Q1 2021

34 | Q1 2021 Nov20353 Offering New Initiatives bOnline Ltd is dedicated to making sure small businesses have the same advantages as larger corporations by providing a full range of IT infrastructure products and low-cost cloud services. Following the firm’s well-deserved success in the SME Business Elite Awards 2021, we got in touch with Casey Solomon to find out more. Since its establishment in 2011, the firm’s founding mission has been to make the digital transition for micro/ small businesses as seamless and affordable as possible. To begin, Casey provides a brief overview of the firm and offers more insight into its clientele. “Here at bOnline, we are passionate about helping micro-businesses transition to the ‘digital-first’ world with fibre connectivity, our VoIP (cloud), phone system (bOnline phone). Together, we aim to give small and micro- businesses the same enterprise privileges (i.e. technology and support) with a simple and seamless customer experience, from the sales process to onboarding and customer loyalty, without compromising our near wholesale prices. Customer experience has always been the driver of our product development, technology, and operations. After starting with affordable and professional websites, we then launched into telecoms with business broadband and phone lines. Within two years we had connected more than 10,000 businesses allowing them to operate for less. “Typically, our clients tend to be UK small and micro-businesses who are underserved by the telecom industry. To approach our clients, we offer tailored solutions that are affordable and able to fit into their business model. For example, our VoIP system, bOnline phone, is perfect for just one user and can be easily operated by the business owner and scale to 10+ users.” In its attempts to distance itself from other competitors in the telecommunications arena, the firm focus on delivering excellent customer service at all times as Casey goes on to explain. “Naturally, our customer service helps set us apart from some of our closest rivals. This is reflected by the fact our services are consistently rated with five stars on independent review sites such as Trustpilot and Google Reviews. In comparison, our competitors will struggle with this and are rated as ‘Poor’ or ‘Bad’.” With its staff members playing such key roles in the success of the firm, bOnline is keen to support them wherever possible as Casey points out. “Employees are at the heart of our business so by providing weekly training sessions which cover subjects ranging from wellbeing, healthy eating, and stress management, we have their best interests at heart. Additionally, by running product knowledge sessions we ensure all our staff have a broad knowledge of company-wide products.” Although the firm has reached a number of milestones since its inception, remaining the first choice of UK small businesses remains an ongoing challenge for the team as Casey elaborates further. “With bigger corporations in the industry like BT, we’ve been working hard to offer micro-businesses an better alternative. While challenging the telecom sector, we have been able to offer new initiatives and affordable pricing for our clients.” Finally, Casey discusses the firm’s approach to recruitment before outlining some of its plans for 2021 and beyond. “When it comes to recruiting, we have a meticulous approach where all new hires must show the qualities of our ‘bOnline DNA’ and be a great culture fit for our company. Recently, we have initiated a new criteria such as communication and listening skills, teamwork, creativity, learning abilities and cross-skilling etc. Naturally, this includes an interview with our CEO and three senior managers to assess collaboration and self-awareness. Ongoing training and coaching programmes also focus on developing these strong skills which are paramount to achieving our excellent customer service. Beyond this, having built a nurturing environment where all employees are encouraged to learn about other departments, staff members are commonly promoted and moved to other teams where they would best excel. “Moving forward, we will be continuing with the roll-out of our new VoIP system, bOnline phone, which is specifically designed for small business owners with less complexity and lower costs.” Company: bOnline Ltd Contact: Casey Solomon Website: www.bonline.com