Johannesburg, 23 Jun 2009
Tellumat Telecoms, the communications division in the Tellumat Group, has boosted the efficiency of a leading South African BMW dealership by 'mobilising' its sales force with KIRK DECT telephony.
The solution was installed by Flexi Communications, an office equipment supplier, on-site at Pretoria-based Zambesi Auto. (Flexi is an authorised reseller and service partner for Tellumat, which has the sole sub-Saharan African distributorship for KIRK systems. KIRK was recently acquired by Polycom, allowing Tellumat to offer KIRK's proven reliability and mobility to a wider audience.)
Including hardware*, installation and free support for a year, the highly cost-effective solution took only three days to put in, including a site survey on the first day.
Deon van Rooyen, Flexi Communications' owner-MD, praises KIRK technology - widely seen as the world's leading cordless telephony system. He began selling it in 2008 after a stint with a big-name competitor. “Anybody who has ever tried KIRK will tell you there is nothing to match it for simplicity, reliability, cost-effectiveness and robustness,” he says. “It just works, and works well.”
Kobus van Aswegen, financial manager of Zambesi Auto, says mobility is highly important to sales people in a dealership the size of Zambesi. “Our people have benefited hugely from being free to go where they need to, without ever missing a call.” In addition, he says, call costs have dipped significantly as staff no longer need to return so many missed calls.
Handsets have been given to sales staff, senior management and panel shop supervisors, who are unanimous in their praise for the system's Direct Inward Dialling (DID or direct extension feature).
For his part, Van Rooyen notes that user distance from base stations has never been a problem. “Repeaters see to that. In fact, nothing has ever really been an issue. The entire system worked seamlessly from day one. There has never been a swap out or hassle.”
He says set up is easy “if you know what you're doing”. The system informs the installer of the best possible locations for putting up base stations, once a site survey is done. Service is free for a year and there is a 12-month warranty on hardware.
Van Aswegen says this has been Zambesi's first foray into mobility, but reveals that DECT was always going to be its first choice. The story of how that came about is a lesson in the importance of customer satisfaction.
Christo Lindeque, Zambesi's founder, had previously founded Lyndhurst Auto (now BMW Melrose Arch - the fourth-biggest BMW dealership in the world). Impressed with the KIRK system in use at Lyndhurst (and Tellumat's service standards), Lindeque made sure KIRK also graced his new dealership.
“It seems to have left a lasting impression,” Van Aswegen says. “And it's easy to see why.”
* Handsets, base stations, control unit cards, repeaters, power supplies and cabling
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