Expolink Case studies
Broaden your experience with ours
Working with….Dukeshill
01 Jan 07
Company overview
Dukeshill was founded over twenty years ago, with a vision of producing the very best hams, cured only by traditional methods. Dukeshill’s commitment is in the flavour and texture, rather than being concerned with the speed or yield.
Much has changed for the business over the last few years, they have grown considerably in size, moved to new premises and extended their produce considerably in line with customer requirements. One thing hasn’t changed though - their uncompromising attitude towards quality.
This commitment has led them to being selected by some of the top London Food Halls to produce their hams, and in 2003 they were awarded the ultimate accolade – a Royal Warrant to supply hams to The Queen.
Challenges
Like any other small business the specific challenges facing Dukeshill were limited internal resource capacity to match customer demand. The very nature of Dukeshill’s business is related directly to the holiday calendar with peaks and troughs throughout the year. As a result of limited opening hours and telephone resource they also felt they were missing potential sales calls.
Recommendation
Expolink Europe were recommended to Dukeshill by their marketing Consultant. On meeting the Expolink management, Dukeshill were completely satisfied with the designated outsource model and their ability to support Dukeshill's internal operations.
Core Facts
- Operationally working with Expolink since October 2006
- 40,000 strong UK customer base
- Service supplied: customer order line
- Choice of outsourcing partner – personal recommendation
Core benefits
- Longer opening hours – 7-11 inc weekends
- Larger customer service team – extension from 2 to 20
- Average 25% increase in order volume generating an additional £400,000 of turnover
- Average call volume 200 per day (Dec)
- Greater call traffic
Solution
With the full support of Expolink, Dukeshill are now benefiting from an external sales order line. Dukeshill choose to fulfil their own catalogues amongst their 40,000 strong UK customer base and on average, 200 calls per day (Dec) are processed by the Expolink team with payments averaging £10,000 secured daily and deliveries managed on behalf of their client.
Any potential business peaks are planned, and any missed calls are prevented. With the service operation in good hands, Dukeshill are able to focus on the core strategic elements of their business such as driving business traffic and enhancing their product range.
Summary
The relationship with Expolink continues to go from strength to strength with a high focus being placed on customer service. Neale Hollingsworth of Dukeshill comments, “Expolink have installed confidence for me in outsourcing core elements of our business. We work together as a sucessful partner type relationship with the long-term future of our business in mind”.
“We have been impressed with the support of Expolink who were personally recommended to us. We have been able to extend the opening hours of our operation successfully during the weekend and our call volume peaked to an average of 500 order calls a day prior to the Christmas period. We have found the team extremely flexible and with Expolink operating as an extension to our business we have the confidence of providing our customers with nothing but service excellence ”, commented Neale Hollingsworth from Dukeshill.
