The First2HelpYou Lone Worker Service – An Interview with Alicia Mather

Alicia Mather is the Sales and Operations Director here at First2HelpYou and one of her responsibilities is ensuring that our lone worker service is one of the most comprehensive on the market.

Last week in our interview with David Atkins, he mentioned that the service is what makes First2HelpYou so special so we thought we would catch Alicia and ask her to expand on that…

First off, how long have you worked in the lone worker service industry, Alicia?

 

A long time! Before First2HelpYou I worked for another lone worker service provider and I loved the industry, the people we got to meet and the feeling that we provide products that really make a difference.

I’ve always strongly believed that good service shouldn’t end once a sale has been made and that looking after clients throughout the length of their contacts is important. It’s especially important in this industry as we provide a service that is vital, life-saving in some cases.

 

David mentioned last week that he thought First2HelpYou had a unique service, can you tell us a little bit more about that?

 

Dave is right, good service is the very essence of our business and it’s a value that I and the entire team really believe in.

Dave already mentioned that we’re unique because of our service and how comprehensive it is and that really is what we think makes us stand out in the industry. Lone worker devices are not a new or novel idea, improvements are made of course to the way they work but they all essentially do the same thing. First2HelpYou are unique because underpinning our KIT device or app is a service that provides everything that an employer worried about lone workers could ever need.

picture shows Alicia Mather from First2HelpYou at the 2018 Lone Worker Expo

Do you mean the alarm receiving centre?

 

Yes. We work exclusively with First County Monitoring who are experts in monitoring and responding to any sort of emergency or call for help. Our service is reliable, and everyone is trained to the highest possible standards.

When a lone worker presses the SOS button on one of our devices, they can be confident that action is being taken straight away to help them.

Isn’t that how every lone worker service works?

 

Yes, but it’s not just the response service that we think makes us unique. It’s the support and advice we also provide our clients. Like I said earlier, I really believe that good service doesn’t end once a sale has been made.

Our service is designed to support lone workers and those who employ them throughout the duration of the contract. We go the extra mile to make sure end users are thoroughly trained on how to use our devices, offering face to face lone worker training for each client and videos they can access online. We can follow that up with refresher training at any point during a contract or even design custom courses.

Image depicting an Alarm Receiving Center. First2HelpYou are BS8484 compliant providers of lone worker devices and services

Another step we take to ensure each customer receives a personalised service is to assign them an account manager. Personally, I think it makes a big difference having one point of contact and someone you can build a relationship with.

Agreed. What else do you do for your clients?

 

I think our customers are fans of the extra mile we will go to when it comes to saving them work, giving advice and being generally helpful.

For example, one thing we do, and this might sound a small thing, is to take over admin work for new clients. My years in the industry taught me that most customers don’t have time to make neat lists of all their lone workers, collect all the necessary data and then put it into a new solution. That’s why we do it for them. It really saves a lot of time and is one of the first big hurdles when it comes to implementing a lone worker service.

Having said that, clients are free to do the admin if they prefer. It is such a flexible service because we know that no two organisations are identical, so we want every client to have the right service for them.

Another area we focus on for our clients is device usage. We provide regular reports and help clients spot anything that we think may be an issue. Devices not being used in a particular area of a business, for example. We will then work with the client and their team to establish what the problem is and how we can fix it.

We are also quite flexible when it comes to building our service too.

 

That sounds great, so you can tailor the service to meet requirements?

 

More or less, yes. When a new customer comes on board, we get to know the first, what their concerns are, what they already have in place or have tried for their lone workers, and then build a service based around that.

We can adjust everything from device configuration and escalation procedures to reporting and training.

 

What about smaller companies?

 

Company size doesn’t make a difference, at the end of every device is a lone worker – someone who is relying on our service. All our clients receive the same service, no matter what the size of their business is.

We aren’t about selling big numbers of devices and then dropping off the radar. We have a duty to care about the people who use our lone worker service.

Great! Where do I sign up?

 

Take a look at one of our guides on choosing a lone worker service here first and then get in touch with me or any other member of the team by emailing sales@first2helpyou.co.uk or calling 0333 7729401.

You can also find me on Linked In.