I am keen to update you on how 9 is continuing to respond to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Hopefully, you are keeping well and have also been able to reconfigure your business to adapt to the new situation.
The teams at 9 are now working successfully from home and have been able to carry on, pretty much as normal. Inevitably our customer service teams are handling a significantly increased number of calls, so please bear with us if our on hold times are longer than normal.
A few other issues to be aware of:
- We have some new solutions available to help your business adapt to home working and retain inbound numbers and basic call handling capabilities. Please call us on 0800 970 2999 and select Option 3, to find out how we can keep your teams in contact with each other, suppliers and customers from home, without the need for new hardware, or an engineer visit.
- BT Openreach and other infrastructure providers are having to adapt to the requirements for social distancing and staff shortages caused by illness or isolation, so this this means that new installations are generally not feasible, unless they can be completed without an engineer visit. Openreach are prioritising work for critical infrastructure, so normal repair and provisioning work is unlikely to be scheduled, except for vulnerable customer groups.
- BT has a number of support operations in India, which are now in lockdown. There will be an inevitable impact on capability and service.
- We are aware that your business may be under strain, but we need you to continue paying your invoices to avoid the suspension of your vital communications and IT services. There is no upstream financial support from the major network operators, so we have no flexibility around payment terms. You may want to investigate how the measures recently announced by HM Government can support your business through this crisis.
- The engineering team at 9 is continuing to support customers remotely, especially with requirements arising from the transition to home working. Again, we are handling a significantly increased number of requests, so please bear with us and we will help you as soon as we can.
We will continue to update you as the situation develops, but in the meantime, please stay safe and do call us, if you need our help.
James Carroll
Managing Director
