is not of standard size or layout. This means that it is not possible for
bookings to be fully automated, as it often is with other holiday companies, and therefore
OpenContact's operators must be fully conversant with the possibilities available and utilise their
desire to assist our customers in order to fill the holidays to capacity.
Holidays are advertised with an equal number of males and female spaces. However, we find that
females tend to book earlier leaving us with an unbalanced holiday composition. Again, OpenContact's
operators employ their commercial acumen and experience in order to provide both our volunteers
and ourselves with the best service.
My team has a close relationship with senior members of OpenContact staff. We experience a high
level of assistance with any issues raised and there is certainly a commitment to provide us with
the support we require."
Volunteering Programmes Manager - National conservation charity
"We have an on-line travel insurance business with a product aimed at the
active holiday market. The people who buy our insurance are both discerning and demanding. As
they're buying on-line, they quite reasonably expect an immediate response to their purchase.
OpenContact were engaged by us almost from the start of our business, primarily to fulfil the pack
sent to policy holders. Not only does this involve the usual printing of policy documents and
stuffing envelopes, but unusually, the engraving of our unique metal tags. These are done on a daily
basis and generally completed and despatched the same day they were purchased on-line.
Reliability of this service is essential to our business strategy and OpenContact have not let us
down.
When things do go wrong, as they can with any on-line sale, OpenContact are always willing to go the
extra mile to get a replacement pack produced and despatched in very short order. For example,
on Friday I did a policy for a client at 1:23pm and told him to expect his pack on Tuesday as I'd
assumed it would miss the Friday run...he emailed me on Saturday to say how impressed he was that his
pack arrived very next morning. Under promise, over deliver!
When you're servicing someone's holiday requirements and they're about to set off to far flung parts
of the world, this willingness and 'can do' attitude is what has kept us with OpenContact and is
likely to keep us with them for the foreseeable future.
Director - Travel insurance company