ipadio and the Independent Group have today embarked on the delivery of Unified Communications. Beginning with Home & Comforts, ipadio's Unified Communication services will provide smarter, quicker and more accurate flows of information between the company, its fitting network, clients and their policy holders.
Home & Comforts (www.homeandcomforts.co.uk) is the largest non-retail seller of carpets in the UK, fitting over 2 million square meters of carpet a year in over 35,000 households. Based in Preston, Home & Comforts is one of 4 companies that make up the Independent Group (http://www.chemdry.co.uk/about/independent-group-uk-ltd).
This first phase of ipadio’s work will see the automation of communications between Home & Comforts, the 40 nationwide Fitting Centres, the network of Fitters, and the tens of thousands of customers Home & Comforts deals with every year. There will be a variety of communication channels employed – including outbound phone calls, text and email.
Home & Comforts undertakes a large amount of jobs every month on behalf of several of the UK’s major house insurers, and ipadio’s Unified Communications’ services are expected to increase the throughput in the fitting centres, decrease the number of customer issues, decrease the amount of capital tied up in pending orders – and all for a lower cost of service.
Mark Winterbottom, Field Operations Director for Home & Comforts said, “We’re very pleased to be working with ipadio – they are working with a number of leading international companies, We’re looking forward to a successful first phase, and then rapidly rolling the ipadio services across the rest of the Independent Group businesses.”
Mark Smith, ipadio’s CEO, said of the work, “We love Unified Communications work like this with the Independent Group – it allows ipadio’s technology and services to shine, with the business benefits undeniable. We are easing the flows of information between customers, fitters and Home & Comforts, and by reaching right into people’s homes we keep them informed, while at the same gain valuable data that allows the business operations to run more smoothly.”