BASF Coatings Ltd is part of the multinational chemical company BASF. Globally BASF has over 95,000 employees, business partners in over 200 countries and more than 150 production sites.  The coatings division, BASF Coatings Ltd, manufactures Industrial and Automotive coatings and employs 180 people across three business units.

Ingrid Newton is the HR Manager with sole responsibility for HR related matters, and as the only HR professional managing three business units, she has a demanding work load. Explaining the benefits of outsourcing the reception Ingrid said, “Moneypenny allows our employees to concentrate on their core activities rather than answering general switchboard calls. We can rely on them to screen calls and know that anything important will be directed to us. We have confidence that all calls will be handled professionally

A major plus is that Moneypenny weed out any sales calls and I think it’s hugely underestimated how much time these kind of calls can take up. We have a strict policy to only accept sales approaches in writing because otherwise you could spend all day dealing with unwanted calls. For example I receive a great many sales calls from recruitment agencies but Moneypenny filter them out and ensure that we are free to concentrate on what is important.

Moneypenny has developed a highly advanced contact management system which helps the receptionists provide the most efficient service possible. No matter how many employees there are in a company, the receptionist can see the diary of the person being called, the details of each employee plus notes about the individual’s preferred call handling method. The system also recognises different numbers and will flash up an alert accordingly, which means that Moneypenny can answer the phone in different ways for different numbers. The Moneypenny receptionist answers the phone with a different greeting.

Typically outsourcing is also motivated by financial considerations and it’s certainly cheaper to outsource all or some of the reception function than to employ a dedicated in-house receptionist. Ingrid Newton is convinced that outsourcing their reception has been a positive move, “For HR, it’s just one less issue to think about. The employees are pleased that they are not being constantly interrupted and can get on with their main function. Moneypenny really work as an extension of our business and answer the phone as if based in our offices, at times you can forget that we’ve outsourced anything!;