The solution and result

Tanya Bauer, Improvement Surveyor and Stand-by Manager at Coastline Housing, discusses Coastline’s experience of Appello's Out of Hours service. 

What does Appello's Out of Hours service cover?  

Appello answers all of our calls outside of business hours, acting as an extension of Coastline. We're open eight hours a day, five days a week and Appello manages all of our customers' calls and expectations when we're closed – they are essentially Coastline during that time. 

Why did you choose Appello?  

We were first introduced to Appello through Procurement South West. They won the telecare contract for our extra care scheme, Miners Court, so we had a little bit of knowledge of them and had built up a relationship already.  

When the out of hours contract came up for tender, we wanted to move away from our previous contractor. Our knowledge of Appello meant we were able to go straight to them and the size of the contract meant that the tender could be awarded to Appello directly. 

How have you found Appello’s Out of Hours service?  

I wish that we had moved to Appello sooner to be honest! It's made it all so much easier. 

Our call times with our previous provider were very long and when you got through, there was always a lot of 'umming' and 'ahhing'. I'm actually a customer of Coastline as well, so I would sometimes have to call and it didn't give you any faith or confidence. From a customer perspective, it just wasn't a good service.  

It's completely different with Appello. 

They answer the phone quickly and say ‘Coastline’, which is important as they are Coastline at that point because they are acting on our behalf. They also use the Coastline number to make outgoing calls. If that’s who has been calling you through the day but then in the evening it's a Liverpool number, people don't like that, especially when there’s so many scams around. I like the fact they do that, so that a customer is getting called by Coastline's phone number. 

Also, our procedures are there – when I call to discuss something, Appello can recall our procedures much more quickly than I could probably find them on our SharePoint drive. It's just very streamlined. I really can't fault it.  

How have you found Appello to deal with?  

I can ring up the supervisor and say, "We've got a situation" and they know all about it; they're on it. It gives you such reassurance and then that builds even more trust in them, the fact that they know what they're talking about. I love it.   

We have regular meetings with our account managers and keep up to date with everything. I'd like to think we have a very good working relationship. There's good communication between us, which I think is the key. Don't get me wrong, we've had our blips. Those are always going to happen and that's OK, it's something to learn from. But the way they deal with it is very good, how it's resolved. Dev in particular is like a machine and has got us where we needed to be.  

Would you recommend Appello?  

I would 100% recommend Appello. Put me in a cheerleader outfit and I'll wave the pom poms! Our out of hours service is so much better than it ever was. It's all the details that make it feel above and beyond. I get the impression it's just business as usual for the Appello team but to us it's so much more. I can't praise it enough.