50% growth in eight months, and that’s just the beginning! Scott Ritchie explains how Connect Telecom has managed to continue to grow its business
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onnect Telecom, Northern Ireland’s largest independent businessto-business mobile & Unified Communications provider, has grown connections by 50% since being acquired by Scott Ritchie only eight months ago. Based on the Lisburn Road, Belfast, Connect Telecom provides telecoms and IT solutions to businesses across the UK and Ireland, and is the only Vodafone Platinum Partner in Northern Ireland. Scott, who has a wealth of IT and telecoms experience and has made a multi-millionpound investment in the company, explains how the company is continuing to achieve growth through a customer centric approach in the fast paced IT industry. “Mobile communication has become so integral to how we live, it transcends both our professional and personal lives and is frequently taken for granted. People often only realise its value when it isn’t working properly. “Vodafone is arguably the best performing network across the UK and, I believe, our focus on customer service is head and shoulders above our competitors. Ensuring we put the customer at the core of everything we do enables us to not only deliver an excellent service, but also to be innovative in our approach. “This led to us developing our Unified Communications & VoIP capability. We are now the most successful and best qualified delivery channel in the UK for Vodafone’s One Net Business Platform. “Furthermore, our development of fixed line, broadband and our move into Microsoft Office 365 has been well supported by our customers. It is with their feedback that
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we now plan to develop this capability further again, with the launch of our Online Management portal later this year.”
Empowering our customers The changes within the telecoms industry are fast paced and continuous, Scott and his team believe that it is their role to be the technology experts on behalf of customers to ensure that they gain maximum benefit from the latest developments. “I believe in listening to our customers. The majority of local businesses are privately owned, just like we are, and I know personally how that shapes a business decision. We focus on what is really going to help our customers spend less time thinking about IT & telecoms and more time running their business. “We provide the best technology solutions from leading providers such as Vodafone, Microsoft and Cisco which we know benefit our customer’s business and facilitate growth, in a way that makes sense to the end user.”
EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) Gold Star service award. “With additional investment following the great support from Danske Bank, we know we can deliver total care for our customers and provide more support than our competitors in Northern Ireland. Our customers have dedicated Account Managers and Customer Service Agents who are based locally. It is our dedication and personal approach to customer service that has carved a niche and allowed us to become one of the leading telecoms solutions providers in the UK market. “Plans are also well underway to extend this provision to a 24/7 support service for customers, which will be in place in the coming weeks.”
Growth With over 20,000 connections across over 4,000 businesses throughout Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Scotland and the North of England, Connect Telecom is committed to providing an easy, professional and personal service across its markets.
Local Service Scott continued: “Too many telecoms companies and providers rely on global call centres to be the first point of contact. We know that doesn’t work for our customers. “We are very deliberate about where our office is as our customers have the option to walk in as well as dial 191. The ability for our customers to simply walk into our office and chat to the local support team sets us ahead of our competitors. “Underpinning this personal service is our ongoing staff training and development. The team’s focus on customer care and support has received external recognition with the achievement of accreditations such as an
“The company’s growth within the last 18 months has been rapid but we made a conscious effort throughout this period to maintain a focus on high quality customer service here in Northern Ireland, to develop stronger partnerships with customers and continue to employ local, experienced industry professionals. This has made us bigger, stronger and ultimately better for our customers, and also ready for further growth. “We have extremely ambitious growth plans across our core markets in Northern Ireland, England and Scotland, which I believe we have built firm foundations for. I expect the company will double its workforce within the next year, with at