RESPONSE celebrates 20 years in business

Friday, 06 May 2011 12:56

RESPONSE is celebrating our 20th Anniversary

RESPONSE is today (Wednesday 4 May) celebrating its 20th anniversary. To mark this significant company milestone, RESPONSE invited Glasgow Warriors to join in the celebrations at its head office in Tyndrum Street. Scotland internationalists John Barclay and Richie Gray joined forces with Canadian try-machine DTH van der Merwe to take part in a tug of war challenge, taking on members of RESPONSE’s leadership team, with the support of three members of staff.

Having begun with only 20 agents in 1991, RESPONSE has grown to employ over 1800 staff spread across three sites in Glasgow. Agents have answered a wide variety of calls over the last 20 years from a broad range of accounts. These have included the Tsunami disaster helpline, the National Lottery, the Scottish Football Association and the Ryder Cup amongst many others.

In that time the company has dealt with over 120 million calls which equates to approximately 500 million hours of talk time.

The RESPONSE business plan was formulated as a result of the Taylor Report which meant all football stands had to be seated.  With many such developments funded through the sale of debentures, Rangers and a host of other Premiership clubs needed a call centre to handle these enquiries, which provided RESPONSE with the foundation for its growth.

Pursuing an aggressive growth strategy, RESPONSE acquired Thus Contact Centre Services in 2004 and specialist business process software business, Carnegie Information Systems in 2005. This acquisition strategy continued in order to enhance the core business, whilst diversifying into new markets to strengthen its offering and in 2008 RESPONSE acquired Inisoft Ltd a leading software company which supplies clients across 3 continents.

In 2010 RESPONSE introduced a new leadership team led by Brian Bannatyne, which drew upon expertise from both within and outside the contact centre sector. This provided a unique blend of perspectives on the challenges of delivering outstanding customer experiences. The business strategy focuses on building rewarding relationships with employees, clients and clients’ customers. This significant change has helped to challenge the historic perceptions associated with the call centre industry.

Brian Bannatyne, managing director of RESPONSE said: “This is a huge milestone for us and I would like to thank all in RESPONSE for their continued efforts to develop the business, especially in recent years when everyone has been experiencing a tougher economic climate.

“We recognise our importance to the local area. We have invested a lot of time into our employees providing them with the opportunity to excel in the work place and have also established superb working relationships with our clients. RESPONSE is a dynamic and progressive business and I look forward to helping steer it forward so we can further build upon our successes to date.”

Glasgow Warriors and Scotland Internationalist John Barclay said said: “On behalf of the players and management we would like to congratulate RESPONSE on its achievements over the past 20 years and also for the continued support it has provided us through their sponsorship of the club.”

Images available on Flickr