Consumer Credit Counselling

The Foundation for Credit Counselling, based in Leeds, U.K., assists people experiencing financial difficulties by providing free, impartial and realistic advice. The Foundation for Credit Counselling is the umbrella charity for Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS), which helps people with debt problems through its free national telephone service, 10 regional centers and online CCCS Debt Remedy program.

“We can always see how many people want to talk to us or are waiting to speak to us.”

— Lisa Vause, Helpline advisor, CCCS.

Due to exponential growth within the organization and an increase in call volumes, CCCS was looking for a reliable communication system which would accommodate its expansion and be able to continue scaling in the future. Operating three different contact center platforms, over 10 different communication platforms and across 10 sites, CCCS also wanted to migrate to a single system to consolidate and streamline communications.

“We now have the ability to transfer clients to other departments where previously we would have given them an external number. We also have the option to see if anyone is available to speak to customers so we can put them through and introduce them personally.” 

— Lisa Vause, helpline advisor, CCCS.

CCCS now has a state-of-the-art business communication system, comprising a ShoreTel Unified Communications (UC) system and ShoreTel Enterprise Contact Center, which streamlines processes and puts critical information within agents’ reach. Benefits include:

• Scalability of ShoreTel’s UC system supports CCCS’s growth.
• Advanced redundancy features increases reliability and uptime of CCCS’s contact centers.
• Improved call handling and routing to ensure timely and efficient customer service.

“The project was completed very efficiently because [ShoreTel partner] Astro and ShoreTel integrated well with the CCCS’s internal project and technical teams.”  

— Steve Smith, managing director, Astro Communications.