ntl helps relieve easyJet’s inbound call
congestion
“ntl is interested in us and helping us grow”
easyJet is
the entrepreneurial airline which operates from London Luton and
Liverpool airports, carrying more than 4 million passengers per
year over 19 European routes. The airline succeeds on a value for
money, no frills, no tickets, scheduled flight service. Customers
just arrive, check-in, board and take off.
Many seat sales are transacted by telephone, which is where
ntl comes in. easyJet has been a satisfied customer for over two
years. Clive Just, easyJet IT Manager commented that, “ntl was
responsive to our needs in a way other operators were not.”
ntl - the responsive organisation
He explains: “When we realised we needed to expand the number of
telephone calls we could handle, one leading company was talking
weeks for delivery, the UK number one was talking months and ntl
was talking days. We wanted the lines quickly and ntl was able to
deliver. It was also cheaper.”
ntl installed two trunks within 24 hours. easyJet’s busy, round
the clock call centre, located in the company’s distinctive orange
building on the airport perimeter, now has nine, 30-line digital
trunks.
Clive Just described the events leading up to the ntl
installation which came in time to cope with a massive influx of
calls generated by a major promotion in the Daily Mirror.
“It was one of the newspaper’s longest ever promotions, spanning
three weeks, in which readers collected tokens and called us for
seats at £14.50. At one point it was estimated that 100,000 people
were trying to call us with possibly five times that number of
people unable to get through to the network.”
It was as a result of a similar, smaller promotion some six
months earlier that Clive Just and his team decided they needed
additional telephone capacity and approached ntl. They already had
60 lines, but it was obvious they needed more.
Centrex - the complete telephone
system
Centrex offers all the functions of an advanced
private telephone system direct from a remote telephone exchange.
This means that every extension user, even remote off-site
operators, has the benefit of a direct line, relieving congestion
on incoming calls as well as increasing efficiency. The real
benefit for easyJet is that telephone sales agents, although
working from home, can have access to the reservation system whilst
the telephone system treats them as if they are working in the call
centre.
Currently, 150 agents work in the call centre which is the nerve
centre of the airline’s operation, handling all calls coming in
from three European destinations. In future, a large number of
these operators may be working from home.
A new technological environment
“We did encounter a few technical problems and ntl always
responded extremely quickly - even if the problem was not within
their network. We have direct access to a dedicated engineer who
knows us and our operation in depth.”
The call centre is multi-lingual and all calls are automatically
routed to the right agent with the corresponding language skills.
Eventually, easyJet hopes to open up a whole new labour market for
people who wish to work from home and ntl’s Centrex System will
enable them to achieve this.
Clive Just concludes: “ntl is interested in us and in helping us
to grow, and we have a good working relationship. This level of
interest and responsiveness is what attracted us to ntl.
And as companies we have a lot in common. We are both new
companies up against very large, monolithic organisations, and we
are moving swiftly to stay ahead.”
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