Moneypenny CEO on returning to the office and plotting further US growth

Joanna Swash, Moneypenny CEO

If you had asked Moneypenny boss Joanna Swash what was keeping her awake 18-months ago, it would have been finding room for the 1,000 plus staff at their campus style headquarters over the Cheshire borders.

Fast forward to 2021, and it’s a different story.

The business, like many, has had to become completely agile – within three weeks of the initial lockdown, the company had successfully set up all its staff to work from home – with little disruption to clients.

And with plans to return to the office with a hybrid work model because “not everyone wants to work from in the office full time,” Swash is no longer worrying about adding another wing to their  100,000 sq ft base.

“I’d lay away thinking about how we were going to fit everyone in,” recalls Swash.

“Working from home has changed that because  not everybody needs to be in the office.

“Personally, it’s allowed me to work more flexibly and still prove I can do a great job in the process and the business doesn’t fall apart.

“And actually, I can have my cake and eat it to a degree as I get to see my kids in the day and that has been priceless.

“I think this way of working, not just for women but for everybody, makes work more sustainable.”

Wrexham-based Moneypenny was founded by Ed Reeves and Rachel Clacher in 2000 as an outsourced telephone answering service, mainly servicing the SME market.

Today it manages more than 20 million customer communications for over 21,000 businesses in the UK and the US, from SMEs to large corporates including those in banking, insurance, professional services, manufacturing, and retail, providing live chat, telephone answering services and digital and outsourced switchboards.

It has also made several acquisitions both in the UK and internationally having acquired Atlanta-based VoiceNation and Ninja Number only a month before the pandemic.

Swash was recruited as Moneypenny’s first salesperson 16 years ago. At the time, she was running her own small business selling laser printer cartridges which she admits did not go well.

“It was so boring and so niche,” Swash remembers.

“My biggest client hadn’t paid me. I was importing and the US dollar exchange rate went the wrong way. I also had a small baby at home and my mum said to me, ‘go get a proper job until you figure out what to do.’

“I didn’t think I was very employable at the time, but Ed and Rachel took me on.”

For Swash, who grew up in Mold, North Wales, it’s still the best move she made. Having left college, she decided to join NatWest on a management programme but realised she didn’t want a career in banking and left to launch her own small business.

“I never thought I’ll stay at Moneypenny for long – it was meant to be a stop gap before I found something else,” she admits.

“But within Moneypenny I felt like I was able to create and grow my own small business. I had so much autonomy and it worked. Also being able to trust in the product meant you never had to sell anything, instead you evangelised.

“I’m still here because I love it. The business changes every six months as technology and needs change, but people trust us to take their phone calls, and that’s what matters.”

Swash was appointed CEO five years ago – just in time for the big move to its very cool head office rivalling the likes of Apple and Google and boasting its own village pub – which Swash is looking forward to reopening – and treehouse!

Turnover in the last four-years has grown from £19m to £50m in 2020 with ‘strong growth’ projected for 2021.

Swash also played a key role overseeing the company’s entry into the US market, as well as subsequent private equity investment by ECI Partners in 2018 to accelerate Moneypenny’s UK & US plans for expansion and acquisition.

Under her leadership, which Swash describes as ‘open, honest, and authentic with no ego,’ Moneypenny has grown to become the go to outsourced communications provider.

She passionately believes that this business success has been down to not only the ability to constantly adapt and innovate, but also due to the happiness and wellbeing of staff which has allowed the company to ‘survive and thrive during the pandemic.’

“Culture is so important,” says Swash.

“When I joined, I couldn’t believe how nice everybody was and that’s what I’ve been so careful to maintain. Now we have got 1,000 people the challenge is always to make them feel that they are part of that family.

“It’s easy to cut corners when you grow and dilute that family feeling, so I’m careful not to compromise.”

Asked about her own journey to the top, Swash says becoming CEO was never the ambition.

“I believe that if you can do something good and you do it well, the progression will come.

“I’m ambitious but I didn’t aim to be at the top. I aimed to grow the business and I aimed to create products and services that potential customers and our existing clients would want to buy.

“I aimed to create an environment where people felt safe and secure, and it just so happens that as part of doing the right things, I got the top job. It was never the big goal, but I’m very much a believer that if you can do it then why wouldn’t you?”

The last 12 months has also seen Moneypenny enter one of its busiest periods with the company recruiting 350 new staff since March last year to keep up with demand which has come from all sectors.

Swash says: “If you look at periods of change or disruption, business leaders tend to take a step back and look at how to behave differently.

“They embrace change or they are much more willing to go and try something different or embrace technology they might have considered too risky previously.

“We saw this during the financial downturn and again during the pandemic where business leaders have decided to change the way they do business.

“We’ve found that we have taken more calls from existing clients, we’ve taken more live chats and there has been a real shift to digital communications and customer service especially in the evenings when people are sitting back at their desks as they might have taken the afternoon to go for a walk or home school their kids.

“That whole shift between work and home has been reflected in the introduction of the digital channels such as the live chat.

Joanna Swash, CEO, Moneypenny

“It’s one of those times of significant change and as people start to rethink their office, their switchboard requirements and live chat has really come into play.”

Looking to 2021 and beyond, Swash remains confident of future expansion with plans to accelerate growth in the US where it has recently opened a 35,000 sq ft facility in Atlanta where it employs 200 staff and is currently recruiting.

“Thanks to an excellent management team, we have had a good year and we want to do more of the same.

“We’ve opened a brilliant office in the US, which was facilitated through Facetime, and my plans are to maximise the US market, which is five times bigger than the UK, so that’s key.

“I want to leverage innovative new technology, such as the Vpods, which is the virtual reception offering contactless check-ins.

“There’s also huge opportunities with live chat which is growing 60 per cent a year.”

She added: “It’s so important that businesses have got the right communication channels that their customers want to use.

“There’s no longer a one size fits all approach; we need to be agile and we need to be really responsive.”

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