When Pulse Group Media started looking for a new telephony system to meet the needs of its virtual team, boxx Communications had the ideal solution.
Pulse Group Media started in April 2009 with lifestyle magazine Pulse. Twelve years on and the portfolio has four titles – MKPulse, NNPulse, Business MK and Business Times, serving Milton Keynes, Northamptonshire and the surrounding area.
Reaching more than 70,000 people every month, they are produced by a small full-time editorial and commercial team who, even before Covid-19, all worked from home. Communication is key for this close-knit team, however, there is no need for them to be in a single location.
Virtual office
This is what led Pulse to make use of an outsourced virtual office service. However, this was not the ideal solution, Martin Lewis-Stevenson, director of Pulse Group Media, explains further. “It was not such a great journey for the customer. If they could get through to us, they would be put through to someone who would answer in our name and take a message, but it would be obvious that they were not part of our business.”
Pulse was hesitant to install a fully-functioning telephony system due to concerns of cost and complexity. That changed after boxx presented a detailed proposal providing Pulse with a full demonstration of a VoIP solution.
“The costs were not much different [to the virtual office service] and it would mean that we could be more engaging and responsive and give customers a better experience. The support they could offer was excellent. It just seemed to have the right feel for us.”
Flexibility to grow
Pulse was able to retain existing telephone numbers with the VoIP service and make use of features, such as auto-attendant, transfer and divert, hunt groups and voicemail.boxx also reassured that quality would not be compromised.
“I’d experienced VoIP a while back and it was not good,” says Martin. “But the quality has improved immensely and what’s great is that we can use dedicated desktop phones as well as using the service on our laptops and smartphones.”
As a result, Pulse will be more accessible and responsive and that is what really matters. “It ticks all the boxes,” says Martin. “It gives us all the added benefits at about the same cost, but in the end, it is all about giving the customer a better journey.”
