How VoIPstudio supports Dorset Tech’s supercharged IT services

Industry

IT & business services

Company Size

10-50 Employees

Headquarters

Shaftesbury, United Kingdom

Founded

2018

About

With offices in North Dorset and Manchester, the multi-award-winning team at Dorset Tech describe themselves as “Web Superheroes – saving the world from bad design!” The agency provides website design and content writing, SEO and other digital marketing services to businesses of all sizes. It also has a not-for-profit social enterprise which provides STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) training for local children from a converted warehouse complete with planetarium.

The Challenge

Dorset Tech’s founder and Head Superhero Chris Ryu is a busy man. Busy with clients. Busy with employees and partners. Busy with students – and visitors to his high-street office. He prides himself on always being available to brainstorm and problem-solve.

Email is the best way to reach him – and what most customers prefer – but, that said, he always picks up the phone and hates to miss any calls. When Chris founded Dorset Tech, like most startups, he wanted the company to appear bigger than it actually was. Having a fabulous digital presence was no problem; it’s the company’s bread and butter. Having a top-notch voice system was equally important.

Chris started his VoIP journey with RingCentral but didn’t want to be tied into RingCentral’s VoIP phones, nor did the company offer enough support as Dorset Tech started to grow and its comms needs changed with people working from remote and home offices as well as client locations.

The Solution

Chris looked around for a new solution and quickly came across VoIPstudio. As with many of VoIPstudio’s customers, he thought that “the pricing was spectacular” and was “pleased to see that we wouldn’t be locked into any particular hardware”. VoIPstudio’s customers can make and receive calls from any IP phone, or by using the app on their phones, ipads or laptops.

VoIP studio is now set up on two Cisco phones in Dorset Tech’s head office as well as on everyone’s PC/Mac. Calls to the Dorset and Manchester office as well as the STEM centre are routed through the same number with callers given a 1, 2, 3 option to press for the right department.

I’m a techie so people like to share their IT woes with me. Knowing how expensive phone systems can be and how so many operators have lots of ways of parting us from our money, I tell them about VoIP Studio, how easy it is to set up, and what great value for money it is.

Calls for each department go to all phones and the routine is that Chris will pick up all calls, however, if he is not available then after four rings someone else will answer.

Chris has also recently appointed a virtual assistant who works from home and can also receive incoming and make outgoing calls through the app on their mobile.

I like that VoIPstudio offers lots of features and services.

Having our own conference call facility is really useful and so easy to use with no need to forward a link or code. All people have to do is phone our general number, press 9 and then they’re in.

The Impact

Chris found VoIPstudio particularly useful for its ease of setting up new numbers, which he regularly created for customer marketing campaigns. This allowed Dorset Tech to track incoming calls and measure lead generation more effectively. The system automatically recorded and stored all calls, giving the team the ability to review customer instructions and discussions as needed. In one instance, a dispute over project authorization was quickly resolved by retrieving a call recording – an action that alone justified the cost of VoIPstudio’s subscription for an entire year.

During and after the COVID-19 lockdown, Dorset Tech experienced a surge in business. The company expanded its team and opened a new high street office in Gillingham, North Dorset to accommodate new hires. Many offline small businesses had realized the need to establish a digital presence to survive, with some using government grants to invest in digital solutions – further increasing demand for Dorset Tech’s services.

Scaling the system to add more numbers and users was simple and could be managed and billed directly through the reception console. The ability to see when another call was coming in proved to be highly practical for maintaining responsiveness. While the contacts database had not yet been fully configured, it remained on Chris’s priority list. After years of using the default settings, he also planned to update the call waiting music to something more in line with Dorset Tech’s superhero-inspired brand.