Broadband and voice solutions help New Zealand escape rooms thrive

A passion for puzzles

There's nothing puzzling about loving puzzles, especially if you've ever experienced the joy of escape rooms. For over six years, Escape Artists Christchurch has been bringing people together in these fun, challenging environments. "It's more than just a game," says Director Dan Varcoe. "It gives you that feeling of collaborative achievement. When you bring groups of people with their individual ways of thinking together, that feeling of winning is so awesome – you can't replicate it any other way.

Dan and his wife took their passion for puzzling and opened Escape Artists in 2015 – the first to be established in Christchurch. Their prediction that it would take off was right, as they went from a forecasted 50 guests per week to that many in just one session. With a recent move into a brand-new premise in Christchurch's CBD, they have now doubled in space, running six rooms at a time, and opening seven days a week from 10am-10pm.

Striving for a seamless customer experience

Early on, Dan realised that in order to provide an excellent customer experience, he needed to ensure the business's basic tools were fit for purpose. To enable him and his staff to maintain high levels of service even as the company grew, he needed flexible, easy-to-use telecommunications solutions.

"We are fully reliant on the internet for a good customer experience. Every step along the way, there's a connection to our telco solutions that can't fail," says Dan. Without functioning internet, staff cannot speak to customers, book them in, run the rooms, or even take the team photos at the end.

To fit this tall order, Escape Artists chose Voyager Internet for their broadband and voice needs.

Choosing the right tools

When starting out, Dan was admittedly unsure what the best solutions would be. He did his due diligence, however, and came to understand the ways in which business broadband is vastly different to residential. "I came to understand that what's key with business broadband is the priority service and support, especially as provided by Voyager," says Dan.

Some of the Christchurch-based Voyager team enjoy an evening at Escape Artists.

For their phone system, Voyager set Escape Artists up with its flagship business VoIP solution, Voyager Voice. Initially unaware of the advantages VoIP provides over traditional phone systems, Dan spoke with Voyager experts about the ways in which it could benefit them, particularly as a growing company. "It's been awesome to just plug in our phones and have them ready to go, especially being able to add another user without re-wiring or anything," says Dan.

Along with the flexibility of being able to take work calls from home, which he can do simply by taking his desk phone home and plugging it in, Dan also appreciates the custom call flow that Voyager Voice has enabled Escape Artists to create. After speaking to Voyager's experts and describing the type of customer calling experience he wanted to provide, the Voyager team designed a flow that helped him achieve just that.

"It was made easy for me," Dan laughs, "though I don't know how easy I made it for Voyager!

Business, made personal

For someone that puts as much care and value into creating an excellent experience for his own customers, it is only fitting that Dan holds in high regard the personal support he receives from Voyager. Since all Voyager staff – from helpdesk through to sales, engineering, and beyond – are locals based right here in New Zealand, it's easy to get real, human help on the line. "If I ring a company, I just want to be able to speak to someone, the same way we treat our customers," he says.

Along with reliable, easy-to-use telco tools, it is this personal service and support that has kept Escape Artists on board with Voyager from the start, and see the partnership continue as Escape Artists keeps thriving.

For a personalised, free consultation with one of Voyager's business experts, get in touch on 0800 477 333 or email business@voyager.nz. To see the full suite of business solutions from Voyager, click here.