Business “transformed” by relocation to Yorkshire

Yorkshire is the place to be for straightforward, friendly and professional customer service.

That’s the conclusion of EITI, one of the UK’s leading interpreting and translation companies, who relocated to Howden, East Yorkshire, two years ago.

Speaking at the launch of EITI’s half-year report for 2003, managing director Carolyn Burgess said that the move to Howden from the south-east of England had been crucial to the company’s success.

“You might think that the old rule ‘location, location, location’ wouldn’t apply to a company that does most of its business over the telephone and internet,” said Mrs Burgess.

“However, all the evidence we have shows that our relocation to Yorkshire has transformed our business, especially when it comes to customer service.”

Mrs Burgess used statistics from EITI’s half-year report to support her claims, in particular the results of a customer satisfaction survey.

“More than nine out of ten customers rated all aspects of our service as excellent. Significantly, not one single customer rated any aspect of our service as either fair or poor.

“For a company undertaking around 2,000 interpreting and translation assignments every month, we think that a ‘perfect’ record for customer service is an astonishing result.”

The half-year report also shows that EITI’s turnover has grown by 33% in the last 12 months, leaving Mrs Burgess in no doubt about the importance of the ‘Yorkshire factor’.

“All the people working at our operations centre in Howden have been recruited from the local area and it’s obvious they have a natural talent for customer service.

“When we ask customers to describe our style of service, the words which keep coming up are straightforward, friendly and professional. We firmly believe that this is a result of being based in a part of the country where the term ‘customer service’ still has a special meaning.”

EITI provides interpreting and translation services to more than 500 organisations throughout the UK, including the NHS, the police service, local government and a wide range of businesses, law firms and charities.

The company was based in Slough until July 2001, when it relocated all its operations to Bridgegate in Howden.