How Leifheit Belgium Professionalized Its Telephony with Fonzer
From household hero to telephony upgrade
Leifheit is a European A-brand that helps millions of households with smartly designed solutions for cleaning, laundry care, and kitchen tasks. From the sales office in Aartselaar, Country Manager Belux & Head of Country Cluster Belux-France Anne Coen leads the commercial strategy for Belgium, Luxembourg, and France.
In that office environment, a lot of communication takes place by phone every day with retailers, distribution partners, and consumers, making reachability directly impactful on brand experience. Fonzer became the driving force behind a more professional, flexible, and better scalable telephony landscape.
About Leifheit Belgium and Anne's role
Leifheit Belgium operates in Aartselaar as the local sales office of the international Leifheit Group and is responsible for distribution and commercial growth in Belgium and Luxembourg. From this entity, a compact and dynamic team builds the brand position across multiple categories, from drying racks and rotary dryers to floor cleaning and kitchen tools.
As Country Manager Belux & Head of Country Cluster Belux-France, Anne Coen translates the international strategy into concrete growth in Belux and France and is also part of the global sales team. She safeguards both commercial strength and operational efficiency, with telephony being one of the pillars of customer contact.
Situation before Fonzer: fragmented telephony and missed opportunities
Before the collaboration with Fonzer, telephony at Leifheit was partly fragmented across different devices, landlines, and mobile numbers that were managed differently per team or person. This made it difficult to keep an overview and to follow up incoming calls efficiently, especially during busy periods.
Follow-up in case of absence proved difficult: there were no tailored response messages and the overall flexibility of the system was limited. As a result, calls were sometimes lost, while telephony for a consumer brand often forms the very first real impression for customers and partners.
"For a brand with a strong consumer connection, that carries weight, because telephony is often literally the customer's first impression."
Why Leifheit chose Fonzer
The reason for change was the need for a modern, scalable solution that fits a region where speed, multichannel service, and flexibility are crucial. Telephony had to evolve with the commercial structure and align better with how the team works today, both in the office and on the road.
When looking for a new solution, Leifheit focused on reliability, clear reporting, flexibility, simple administration, integrations, and a support partner that actively thinks along. Ease of use and a healthy price-quality ratio were also decisive, especially in an SME environment with many different retail channels.
"For us, Fonzer offered the best combination of functionality and personal support. The solution felt modern and future-oriented."
Implementation: smooth transition with hands-on support
Fonzer's implementation went smoothly: number porting, call plans, and the practical rollout were closely monitored and clearly explained. As with any migration, a few teething issues appeared, but these were resolved quickly thanks to a combination of remote support and on-site assistance.
MyFonzer now gives the team insight into call volumes, waiting times, and missed calls, while the helpdesk responds quickly to questions or issues. Collaboration with the Fonzer team is experienced as direct, engaged, and flexible, with short response times.
"At first it took some getting used to with the headsets and other software, but with help from the helpdesk and on-site assistance, this was resolved quickly."
How Leifheit uses Fonzer today
All employees in Aartselaar work in an open-plan environment, where incoming calls via the central number first reach the reception employee. That person transfers where needed, while direct calls continue to exist in parallel for specific contacts.
When the reception employee or a directly called colleague does not answer, the call is automatically forwarded to the rest of the department so a colleague can immediately take over, including via shortcut keys. This reduces the number of missed calls and keeps reachability high during office hours, even under peak load.
Key Fonzer functionalities for Leifheit
For Leifheit, several Fonzer functionalities have now become indispensable.
- A central, shared contact list that can be expanded and contains both general contacts and personal favorites, immediately available in the softphone.
- Flexible call routing that allows incoming telephony to be set up or adjusted easily, for example when teams change or during exceptional staffing situations.
- Hands-free calling via headsets, with the caller appearing on the computer screen and employees able to click quickly to transfer or take over.
- Public holidays, weekends, and closing hours are automatically linked to appropriate absence messages.
- Smart and practical integration to open the door remotely and automatically.
- Reporting tools that map call history and provide insight into volumes, waiting times, and missed calls.
Efficiency, reachability, and costs: the results
Since Leifheit started working with Fonzer, there have clearly been fewer missed calls thanks to automatic forwarding and the ability for colleagues to take over smoothly. Reachability within agreed working hours and days is automatically defined, which creates more calm and clarity for both employees and customers.
More automation also means greater time efficiency: processes run more smoothly and the team is less dependent on manual solutions or ad-hoc forwarding. In addition, the telephony bill has dropped, making the total solution perform better both operationally and financially.
"More automation means greater time efficiency. We also have a lower bill."
AI today and tomorrow at Leifheit
AI functionalities such as transcriptions, summaries, and Fonzer's Tringer Virtual Assistant are currently used more ad hoc by Leifheit. The local organization indicates that AI certainly offers future potential, for example for first-line questions, order status, or FAQs, but that it is not a top priority at the moment.
At an international level, projects are underway to further explore and roll out AI application possibilities across the group. This aligns with Fonzer's clear strategy to place AI telephony and virtual assistants at the center of the evolution of business telephony.
How telephony feels for Anne today
Although Anne herself mainly calls via her mobile phone because she often works on the road or from home, she gets a clear picture of the office impact through her team. The general impression is that telephony now feels much more reliable and is better embedded in daily operations.
"Today our telephony feels much more reliable: I know calls are automatically handled, colleagues can take over smoothly, and we are less dependent on manual solutions."
What type of company would Leifheit recommend Fonzer to?
Leifheit would primarily recommend Fonzer to companies seeking more efficiency at a fair price, regardless of their size. Especially organizations with a broad customer base that want to optimize their telephony without becoming too dependent on external parties benefit from the platform's flexibility and scalability.
"Fonzer gives us the certainty of a professional, flexible, and scalable telephony solution that simply works, exactly what you need in a fast-evolving environment."