The solution and result

Kirsty Hales, Head of Customer Contact at Curo Group, discusses Curo's experience of Appello's Out of Hours service.

Why did you choose Appello for your Out of Hours service?

We've been working with Appello forever – I’ve been here for 11 years and Appello were providing our Out of Hours service when I started! Since I've been with Curo, we've completed at least two re-tender bids for the service and Appello have won on both occasions, most recently in 2024.

It's quite a detailed process, guided by our procurement department. We ask a lot of questions and score each contractor on the information provided. Our procurement team then put all the information into a matrix and the two or three highest scoring are invited for interview.

In the latest round, we had a number of bids and ended up interviewing Appello and one other. Appello was slightly ahead scoring wise but it was the interview that swayed it.

Appello were much more engaged with us. We felt like we were important to them and that they would work with us – we got the warm and fuzzies from them! Obviously it's more technical than that but you've got to have a good working relationship and feel that your business matters because our contractors are dealing with our customers. That's our main reason for existence, we do everything for our customer. And we get the sense that Appello feel the same way.

What does the Out of Hours service cover?

Appello deals with our emergency calls for repairs and anti-social behaviour during evenings, bank holidays and weekends. This is through both a telephone service and a WhatsApp service for our customers.

So, the operators will talk to our customers and take information about the case, then make the call on whether this needs to be sent to the duty trades people, be passed onto a manager or if it can wait until the next day. Then they log all the details and pass that onto us.

Have you faced any challenges with the service?

I've worked in contact centres for 30 years and there are always challenges with resourcing, getting people in, retaining them, especially when you're working antisocial hours. The other challenges can be during storm seasons where we have an unexpected weather event. We understand the nature of the business and we take that into consideration. But obviously we want our customers to be able to get through when they need to. Appello always look at ways they can move the resources around or learn from experiences.

How do you find Appello to deal with?

They’re very easy to contact and are quick to react. We have regular meetings with our account managers, including yearly performance reviews. They’re also operational, they’ve got ‘boots on the ground’, so that really helps as they understand what's happening.

The creation of that working relationship has been absolutely vital to the improvement in service. We work together and I think that’s the key. All feedback is a gift: as long as we continue communicating and working together, things can only go from strength to strength.

Would you recommend Appello's Out of Hours service?

Yes, overall we're really happy with the relationship and we're happy with the performance. I would absolutely recommend Appello for anyone looking for an out of hours service.