Hever Castle and Golf Club enjoy better communications thanks to Cavendish
Dating back to the 13th Century, historic Hever Castle has famously been home to the second wife of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn. Today Hever Castle hosts a mixture of tourist activities as well as offering corporate hospitality and private events and weddings. Set in the grounds of Hever Castle is the 27 hole Hever Castle Golf Club which offers both Championship Golf as well as corporate hospitality and a stylish wedding venue.
The Problem
Despite being in the same grounds, the Castle and the Golf Club are a mile apart, so effective communications is essential. Having suffered for some time with different phone systems and in some cases two telephones on one desk, which could both ring at the same time and voicemail with two different companies, the Hever Castle management team decided to update the phone system.
Choosing a Supplier
Having decided to update the phone system, Golf Club Manager, Jon Wittenberg researched what suppliers other clubs had used and went out to tender.
Talking about the tender process, Golf Club Manager, Jon Wittenberg said, “We received information from a range of suppliers. Cavendish was the company that seemed to listen the hardest during consultation and didn’t try and sell us the earth. Their previous Golf Club/Service Industry experience was a clear advantage over its competitors. They recommended a Mitel solution and were able to demonstrate it in action.”
Choosing a Solution
Jon Wittenberg and Hever Castle Manager Jane Bradley both commented on wanting a system which would allow extension dialing between the two sites. They also liked how the Mitel Application Suite (MAS) logged calls for client billing and cross charging, as well as the call attendant features which directed callers effectively to the correct department.
The Installation
Some optical fibres were already installed on site and Cavendish engineers migrated the system across to the Mitel solution with IP extensions. Commented on the training, Jane Bradley said, “Training was very good, Cavendish were always on the end of the phone and trained everybody.”
The Benefits of the New System
Both Jon Wittenberg and Jane Bradley were very pleased with the new Mitel system and how it had freed up the administration team from some of the phone calls they would have otherwise had to manage manually.
Jon Wittenberg added, “In the service industry, being able to answer phone calls from key customers by name using the Mitel phone system, really helps build a good relationship.”
Jane Bradley went on to say how the many other features of the new system had improved productivity in the Castle Office such as dialing from screen, being able to see missed calls and making conference calls.
In Summary
In summing up the Hever team’s experience of working with Cavendish, Golf Club Manager Jon Wittenberg said, “We enjoyed good contract throughout the process which has given us the reassurance we have made the correct choice. We needed Cavendish’s response time has been very good.”
Jon Wittenberg went on to say,
“Cavendish have also offered additional solutions. For example when snow storms struck in 2010, no staff could get to work for over a week, which was not good for productivity. With the Cavendish, solution we could effectively route all our calls to staff at home.”
Jon finished off by saying,
“We would be happy to recommend Cavendish to other golf clubs.”
