Jonathan Comerford

“Gave him my personal mobile. That’s how serious it was.”

Situation

A student lettings company asked for me by name. 25 new-build flats, no service on site, so a survey was needed. A previous BT installation had run badly late, so their confidence had to be rebuilt.

Task

Phone and FTTP broadband live before students moved in. One-month deadline. I wanted a better experience than they’d had last time.

Action

Needs analysis first, not price. Staged the installs across the week as each area was released after survey.

Coordinated the internal teams so nothing stalled. To avoid any gap in service I put standard broadband in first for stability, then upgraded five days later.

I made myself the single point of contact and gave them my personal mobile — not standard practice — plus direct lines into provision management.

Result

£36,000, plus £12,000 for the upgrade. Delivered on time. Trust restored, which won further business: 50 lines and broadband taken from a competitor on similar values. Two-year contract on FTTP, five-year on PSTN.

SetbackA street cabinet rejected every Infinity upgrade. I called Openreach myself and held for an hour until a BT Wholesale exchange error surfaced. Fixed in 24 hours.

She had called us many times. Nobody had asked whether all her lines were ours.

Situation

Savoury products manufacturer. Over 100 lines sitting with a competitor across depots around the country.

Task

Move every service to BT.

Action

Mapped their depots from public sources first. Opened with an account review, not a pitch.

Six objections, handled one at a time: free calls between sites, capped mobile rates, a better fix time, one bill, and one account manager instead of a new consultant every call.

Result

£180,000. Around 22% saved a year, and faster broadband on roughly 60 lines.

SetbackThe incumbent blocked the transfer, claiming no authority, then counter-offered 10%. She moved anyway. I ran the whole compliance process a second time.

Fifteen drivers were losing a day’s wages. I was not passing that to another department.

Situation

Taxi firm. Ten lines and two numbers taken over fraudulently. Sixteen hours with no calls coming in, and his customers going to the firm that took them.

Task

Get his calls back the same day. No escalation to a manager.

Action

Took ownership on first contact instead of transferring him again.

Raised a temporary call divert to his mobile so the business kept running.

Listened back to the calls, found our own validation error, and reported it.

Went to the chairman’s office to cut a ten-day ownership transfer down to 24 hours.

Result

Service restored inside 24 hours, both times. Ownership secured and the account watched afterwards.

SetbackIt happened again three weeks later. I called the other firm’s director myself, on BT’s behalf, and got an agreement that it would stop.

I was treating it as if it was my own business.

Situation

Start-up Indian restaurant and takeaway, one premises. The owner assumed he needed a line and a good number.

Task

Work out what the business actually needed, before it opened.

Action

Asked about covers, average order value, competitors nearby, delivery and payments.

Surfaced what he had not considered: a separate takeaway line so orders never hit engaged, a line for the card machine, Wi-Fi that pays for itself, and broadband to run the cameras.

Result

Four lines, broadband, a mobile and maintenance on every line. Five-year contract, three months of line rental free.

Situation

Seven product areas on one patch, including VOIP, lines, broadband, switch and SaaS.

Task

Win the business, then make it stick through adoption and renewal.

Action

Ran a 60/40 split between new business and retention rather than chasing logos.

Acted as the team’s Salesforce and Siebel gold user, so account data stayed clean enough to work from.

Result

Renewals held at roughly 87% across two, three and five-year contracts. Promoted twice.

Situation

Clinician-referred client. Out of work, high anxiety, several false starts already behind them.

Task

Re-engage into training and paid work, and keep them there.

Action

Onboarding assessment first, then weekly coaching on a self-managed diary.

Negotiated reasonable adjustments with the employer and coordinated with the DWP and community services.

Reported outcomes back to the referring clinician so the clinical and employment work lined up.

Result

Into work and still there. One of the 27% placed against a 15% service target.

Situation

Repeat tenancy breakdowns, each one ending back on the street.

Task

Break the cycle rather than rehouse and hope.

Action

Worked the cause, not the symptom, on a live caseload of 15 to 20 a week.

Ran the client support budget for the deposit, rent in advance and household goods.

Held the landlord relationship through the dispute instead of letting the tenancy fail.

Result

Housed and sustained. Part of 60 people housed in year one, with 85% still in tenancy.

Situation

Client on a court-ordered requirement. Substance misuse, unstable housing, live reoffending risk.

Task

Complete the treatment requirement and stabilise everything around it.

Action

Structured one-to-one and group work under Alcohol Treatment and Drug Rehabilitation Requirement pathways.

Worked alongside prescribing clinicians on medication and care-plan reviews.

Coordinated HMCTS, probation, police, NHS and social services, with full case records throughout.

Result

Treatment completed. Housed. Reoffending risk down.