A new call centre for a new scheme

The introduction of the Boiler Scrappage Scheme presented tadea with a unique opportunity to demonstrate how their services can add value.

In pre-budget report of December 2009 the Government announced the introduction of a boiler scrappage scheme in England. The intention being to help households, with inefficient ‘G’ rated boilers, upgrade to a new energy efficient model. Those qualifying would receive vouchers that had to be used towards the purchase of an ‘A’ rated system. In total 125,000 vouchers would be available via the Energy Saving Trust who were responsible for managing the scheme.

When the scheme went live in January 2010, it quickly became clear that demand for the vouchers would be very high and the Energy Saving Trust would need support to manage the volume of calls received.

tadea were approached by the Energy Saving Trust to help deliver the call centre operation that would be needed to make the scheme a success. Within a week of the initial approach tadea had planned and implemented a strategic call centre solution for the North of England.

Although this was something of a challenge in the time available, by co-operatively working with colleagues across the tadea organisation and closely working with our IT and Telecoms partners we were able to expand our current advice line operation by recruiting 10 extra staff, developing and delivering training and induction materials and having them ready and able to take calls on the scheme go-live date.

In the first two months of the scheme’s existence tadea successfully handled 50,000 calls. The call centre created job opportunities for 10 people and it demonstrated tadea’s capacity to respond quickly to requirements and need and deliver a functional operation, with trained staff to a very high standard, in a short period of time. It shows how we can successfully work with colleagues both internally and externally to the benefit of other organisations.