The customer
Acorn Screen Products is a manufacturing company and direct supplier of premium quality, solvent based screen-printing ink. They offer a personal and direct service and have been supplying to a broad range of customers throughout the UK for over 27 years.
Acorn Screen Products have been a direct customer of Gradwell since 2012, taking full advantage of our Multi-user VoIP services.
The challenge
When looking for a phone system, Acorn Screen Products were focused on a quality and affordable solution. As a business working in a competitive market, it was vital for them to minimise costs, while maintaining excellent standards of customer service.
Until 2008, Acorn had three separate lines from BT – two business telephone lines and one fax. Call volumes weren’t particularly high, though a considerable number were to mobile and pre-2008, this proved costly. The expensive line rental and additional call charges associated with this deal did not deliver the return on investment that Acorn needed.
Additionally, in 2013 Acorn Screen Products acquired Regal Tools, a major UK trade distributor of carbide tools. Both businesses are based in separate premises in Loughborough and in the early years of owning both businesses, all calls were going through to David Wylie, Acorn’s General Manager.
After discussing these concerns with Acorn, Gradwell recommended our multi-user VoIP services.
The solution
Gradwell and David identified VoIP services as a potential solution. Gradwell’s team of consultants conducted a thorough evaluation of Acorn’s current and future business needs, and ascertained how they could achieve better and sustainable ROI and ensure their customers could reach them, whenever they needed to.
David Wylie said: “VoIP was relatively new when we first started looking into it, and although there were many companies offering a VoIP solution, we wanted to choose the right one that suited us for the long term. The Gradwell name was one that came up numerous times during our research for a supplier of business VoIP. This was probably one of our better decisions as the whole process of porting over our existing number and setting up the initial VoIP lines ran smoothly with little to no loss of service.”
After an initial single line install, Acorn upgraded to three phones on three separate desks. David’s technical consultant was able to easily resolve early teething issues including adapting audio settings and implementing porting processes. Gradwell ensured the process was as painless as possible by assigning a specific consultant to Acorn’s account.
In 2013, Acorn bought Regal Tools, a company that they were keen to modernise. Gradwell supported Acorn through the communications side of this process, organising a memorable phone number and installing a second main telephone line. With all the attendant resource strain from re-launching a business, it was imperative to Acorn that this was done efficiently, cost-effectively, and to deadline. For the last six years the service has been running smoothly and continues to meet and surpass Acorn’s requirements.
In 2014, Acorn opted for Gradwell’s Fibre Line. Following the acquisition of Regal Tools, five or six people could be on the phone and internet simultaneously, so it was vital for Acorn to mitigate voice lag and ensure consistently high-speed connectivity. The company now have a DX800 all-in-one phone, fax line, analogue and six external lines. The system is stable, reliable and secure and they continue to get prompt, concise and helpful customer support from their Gradwell team.
"I can honestly say that every time I have had an issue, the support from Gradwell has been great and any issue was dealt with fast and efficiently. Now some eight years later and two companies running a couple of external and many internal lines, we are very happy with the choice to go with Gradwell.”
With Gradwell’s hosted VoIP solutions, Acorn experienced huge cost savings and simple, easy to manage processes.
Initially, Acorn were spending around £220 a month for three-line rentals and calls. After adding two more lines following the Regal acquisition this would have amounted to £600 or more a month. Acorn pay just £3 or £4 a month with their Gradwell deal. 99.9% of calls made are free, including both local and internal calls across two separate units.
Acorn also enjoy the better control of workflows, operations and an easy to manage control panel. One phone seamlessly connects both companies and the control panel’s simple, self-serve functionality helps Acorn to easily set up hunt groups, answer phones and IVR options.
As Acorn’s trusted provider, Gradwell understands business pain-points and ensures the service grows and changes to reflect operational requirements, as well as delivering the all-important ROI.
“I can honestly say that every time I have had an issue the support from Gradwell has been great and any issue was dealt with fast and efficiently. Now some eight years later and two companies running a couple of external and many internal lines, we are very happy with the choice to go with Gradwell.”
