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Kiravans – Customer Case Study

May 3, 2013

Answering4u makes the McCandless brother happy campers!

Two brothers who established Kiravans, a successful business designing and producing professional parts for the specialised campervan conversions market, discover that the partnership with Answering4u gives them more time to focus on developing their business.

When Rob and Mike McCandless set up Kiravans they wanted to create a business which would enable them to earn a living doing something they both loved, as well as giving them time to spend with their young families and to pursue outside interests.

To achieve this perfect balance they needed to have sufficiently low overheads to respond flexibly to the demands of life and work. They also run the business from their respective homes at opposite ends of the country – Rob in Yorkshire and Mike in Devon – so they wanted an efficient method of keeping on top of enquiries. Call outsourcing was the solution – and Answering4u has provided the perfect partnership.

Kiravans, a mail order supplier to the VW T5 campervan conversion trade and to private VW campervan converters, was already using a company to answer phone calls and take messages, but Rob and Mike were still spending a lot of time dealing with queries.

“We wanted to find a company which would become an extension of Kiravans and do more than just take messages for us,” said Rob.

He came across Answering4u during an online search and knew from his first meeting with the team that they would be able to work together. He said: “My immediate gut reaction was that Answering4u had a personal feel, not like a big call centre, so they would get to know us and our products well.”

To help the team understand the specialist world of van conversions, Rob visited Answering4u on two occasions with his VW campervan.  These hands-on training sessions provided a valuable insight into how Kiravans operated and the logistics of modifying a van using the parts they sell.

Originally Rob envisaged that Answering4u would resolve about 50% of calls, however within a few weeks the company was answering all calls and completing 70-80% to conclusion. Soon after Answering4u were trusted with handling all email enquiries from the website. The service has been further strengthened as Answering4u now issue refunds and product exchanges on behalf of Kiravans, freeing up Rob and Mike to concentrate on the more complex enquiries

“It has made an incredible difference to how we run our company and our lives,” said Rob.  “We have been really impressed by the way that the team got to know our operation and adapted their style to match ours.  We have a very informal, personal approach and Answering4u picked up on that.  Their emails to customers are written exactly like ours, so they are reflecting the personality of our business, which is very important to us.”

Answering4u set up regular account meetings with Kiravans, backed up by weekly reports, to ensure that they keep up to speed with any changes and developments. Rob has nothing but praise for the strong working relationship that Answering4u has developed with Kiravans and is confident in the team’s ability to use their initiative to keep his customers satisfied.

In fact, the outsourcing model has been such a success that the brothers plan to increase the working partnership, with Answering4u handling more aspects of the business.  They firmly believe that the rapport which has already formed between the two companies will continue to grow and will be an integral part of Kiravans business operation going forwards.