John Shepherd is the complete Professional Estate Agency Service. With properties in the Midlands and Warwickshire, covering the sale of Town Houses to Country Mansions, Auctions, New Homes with specialist Land & Developments, Lettings, Surveying, Conveyancing and Financial Services Departments.

Established in 1991, the firm has grown considerably and has a network of eight offices. As the agency continues to grow and evolve having the right unified communications solution and strong technical support is central to higher levels of productivity and effective working for the estate agents.

Intercity Technology has provided mobility solutions to midlands based estate agents, John Shepherd, for over 10 years, so when Richard Crathorne, CEO, needed a unified communications solutions provider, Intercity Technology was the perfect partner.

The problem

With a network of eight offices covering the West Midlands and Warwickshire, John Shepherd had several phone systems, which were making interactions across its branches difficult and this quickly became unsustainable.

As a result, the residential property professionals were providing poor customer service to its customers, due to calls being lost in the old digital systems. This is when Richard approached long term technology solutions partner, Intercity Technology.

Richard explains that, “It was clear that we needed a single system that could be managed effectively and centrally to give full control back to the business. We already work with Intercity Technology for other solutions and therefore it seemed beneficial for us to engage them on our telephone systems.”

The solution

Intercity Technology presented John Shepherd with unified communications solution, Touch Technology, to enable the business to expand seamlessly without changing its phone system. With an abundance of benefits, Touch Technology provided the capability to deliver integrated voice, video, mobility, and presence over multiple devices. Richard continues, “Touch Technology delivers everything we need and more as well as complementing our core value of providing better customer service.”

“Over the last 10 years Intercity has helped our business grow and provides essential training for us as we expand. The team is knowledgeable, helpful and accessible. The solutions are well received and we can’t fault Intercity’s customer service.”

Richard Crathorne, CEO, John Shepherd

Benefits

Since implementing Touch Technology, John Shepherd has achieved cost savings, better call progression and enhanced customer experience. Richard explains that, “Touch Technology has made us more efficient in handling an increased ratio of calls, offering time saving solutions and has increased the internal connectivity to the whole business. The business has also seen an increase in savings from reducing the need for more landlines and we expect to see a 30% reduction in our line costs and a 50% reduction in our call costs.”

Richard concludes: “Touch Technology has exceeded our expectations, providing the ability to transfer calls easily to mobiles and an excellent conferencing facility, as well as internal visibility of users and an effective call management system. Ultimately, Touch Technology complements our core value of providing better customer service.”