The Car Key Network (ALW Network) Case Study

TTNC deliver a complete telecommunications platform to improve business processes

The Customer

The Car Key Network (ALW Network) is the most extensive national working network of qualified, insured and annually vetted auto locksmiths from across the UK. Acting together as a national body to safeguard the auto locksmith industry from consolidation and offer car key related working support to commercial customers nationally.

Founded in 2015 by web-entrepreneur and business analyst Kane Robinson; the Car Key Network has quickly become one of the fastest growing specialist trade networks in the UK. By utilising a lean-startup method of business, the company maintains a continuous testing and development process, receiving feedback from its customers and implementing various adaptations to ensure service and customer service levels are the best in the business.

A Simple Mission Objective:

To provide corporate customers with a single point of contact for all auto locksmith/car key related enquiries, nationally. Whilst setting and maintaining standards across the industry and safeguarding the industry from consolidation.

Current Status:

With more than 70 approved engineers and trusted by some of the country's largest corporate brands, our network can service 95% of the UK population in under an hour, and our mission has become a reality.

Our Future:

2018 – 2020 will see the network look to secure a broader customer base and exclusive discounts for its members, from insurance policies to training courses, stock purchases and more.

The Challenge

As with any start-up the challenges posed to ourselves were twofold;

The inevitable challenges which confront all start-ups, and the variant challenges which are specific to the business itself. For ourselves, both were equally important and were presented to us on day one of trading.

Initially, we needed to source a telecoms supplier with low costs and reliability. A business we could build a telecoms infrastructure foundation upon that wouldn't strangle the company financially as it expanded or disrupt daily activities with technical difficulties.

Our business-specific requirements also dictated that we very quickly needed to implement solutions to:

• Determine which methods of advertising would generate sustainable revenue.
• Effectively divert calls to relevant departments and mobile engineers.
• Track, record and provide reports for both inbound and outbound calls.

More importantly, as a continually developing and growing business, we very much wanted to work with a single supplier that would not only meet these requirements but also work closely with us to integrate these systems, provide one-to-one support and get to know our business.

• No way of monitoring advertising spend.
• Poor Inbound and Outbound Call Reporting.
• No way to distribute and divert calls to and between relevant departments and mobile engineers.
• No off-the-shelf solution that could provide local geographic numbers and services within one centralised platform.

Objectives & Goals

We knew that as a new venture, determining as quickly as possible which areas of business were working as projected and which were not would be critical to our success. Without a constant feedback loop of information to support this, we knew time, money and resources would be wasted. With that in mind, we needed to:

• Find a solution which would accurately quantify revenue generated on a per advertisement or per affiliate basis.
• Test and adapt methods for diverting calls and providing call reporting to relevant engineers on a geographical basis.
• Establish measures for avoiding missed calls/leads.
• Implement call recording solutions that would not only meet legal requirements but also allow us to monitor customer service levels and lead conversion rates.

The Solution

Following a referral from a business contact and an initial discussion with both the TTNC sales and technical teams regarding the ins, outs and requirements of our model, we voted to adopt the TTNC platform and make it our first choice supplier. Within literally minutes and with very little initial financial outlay we had an MVP platform in place. Making use of:

• Local 01/02 Numbers dedicated to providing ROI feedback on geo-targeted advertising campaigns.
• Virtual Receptionist Services to filter calls and divert to relevant departments and engineers.
• Call Recording & Reporting providing instant feedback to office staff and engineers.
• Missed Call Alerts to minimise missed lead opportunities.

The Result

Now approaching our fourth and most successful year of trading, the business has developed additional customer support services around and off the back of the TTNC platform. Features and systems we hadn't initially prioritised have been introduced to provide customers with a more streamlined and professional service.

• Call Greetings are used to provide inbound callers with professional business introductions.
• Call Whisper Services to provide call answering staff with instant information a customer's location and needs before their call is even connected.
• A Main Line 03 Number has been introduced to support general business activities and press enquiries.
• We setup Dial Through Services so that customers can be called back using the same local inbound tracking number they initially dialled.

The use of these features combined with the initial systems introduced has not only helped to validate and improve our business processes but also provided a constant stream of customer feedback upon which we can act upon and continually improve satisfaction.