Volkswagen Financial Services (VWFS) helped
collect £110,000 for Children In Need by opening up its Milton
Keynes telephone hub as a call centre for the charity.
Starting from 7pm on Friday evening 150 VWFS
staff who had volunteered to man the phones, several dressed in
pyjamas, took over 3,400 calls until 12.30am on Saturday.
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Mike Graham, spokesperson for VWFS, said that
though phone lines normally close at 7pm at the call centre
“between 5 and 7pm we would expect about 100 calls.
“On a typical day over five and a half hours
we would expect around 1000 calls into customer services, so the
Children in Need night really was a high call volume.”
VWFS staff also raised an additional £8,259.85
from raffles, bake sales and other events during the day, including
employees attempting to guess how many balloons could be stuffed in
an Audi R8, VW Golf, Seat Exeo, Skoda Yeti and a VW Transporter
van.
Donations included £900 from a veterinarian
who had worn a kilt for an entire week and the first phone call the
centre received from a pub was at 7.15pm. “That’s pretty early for
what we were expecting,” joked Graham.
Lisa Stacey, joint-managing director of
Volkswagen Financial Services, said; “Since it started, the BBC
Children in Need appeal has helped raise over £600 million for
worthy causes and everyone at Volkswagen Financial Services is
delighted to have had the opportunity to help make this year
another success story.”
It was 627 balloons, by the way.
richard.brown@vrlfinancialnews.com
