Health Shield

Health Shield is a non-profit making friendly society that has over 130 years' experience of healthcare provision, specialising in Healthcare Cash Plan schemes for companies and individuals throughout the U.K.

Nearly half of Health Shield's sixty six staff members work from their home office. With these remote workers looking after sales, the company relies heavily on good communications via telephone and email link.

"The most important requirement for us was to have a communications supplier which offered a reliable and readily available customer service and could deal promptly with enquiries," says Gwen McAndrew, Sales and Marketing Office Manager at Health Shield. "We had been with Orange for three years but felt that it had lost sight of its customers. We were not able to give the Orange technical support contact details to our sale and marketing staff, which meant that it took ages to solve any problems that came up."

Timico provided Health Shield with an alternative to corporate indifference. The sales and marketing team requested an email solution similar to the Blackberry they had as Orange customers but Timico introduced them to Microsoft Push Email using Windows Mobile. The team now uses HTC Titan devices and appreciates that this solution delivers much more than just email.

"Having a BlackBerry is like carrying your Outlook around with you. Having a Windows Mobile enabled device is like carrying a smaller version of your laptop with you," enthuses Gwen.

But it's not all about having the right hardware. Health Shield had left Orange because of its poor level of customer service. In Timico, the company had found a communications services partner with an ethos of high levels of customer service and a desire to help its customers to operate more effectively. Gwen happily reports that her dealings with Timico Customer Service have been superb.

"Everyone is nice and friendly and always comes back to me within the agreed timescales. The billing breakdown is easy to understand once it becomes familiar and any billing enquiries have been resolved quickly with credit notes being issued when appropriate," she says. "Our account manager is great. She is not pushy with trying to sell us more things but keeps us updated on new services and doesn't schedule any unnecessary meetings."

Gwen McAndrew acknowledges that Timico were not necessarily the cheapest mobile data service supplier they could be with but wouldn't change for the world.

"Timico is definitely cost effective - the customer services team frequently goes above and beyond. Overall we are slightly better off. We weren't looking for a price-based deal, what was important was the help and support," says Gwen.

"Communications are very important to our business so it's vital that we are kept abreast of future changes and developments within the industry," continues Gwen. "Timico provides us with everything we require today and we might very well be interested in the Timico VoIP solution in the future."