Providing emotional and practical support to more than 16,500 carers across Lincolnshire, South and North-West Kent, Medway and the London Borough of Waltham Forest, Carers FIRST offers a wide range of services to people caring for a relative or friend who could not manage without their help. These include respite support, welfare benefits advice, emergency planning and statutory carers’ assessments. Following a period of rapid expansion that saw the charity more than double in size, demand for its services increased significantly.

As call volumes to its non-geographic 0300 number grew, Carers FIRST’s existing on-premises telephone system and call routing infrastructure struggled to keep up. Connections were frequently lost, while regional hubs and satellite offices sometimes became unable to receive incoming calls. As Michele Leach, IT and Compliance Manager at Carers FIRST, explained, these issues were frustrating for both callers and staff, and problems were not always identified until someone contacted a member of the team directly on their mobile. For an organisation supporting carers across multiple locations, ensuring calls reached the right people - particularly during peak periods - was essential.

The existing system was also inflexible and difficult to manage, making simple changes such as adding new locations or staff, or redirecting calls to cover holidays, a process that could take days or even weeks. The team was making at least two support desk calls a day and relied on external assistance for routine changes, creating unnecessary delays for a fast-moving organisation. Carers FIRST needed a reliable, flexible communications solution that could keep pace with its growth and help ensure carers received timely support. To achieve this, the charity turned to Focus Group.

Today, the charity’s 160 staff, based at the main office and regional hubs never lose a call, even if they are working off-site. With the click of a mouse, users can simply tell the system where their calls should be sent - to their desk, their mobile or a colleague. Additionally, the fully hosted system enables Carers FIRST to centrally manage and orchestrate all its sites as one.

“I can now easily redirect calls if one satellite office is temporarily unmanned or there is a sudden upsurge in call volumes. It’s truly transformed the way we work” says Michele.

Alongside being ultra-reliable and making it easy to divert calls to different locations without loss of service or expensive call forwarding costs, the new system also gives Michele finger-tip control of daily moves and changes.

“Thanks to the easy-to-use web management portal I can move or rename phones to enable highly flexible work environments for our people. Quite simply, it’s transformed life for me and Focus Group’s voice support team are always at the end of the phone if I need any extra help” confirms Michele.