About Kane International

Kane International has dominated the manufacture and supply of hand-held exhaust emissions testers in the UK and globally for 60 years. The family business pride themselves on providing award-winning, world-class technical customer service.

Jonathan Kane, CEO of Kane International passionately believes that "excellent customer service sets his business apart from the competition"

The Problem
Kane International were looking to grow their customer service team. However, they were struggling to find the right capability at the right cost at their Hertfordshire HQ.

Increasingly they were competing for talent with high paying London firms.

They needed experienced Customer Service Representatives who would embody Kane’s ethos of “professional empathy” and who were committed to customer service excellence

Philip Judd, Senior Manager at Kane, was averse to outsourcing customer service due to poor prior experience. He especially did not want to lose control over this key part of his business and compromise Kane’s hard-fought reputation.

The Solution
Kane International were interested in piloting Potentiam's proposition of an "insourced" solution offshore that Kane controlled, fully supported by Potentiam’s local HR and talent acquisition

Most importantly Kane felt in control of the selection of their team and management of their staff and were assured of the quality control so critical to their competitive advantage.

"Initially we worked with Kane on a strategy to scale their company. In deciding on the best team design we reviewed a range of location options based on capability, availability, cost, and cultural fit," explains Charles Fenton, Director at Potentiam.

Initially they opted to pilot two Customer Service Consultant roles in Potentiam’s Cape Town office.

Once Kane and Potentiam agreed on the correct strategy, the talent acquisition team got to work sourcing the ideal candidates for Kane.

Philip explains, “The talent acquisition team are so efficient and responsive, they really understood the market and how to find the best team to match our specific requirements.”

It was important that candidates ascribed to the ethos of the company. “They didn’t need to know all the answers about our products, which comes with time and training. What they needed was a professional empathy, a willingness to be helpful and take personal accountability for resolving our customer’s issues.”

The Results - 12 months on
“We have a 94% success rating on Trustpilot. You can’t fake those kinds of reviews,” says Phillip. It was vital that whoever they employed bought into that concept of a “world-class company with world-class customer service. The South African team has made a meaningful contribution to our overall success".

Potentiam’s expertise and deep knowledge of offshore locations helped guide Kane in their decision making. Each location has its strengths, and it was important for Kane in the initial stages of offshoring to be guided on the best location for their offshore team.

“We were impressed with the level of capability of Potentiam’s HR team. Their local expertise meant that we always felt in control and fully supported in a country 9,000 miles away. In fact, our Cape Town team just feels like an extension of our Hertfordshire based team"

The success of the Customer service team in South Africa has meant that Kane are expanding the team to nine staff and adding staff in procurement and finance. Surprisingly, Kane are even looking to hire Sales and Marketing staff in 2022, which was originally unthinkable.

Moreover, they are reviewing alternative Potentiam locations. Kane find the language capability in Romania appealing to expand their European business. India is appealing for roles where they can find the right capability at an extremely attractive cost.

“As we continue to grow, we know we need more resources. We were not finding the right talent locally, so we knew we had to take a chance with offshoring, and we did that with Potentiam. It's paid off,” says Philip.

Conclusion
Phillip admits he was reluctant to offshore initially, “Potentiam changed my mind. Our Cape Town team is working so well, they really are a part of the Kane family”