The Customer Service desk will take calls from Greggs’ five million customers that use the shops each week. The new solutions will be used at each of the 17 regional offices where devolved service desk staff will provide local help and support to both staff and customers, with information held centrally for reporting and management purposes. The new helpdesk system will also support shop-based staff using the new EPoS system which is currently being rolled out across the group.

It was identified that various parts of the business were looking into purchasing separate service desks to manage work within their departments. Greggs’ IT department had previously visited the Helpdesk and IT Support show and were initially impressed with the Hornbill IT helpdesk. Greggs then went through a business justification process to demonstrate that a common service desk approach would be beneficial to the business. After an assessment of the systems available, Hornbill was invited to demonstrate along with two other suppliers. Hornbill’s Supportworks Enterprise Support Platform (ESP) was selected for its ability to host a range of support systems and the strength of its customer support and external suppliers module. Hornbill’s unique Non-polling Architecture which allows fast communications even over low-bandwidth connections was a key selling attribute to Greggs.

James Holmes, Project Manager at Greggs commented, “Greggs has expanded rapidly in recent years, both organically and by acquisition. As part of our company ethos to provide excellent customer service and to provide a great place to work for our staff, we needed to consolidate our service desk systems. Hornbill was able to provide an extremely flexible solution that suits all our requirements, enabling us to gain economies of scale across the enterprise.”

Mr Holmes continued, “We anticipate that several more separate service desks will be implemented using Supportworks, which is likely to derive considerable savings when we consider the implications of purchasing and supporting separate systems.”

Gerry Sweeney, Managing Director at Hornbill commented, “The provision of excellent IT systems together with fast and effective support is becoming a major issue for organisations that are aiming to become an ‘employer of choice’. Technology is a powerful tool, but when it goes wrong, for whatever reason, it can be hugely distracting and stressful for employees. At Hornbill we aim to provide solutions that enable our customers to support their staff and customers in the most efficient manner possible.”

Hornbill's Retail Sector Manager added, “Retail is an exciting sector for Hornbill. As margins become ever tighter, retailers are looking to define themselves by their customer service and a good customer support solution can make a huge difference. Hornbill has taken on several new retail customers in recent months, and we continue to be committed to this sector.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

About Greggs
Greggs plc is the UK’s leading bakery retailer. With over 1,300 shops nationwide, a Greggs or Bakers Oven branch is never far away and more and more people every week are enjoying the great taste and great value of our product. We passionately believe in product freshness, quality and outstanding value for money.
We serve approximately 5 million customers each week throughout all our shops. A large proportion of our business is in takeaway food – principally shop-made sandwiches and freshly-baked savoury products like pies, pasties and sausage rolls, plus sweet lines like doughnuts and drinks. These product categories have driven the growth of the group for many years. We also operate catering units through our Bakers Oven brand.

For more information please visit: www.greggs.co.uk