Maintaining customer loyalty is crucial to the growth of any business. It provides a reliable source of revenue and upselling opportunities.

Studies show that the power of brand loyalty is increasing, with 62% of previous customers more likely to purchase from their existing providers again, potentially at a higher cost (Cheetah Digital). By listening to your customers, understanding their needs and promptly addressing any issues they have, you build trust from the beginning and continue to nurture the relationship. The loyalty this creates enables you to reap benefits such as referrals, case studies, and testimonials that further enhance your brand.

We offer these three ways to ensure you can Be More Connected with your customers.

1:  Be More Available:

Offering round-the-clock support options in the event of any issues is a unique selling point. If this is not possible, then providing alternative means of contact and submitting enquiries outside regular business hours is still valuable.

With Evonex, the Hosted Telephone System fully owned by SCG, you have access to a variety of features that can keep your phone line open 24/7. Our user-friendly online customer portal and mobile app enable you to effortlessly redirect your main line calls to your mobile phone with a single click, even if you’re already out for the day.

Do you have employees working on different shifts or in multiple locations? With the Time of Day routing feature, you can easily set up automatic call forwarding to various handset extensions and mobile devices. This ensures that your staff can receive calls at any time and from any location, without any hassle. 

Our handsets are set up with Cloud-based technology, ensuring that your DDI is accessible wherever you go. With an internet connection, you can use your phone as if you were in the office, at the expected call rates. This has proven to be particularly helpful for customers with out-of-hour teams situated in different time zones, allowing them to reduce call costs while still providing customer support even when their UK office is closed.

2:  Be More Reliable:

In addition to increasing your level of availability, it is important to have a dependable communication solution that guarantees you will be accessible as promised. This is critical in establishing trust with your customers.

The term “uptime” is used to evaluate a provider’s service’s reliability, performance, availability, and quality. Essentially, it measures the duration of time that the provider’s service is functional and accessible to users. Conversely, “downtime” refers to the period in which the service is offline or not operational.

Almost everything within your organisation now depends on a strong, reliable internet connection and businesses often choose Ethernet connectivity to ensure consistent speeds and support critical applications. Ethernet eliminates the connection quality fluctuations caused by multiple users sharing the same volume of bandwidth, which is a common issue faced by broadband users. At SCG, we provide a wide range of connectivity services to meet your specific needs. By partnering with various internet service providers, we offer dependable failover services backed by a comprehensive SLA, ensuring uninterrupted business operations at all times.

3:  Be More Visible:

Aside from being easily reachable via your phone lines, it’s important to consider those customers who prefer to gather information electronically. This means your online presence is a key factor when connecting with your digital audience and keeping them up to date with your latest news, products and opening times.

Your web-based platforms play a vital role in informing customers about your shop front opening times and helpline hours. It can be frustrating for them to come across a closure notice or a “call back later” message. Displaying your opening hours clearly, especially on Bank Holidays, can make all the difference in retaining a customer’s business or losing it to a competitor.

For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), managing your presence on over 70 different platforms can be a time-consuming task.

Web Listings is an intuitive solution that syncs automatically across 50+ digital channels. It provides businesses with a toolkit to showcase and update their online information, making it easy to update your business listings across all platforms with just one click.

A powerful tool in helping you connect with new customers; Web Listings will get your business noticed. It offers valuable insights and analytics on how your business listings are performing, giving you suggested feedback while enabling you to monitor the impact of any changes you make. With real-time results, you can see exactly how your customers are finding you, from the number of clicks on your website link and phone number, to the frequency of your location appearing on search engines.  Connecting with new and existing customers is so much easier with Web Listings.

We make it simple and efficient to monitor and improve online visibility and increase availability with reliable and trustworthy solutions. Now you can Be More Connected with your customers, in a way you may never have been before.

Contact us today to take the first step, on 0800 090 1965 or sales@scgconnected.co.uk.

Even the simplest business model relies on multiple connections. It can often involve reaching out to attract new prospects, communicating with stakeholders to move them to the point of sale, and then coordinating delivery of your product or service.

Your ability to grow your business through these connections relies on the communications solutions you use, and having the right infrastructure in place that evolves alongside changing needs and priorities.

Connections across your business

In order to reach both existing and new business, you will need to engage with prospects across a range of different digital platforms such as your website, social media and email. Access to all these needs to be uninterrupted so you can maintain frequent contact and rapidly respond to any interest. The level of service you demonstrate at this stage is an indication of what future customers can expect, so any downtime can be very detrimental.

Once contact with a prospect has been made, you will need to coordinate your approach across your organisation; if you have a dispersed workforce, this could involve staff who are not physically present in the office. Can you easily reach colleagues when they’re working at home or out in the field? Do you have the ability to collaborate in virtual spaces, and hold online meetings? These are all factors to consider.

Additionally, you might need to consult with external stakeholders as part of supplying the finished product or service. Any orders to be placed with suppliers may have to be raised online, and if this is impeded it could potentially threaten customer delivery dates.

All of this highlights how important connections are; any disruption impacts the sales process and therefore business growth. First impressions are especially important, and it’s unlikely you’ll be given a second chance if this happens with new business.

So, if a business wants to continue to thrive and achieve success, what kind of considerations are necessary to ensure you don’t miss any valuable connections?

The right infrastructure for success

Every business is unique, and therefore the infrastructure you have in place must meet your individual needs. Does it have the right levels of cybersecurity? Since it’s highly likely you will be storing customer data, it’s vital that this is secure. Does it avoid congestion? If your business requires the transfer of large files, there needs to be provision for this to happen in a timely fashion, and without impacting other bandwidth-heavy activities such as video calls.

It’s important to remember that mobile communications are an extension of your infrastructure. With a dispersed workforce operating across different areas, using just one mobile network might mean connectivity is not always reliable. SCG allows you to mix and match both networks and devices to ensure you can provide the very best customer experience, no matter where your staff are.

Resilient communications

The last few years have seen seismic shifts in business communications, first due to the pandemic, and now because of the Big Switch Off.

The Big Switch Off signals the end of ISDN and traditional phonelines, and will also impact your internet connection if you still use ADSL or FTTC. This is an ongoing process of sunsetting legacy technology which completes in January 2027. The national stop sell in September 2023 means that copper-based services cannot be purchased or modified beyond this date. If you don’t have a plan to upgrade, it’s crucial that you start taking steps now; the longer you leave it, the more your business will be affected.

As technology continues to evolve, further changes to communications are inevitable. Your infrastructure needs to be resilient enough to withstand such changes, rather than having to make continuous alterations which cause upheaval and disruption. This resilience also gives you the flexibility to alter priorities as your business continues to develop, and expand it as it grows.

With the right infrastructure in place, you ensure that you never miss a connection. This approach maximises productivity and profit across your business, so it can reach its full potential.

We will help you Be More Connected. Contact us today on 0800 090 1965 or sales@scgconnected.co.uk for a free review of your communications infrastructure enabling you to achieve greater success.

IDEAFEST is an annual event designed to encourage entrepreneurial spirit, where students submit their best business ideas with the chance to win prizes and mentoring. 

Taking place on 26^th April 2023 and marking its 10^th anniversary, the event culminated in all applicants from across the Business School and the University of Reading being whittled down to five student teams for the final. 

These teams then had to present their ideas and field questions from a panel of judges including prominent business leaders, academics and previous IDEAFEST participants. 

Winning the Best Business Idea was student business Investor Pro Academy, an education platform and community designed to educate first-time traders and investors about stocks, cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens. 

SCG’s own Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Mark Shraga, presented a prize of £1,000 to Brandon Bradford, who led the student business. Commenting on the day, Mark said, “Congratulations to everyone that presented. There’s lots of advice we can give offline to help your business take the next step.” 

Second place went to student Nor El Islam Messedad, representing BloodMatch, a health-tech platform which connects patients with compatible blood donors. 

Third place was awarded to Fit Cookie AI, an application programming interface using artificial intelligence to provide personalised nutritional recommendations, led by Rosen Georgiev. 

Although all of us have our own unique way of answering the phone, it goes without saying that ‘hello’ is a universal option. However, it wasn’t the first choice. As communication rapidly progressed from the birth of the telephone, amongst those advances is an oft-forgotten precursor to ‘hello’. This lost phrase provides insight into how a current shift in communications technology could be an opportunity for businesses to achieve greater success.

The First Greeting

In 1876, new communications technology required new etiquette. Prior to the invention of the telephone, societal convention asserted that you didn’t address anyone directly without a prior introduction; there wasn’t a requirement for a word such as ‘hello’. This explains why the fateful line isn’t “Hello, Dr Livingstone”.

When Alexander Graham Bell patented the device in March that year (the credited inventor is still a subject of debate, with Bell, Antonio Meucci and Elisha Gray all in the running), he advocated the use of the word ‘ahoy’ or ‘ahoy-hoy’ as the first telephonic greeting. Already in common nautical usage, it originated from ‘hoi’, the Dutch word for ‘hi’.

It was Bell’s rival, Thomas Edison, who actually coined the word ‘hello’ as a method of initiating telephone calls. Prior to Edison’s adoption, its common usage was as an expression of surprise rather than a greeting. For context, think of the classic policeman impression.

What’s particularly interesting is the logic behind why ‘hello’ was mooted as an option; it’s here that history creates an analogy with the current state of the communications industry.

Business First

In 1877, Edison was in discussions with the president of the Central District and Printing Telegraph Company in Pittsburgh, the organisation prepared to introduce telephones into the city. At the time, Edison saw the device having application only for business, functioning with a constant open connection between both sides. As such, a method was needed for one operator to signal to the other that a message was imminent. Although the idea of a call bell was considered, Edison was confident that the word ‘hello’ was clear and punchy enough to get attention.

This triggered somewhat of a war for the salutation of choice, with Bell still favouring ‘ahoy’, and even a third option of ‘What is wanted’ briefly muddying the waters. However, it was all over by 1880 and ‘hello’ was the clear winner, appearing in operating manuals as the standard greeting. Edison was right, and perhaps more so than even he could have imagined.

Then and Now

The story of ‘hello’ demonstrates that technology drives change. It also reinforces that business is often a leading consideration, with the most to gain from it.

For anyone still using copper-based phonelines or ISDN, a similarly wide-reaching change is in progress. The process of switching off all analogue phone services has already begun, and will complete by January 2027. Although this change is happening over a longer period than the lifespan of ‘ahoy’, it shares similarities in that there is a compelling reason behind it, and an end result that benefits everyone. Just as ‘hello’ was initially proposed to improve business communications, the Big Switch Off provides a similar opportunity.

Like most things at the point of conception, copper technology was never designed to be the pinnacle of telecommunications backbone. The latest telephonic evolution doesn’t even require traditional cabling at all, relying entirely on the Cloud for its infrastructure. Hosted Telephony requires less equipment on site, saving on costly maintenance and upgrades. It offers the freedom to communicate when, how and where you want without any disruption, using anything from a handset, mobile or desktop app. That makes it perfect for another recent development, the rise of remote working.

The only aspect of this migration businesses must watch out for, as with all new technology, is how to adopt it without causing disruption. And SCG can help with that. There are a lot of things to consider, and every company is unique; we’ll discuss all your available options and ensure you’re able to say hello to both new and existing customers on the best telephony system for you. We even have our own Hosted Telephony System, Evonex, both in name and intent the Evolution of Customer Experience. A scalable, flexible and reliable solution, it delivers all the features you need to communicate across your business whilst increasing productivity.

Would anyone want to go back to using ‘ahoy’ as a greeting nowadays? I doubt it, and I believe it will be the same once we move away from copper wiring; an interesting anecdote, but a total impracticality for today’s business needs.

If you’d like help preparing your business for the Big Switch Off, or to discuss the benefits of hosted telephony solutions, please call SCG on 0800 090 1965. I promise we won’t answer with ‘What is wanted?’.

Mobile technology is far from new, and people have been adopting this mode of communication for personal and business use for many years. The main benefit is the flexibility to work and communicate remotely at any time. Mobile technology has faced increased demand for faster connectivity, clearer voice, and even video with ever-growing video conferencing demands.

However, the UK government has recently confirmed that all 2G and 3G network services will be phased out by the end of 2033. Furthermore, most mobile operators have announced plans to start switching off the networks far ahead of this date.

Firstly, why are these networks being switched off?

Currently, there are four generations of mobile communication networks – 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G. With the 3G network being released back in 2003 and 2G as far back as the 90s, it is no wonder these older generations are being evaluated and discontinued.

These networks have introduced mobile users to newer technologies, granting them access to further connectivity so they can be more connected with other users and services. So, advancing these features will only improve users’ efficiency and fulfill their communication needs.

Each generation of mobile connectivity takes up space on the radio spectrum, which is finite. By switching off older networks such as 2G and 3G, it allows mobile network operators to reuse their capacity for the more advanced generations. Phasing out outdated networks means future services can be strengthened.

How will this affect users?

If you’re using an existing device that runs 4G/5G, the switch-off will have very little impact on you. This means you can continue to use your device as usual with no interruptions or communication difficulties.

The 3G network will be replaced by the newer generations, meaning users will experience faster and more reliable connectivity. The only challenge users might face during this transition is an increase in 4G traffic, leading to congestion at peak times. However, this isn’t expected to impact the user experience for long.

If your device is not 5G or 4G compatible, you will no longer be able to access any data services, so you will need to upgrade. On EE, Vodafone, and O2 networks, you will still be able to make calls, and send and receive text messages until the 2G network is switched off at a later date. On Three, however, no 2G network is available; after 2024 you will need to upgrade to use any of these functions.

The Switch-Off timeline

The switch-off announcement revealed that the 2G and 3G networks are set to be fully switched off by 2033. However, individual mobile providers have already set their wheels in motion and have planned to bring that date forward. This means people and businesses need to start thinking about how this will affect them and how to avoid disruption.

Although subject to change, these are the current individual switch-off schedules:

Vodafone: 3G switch-off will start in February, with the entire 3G network being switched off by December. They currently have no plans to switch off 2G before the agreed 2033 deadline.

EE: 3G switch-off starts in early 2024, with plans to switch off 2G later in the decade.

Three: will switch off 3G by the end of 2024 (no 2G network).

O2: no switch-off plans announced yet.

How can SCG help you avoid any challenges?

When working with SCG, you don’t have to worry about changes to communications technology. We will be contacting all of our customers who will be affected by the upcoming switch-off, to discuss their available options and ensure they still have the right mobile technology to support their business needs.

We have full visibility of any new developments in the telecoms industry, and the ability to advise our customers on how best to navigate them. This is down to over 50 years of experience and our unique position in the market; these are the advantages of using SCG as a service provider.

Be More Secure in the knowledge that using SCG means that whatever happens, we will find the most efficient method to connect you to your customers, prospects, and staff in the ways that you need to. If you have any questions about the 2G/3G switch-off in the meantime or would like to discuss our business mobile solutions, please do not hesitate to get in touch – call us on 0800 090 1965 or email sales@scgconnected.co.uk.

Communication is the backbone of your business, and your telephony system is a critical part of that infrastructure. In addition to fulfilling your current requirements, you need to know that it’s robust enough to provide both continuous operation and the bandwidth to adapt as your organisation evolves.

While developing Evonex, our Cloud telephony solution, we wanted to directly address those requirements and prioritise the customer experience. It has been engineered to deliver all the features you need to keep in touch with your customers, prospects, and staff, offering outstanding reliability and flexibility, whilst keeping security at its heart.

To demonstrate the success of Evonex, here are five key reasons why it’s a truly robust Cloud telephony solution:

1. Tier 3+ Data Centres

Our multiple, always active, datacentre locations are all UK based each with multi-layered resilient architecture and triangulated public and private routing. Replication across all geo-diverse datacentres ensures customer account data is always synchronised throughout the platform. Sophisticated monitoring, diagnostics, and load balancing are all built into the core.

2. UK-based Development, Operations and Support Teams

Our teams are wholly comprised of our own people, and we employ all our developers, operations engineers, and support engineers as full-time staff. Regular collaboration allows us to enhance the product based on feedback from our customers. Agility and flexibility are fundamental to our core values, and they are essential in helping us stand out in an extremely competitive market.

3. Greater than 99.99% uptime over more than fifteen years of service

Our reputation for resiliency, reliability, and scalability is unsurpassed in the telecoms industry, and we intend to keep it that way. We continuously monitor, evaluate, and enhance our platform by investing heavily in high availability servers, switching, routing and firewall infrastructure.

4. DDoS protection and mitigation

Keeping one step ahead of potential attacks is critical and requires continuous assessment and diligence. In addition to our own highly resilient architecture, we also regulate traffic ingress to known certified, authorised and authenticated sources. To complement our internal security measures, we partner with industry leading Cloud-based DDoS mitigation.

5. Multi-factor authentication rolling out across the platform.

MFA security is becoming ubiquitous in the world of technology, and moving forward we consider this to be an essential part of our processes in reducing potential attack vectors, aiding risk mitigation, and contributing to preserving our reliability and reputation. Rolling out across the platform soon, MFA adds an extra layer of security to help keep customer accounts secure and further minimise potential fraudulent behaviour, misuse of our services, or disruption to your business.

We are committed to the continual improvement of Evonex, and this will be evident in the upcoming release of our Universal Client for Evonex. This includes the features you’ve come to expect along with an intuitive and simple user interface which maintains cross-platform familiarity across Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android, and any modern web browser.

If you would like to know more about our Cloud telephony solutions, please contact us on 0800 090 1965 or email sales@scgconnected.co.uk.

Schools are responsible for the wellbeing of their pupils. Although this has always been the case, the threats to student wellbeing have become increasingly complex and are no longer solely centred around physical health and security. As the internet has grown to become an integral part of education, this responsibility has expanded to encompass online elements.

The Department for Education states, “It is essential that children are safeguarded from potentially harmful and inappropriate online material”. This is a complicated undertaking because online protection needs to be much more nuanced, with management functions to reflect this. This is where content filtering comes in.

Content filtering defined

Content filtering blocks pupils’ access to predefined webpage content across the internet, with schools setting up parameters to determine what can and cannot be viewed. Content filtering differs from other filtering methods in that it can be used to block specific content on a webpage whilst still providing access to the page itself.

Education filtering considerations

Although the DfE states, “The appropriateness of any filtering and monitoring systems are a matter for individual schools and colleges, ” they offer guidance. In their ‘Keeping children safe in education 2023’ document, they outline the content that pupils should be shielded from, categorising it as follows:

• Content (illegal, inappropriate or harmful content)
• Contact (harmful online interaction with other users)
• Conduct (online behaviour likely to lead to harm)
• Commerce (risks such as online gambling and financial scams)

In addition to what to filter, the following considerations are highlighted:

• The age range of children
• The number of children
• How often they access the IT system
• The proportionality of costs versus safeguarding risks

The UK Safer Internet Centre suggests that schools should also consider “the ability to vary filtering strength appropriate to age and role”. This means that a suitable content filtering solution needs to be fully flexible, with the ability to segment pupils.

A balancing act

A school content filtering solution obviously needs to fulfil the criteria of protecting pupils, but at the same time, it cannot disrupt the learning process. The DfE warns that schools “should be careful that “over blocking” does not lead to unreasonable restrictions as to what children can be taught.”

There is also an aspect of self-learning involved and being overprotective can end up adversely affecting pupils. An Ofsted report from 2010 differentiates between managed systems and ‘locked down systems’; although the former still has inaccessible sites, there are fewer, and pupils are encouraged to take some responsibility for their own online safety.

“Pupils in the schools that had ‘managed’ systems had better knowledge and understanding of how to stay safe than those in schools with ‘locked down’ systems. Pupils were more vulnerable overall when schools used locked down systems because they were not given enough opportunities to learn how to assess and manage risk for themselves.”

This is another strong case for a flexible educational content filtering solution. This gives a school full control of what is and isn’t displayed, and the ability to adjust restrictions for individual pupils based on factors such as age.

An ongoing process

Once a school has selected an appropriate content filtering solution, there are a few further supporting steps to take. When it comes to staff training, it would be advantageous to roll this out beyond the IT team to ensure its overall effectiveness and a smooth learning process. The DfE suggests ensuring that “the leadership team and relevant staff have an awareness and understanding of the provisions in place”.

Parents and carers should also be informed of a school’s content filtering strategy; “parents and carers are likely to find it helpful to understand what systems schools and colleges use to filter and monitor online use”. This will help to make learning more seamless when pupils need to access online resources from home.

Lastly, employing an ongoing review process is crucial. Technology, and especially the online world, moves at an incredible pace which any related safety measure needs to match. As such, the DfE states that schools should “regularly review their effectiveness”. A filtering solution with reporting can be a great asset here, ensuring that you maintain a historical record and can monitor the effectiveness of any future changes.

How we can help

Working closely with schools across the UK, we have created a solution for safe and compliant internet usage, incorporating content filtering and technology requirements specifically for the education sector. This features the following benefits:

• Increased online safety and compliance with integrated Web Content Filtering delivered through us in partnership with Netsweeper- Netsweeper provides this service to 1 in 3 children throughout England
• More control with the ability to segment Internet users and proactively manage all LAN switches and WiFi access points
• Flexibility with online learning platforms and remote access to school IT resources from home
• Powerful reporting through an intuitive visual dashboard
• Peace of mind with Online Data Back Up and Disaster Recovery

Depending on your budget and operational requirements, we can also add additional connectivity functionality. This includes a comprehensive telephony system to maximise coverage across your school with an integrated lockdown solution increasing safety for students and staff. Every service we supply is supported by a 24/7 Service Assurance Team and a dedicated Account Manager.

If you’d like more information on our content filtering solution for schools, call us on 01256 391 046 or email sales@southern-comms.co.uk.