As the UK's number one student insurance provider, Endsleigh typically has a rush of new policy enquiries and renewals at the beginning of the academic year, causing a surge in inbound calls and web site traffic.

The Cheltenham-based company was founded to serve the student market and now offers a wide range of financial services, including home, travel and motor insurance. Four in five of its policy enquiries now begin on the internet, yet inbound phone calls remain a critical part of Endsleigh's approach to customer service.

Virgin Media Business now provides all of Endsleigh's 08-number inbound call services, meaning it carries all of the insurer's customer communications and can increase capacity as needed to cope with busy sales periods. The network already ensures all web site enquiries are fulfilled thanks to the failsafe design of a fully diverse managed internet and security service at both main Endsleigh sites, coupled with a 100 Megabits-per-second (Mbit/s) National Ethernet circuit between the Gloucestershire headquarters and a site in Burnley, Lancashire.

"Insurance is highly competitive and Endsleigh experiences high seasonal peaks in enquiries due to the nature of our customer base. While many of our initial enquiries are made online, the phone is also an important frontline service both for sales and policy changes. Virgin Media Business now ensures all of our customer contact offers the same high level of dependability," said Jason Collins, infrastructure project manager for Endsleigh.

"This time of year is absolutely crucial for our business. Our services have always been extremely popular with students and first impressions really count. Having resilient telecoms is the cornerstone of us being able to serve customers quickly and give them the best possible impression of how we do business," he said.

By using the Virgin Media Business network for all inbound 08-number calls, Endsleigh has also been able to reduce the costs associated with its former 08 services from BT and offer cheaper call options to its customers.

"Businesses that serve their customers using telecoms are realising that our network is a faster and more sophisticated alternative to BT's and the other regional networks," said Paul Lawrence, head of business markets for the south west at Virgin Media Business. "Fibre optic networks are more able to cope with surges in demand from customers and any changes to telecoms services that are needed in order to plan for seasonal swings in sales."