November 2002

2Touch is a new name in fulfilment, but has a distinguished pedigree, and now it's striding confidently into the contact centre business. Peter Rowlands went to see what it has to offer

It's always intriguing when a new company bursts into an established market, yet seems to convey an air of substance, confidence and direction right from day one.

2Touch is just such a company. It seemed to appear from nowhere two years ago with an integrated range of customer contact and fulfilment services, and a solid and growing client base.

It will come as no surprise to hear that it emerged from an existing business, Acxiom, which had a long history in response management and fulfilment. What is more interesting is that 2Touch really is new; it has extended the range of its services well beyond the aspirations of its predecessor-company.

In particular, it has set its sights firmly on the contact centre market, which was barely even a sideline for the old company. While fulfilment also remains a fundamental part of the portfolio, a key objective now, in the words of managing director Stuart Gray, "is to deliver a world-class contact centre operation."

There is an apparent paradox here. 2Touch's parent company, Arkansas-based Acxiom Corporation, was once also involved in contact management, but pulled out of that business some years ago. It now concentrates on core activities such as data management.

However, as Gray points out, the contrast is merely a reflection of the hands-off approach of the parent company. "We don't rely on their marketing or sales resources, for instance. We're self-contained. What's important is that they are committed to supporting our customer growth."

What happened was that in the late 1990s the American parent made a strategic decision to expand on the world stage, and in Britain it identified significant opportunities in the contact centre market. Gray, recruited from a rival company to lead the new initiative, explains: "UK businesses are more and more inclined to outsource contact management, yet good companies in this field are hard to find."

Serendipity played a part in the initiative. The previous company, originally known as Marketforce, was based in Sunderland, near the heart of what has become a major centre for customer contact operations. "The area is a sea of telephony," Gray says, "so we were confident we'd be able to find the staff. We absolutely knew we had a business."

The original company dated back to 1966, and was previously based in the Sunderland suburb of Hendon. It was basically a fulfilment house, latterly working for a small range of substantial customers. Acxiom acquired the business as long ago as 1988, but for many years kept its profile relatively low. Telephony played little part in its activities.

A major step in its recent expansion came when it moved at the turn of the decade to a far bigger and more appropriate 14,000 sq m facility at Doxford Park, on the outskirts of the town. "We aim to do things properly," Stuart Gray says, "and Acxiom was prepared to make a very substantial commitment to the operation." The new identity was fine-tuned, and just over a year later, at the start of 2001, 2Touch was born.

Telephony the growth area

It should be emphasised that 2Touch is far more than just a contact centre operation. "Telephony is certainly the big growth area of the contact centre business, and is expanding rapidly," Gray acknowledges, "but fulfilment is still one of the cornerstones of our operation." Hence the new Doxford Park facility incorporates a substantial warehouse with scope for a full range of storing, picking, assembling, packing and despatch activities.

And 2Touch is in no mood to underplay these traditional strengths. "Our fulfilment business is well known," Gray points out. "We can demonstrate good practice, quality and depth of management control, which is shared among our various functions."

The big change is that the company can now offer a full range of services to clients. "They can take the whole lot, or just parts of it," Gray says. "There are real attractions for clients who like to have just one single point of contact."

He is very much aware, though, that the customer proposition has to be very different now from what it would have been ten or fifteen years ago. "In those days you could offer pre-configured 'packages' of services to customers. Nowadays you have to understand the technology of their systems as well as their business needs."

As a consequence, he says, there has been a change in the nature of the IT resource that fulfilment companies like 2Touch have to provide. "Once you needed analysts, then you had to have programmers, now you need people who understand things like remote support."

There is an upside to this change, Gray says. "We get a greater degree of empathy from customers now, because they see 2Touch as vital to their offer." But there is also a price to pay. "Customer expectation is a hundred times greater."

What is encouraging from all points of view is that in Gray's estimation, "clients are more and more interested in quality of service rather than just cost." The old "cheapest is best" philosophy is becoming much less prevalent, he says - especially among financial institutions, which represent an important market sector for the company. "Clients are less concerned if they're paying a few pennies more than rock-bottom rates. The issue is delivery."

That's no doubt why 2Touch mounts twice-yearly satisfaction surveys of its clients. And it must be getting something right, because according to Stuart Gray, "we always get the message that there's an integrity in our operations." He adds that during his tenure the company has re-negotiated about twenty contracts, "and we haven't lost any."

Immense range

So what kind of sectors does the company work in? They include retail, mail order, public authority, financial, charity, automotive and utilities. So in the warehouse you'll find an immense range of product including clothing, glassware, printed materials and houseware. Some is for outbound shipment, some is returned product awaiting reprocessing.

Its customer list reads like a roll of honour, including names such as Britvic Soft Drinks, Barnardos, The Direct Marketing Association, Imperial Tobacco group, Home Service Mail Order, NatWest, Oxfam, Royal Mail and Toyota (GB).

Its fulfilment capabilities include inward post processing (usually response management) and cash, coupon and token handling. It provides cheque banking and credit and debit card processing, and also holds cheque books for customers in order to provide consumer refunds.

The telephony capabilities are wide-ranging. On the inbound side they include dealing with consumer enquiries and complaints, plus response handling and mail-order processing. Outbound capabilities include both cold and "warm" selling, information-gathering and consumer surveys. For some clients the company also analyses the resultant data. The warm selling includes following up on mailings and "continuity selling" (contacting existing customers).

To set up this capability, the company installed a state-of-the-art telephony system, including Lucent switching and Noetica scripting tools.

Core skill

Inevitably, 2Touch has also expanded into the Internet world to complete its portfolio. "Our core skill is response handling," Stuart Gray emphasises, "so basically the Internet orders are simply channelled to us." However, the company also offers more dynamic involvement in the online process. For some clients it provides an automatic stock check and "bounce-back" advice of availability. It can also provide a "browse and speak" facility to talk clients through the purchasing process, supported by an on-screen client database.

A facility where Gray predicts growing demand is bulk emailing. And he considers bulk SMS messaging to offer even more potential. "Systems must be able to analyse the responses automatically because of the large volumes," he says. "The great attraction is the immediacy of the arrival of request and the subsequent reduced response time."

While 2Touch itself doesn't offer Web site design in-house, it works with a regular partner when required, and is happy to manage the process. "We can act as the prime contact," Gray says.

Like many companies in its field, 2Touch attaches great importance to providing a good working environment for staff. "You have to remember people have a life as well," as Gray puts it. In return, call centre staff are expected to be multi-skilled, and have to agree to job-sharing. "This makes it much easier to cope with peaks."

Also in common with many in the contact centre business, he says it is easier to find people able to take on inbound business than outbound. Still, the company's record of staff retention is good for the industry - around 3 per cent turnover per month inbound and 6 per cent outbound out of a total of 320. There's an ongoing training programme covering not just call centre basics, but also issues such as interaction skills and legal knowledge. "Good performers will find that the ladder of progress can be staggeringly quick."

When it comes to client satisfaction, Gray is emphatic that the focus of the business should be on customer service. "Strong relationships and a sound understanding are vital," he says. "And one of the keys is simply to tell customers the truth. If there's a problem, admit it. Clients will more often than not respect that openness and work in partnership with you to find the solution".

Clearly 2Touch has all the right ingredients in place to offer a pretty comprehensive menu of services to a range of customers. An ever-expanding client base across a number of different markets, and a 130 per cent growth in staff numbers over the past 24 months, are testament to that.