Lifting Lemon Since 2003

Contact centre startup finds its niche in lifts. 

by Emily Coxon

It was the summer of 2003: Tony Blair was in Number 10, a young Christiano Ronaldo made his Manchester United debut, Concorde took its last flight and SARS created panic in Asia (little did we know. . .). The banking crisis was still five years off, and Amazon was just a river in Brazil. But, that very year, two budding — yet charmingly naïve — partners in a small, industrial North East town set out to launch a fresh business before being an entrepreneur was made cool by Lord Sugar or any of the Dragons’ Den investors.

“Millions of lift calls have been answered, millions of engineers dispatched and lots of friendships have been made.” — Lemon CEO Martin Anderson

Martin and Lesley Anderson, the couple behind Lemon Contact Centre, were in their early 20s when they were introduced at a mutual friend’s birthday party. Their passion for business inspired them to start their own organisation from their garage, just like many Silicon Valley startups in the past. Armed with only a fax machine, a phone and a notebook and pen, they launched their round-the-clock call centre. The business name enjoys a tech link to Steve Jobs and Co.: The likes of Blackberry, Orange and Apple were all rampant at that time, but there seemed room for one more fruit, and so Lemon, headquartered in Stockton-on-Tees, was born.

The North East is famed for its call centres with their friendly employees with colloquial phone accents. However, it was the couple’s experience in telecoms and dispersed alarms that prompted the fledgling business to market its 24/7 call answering services directly to engineers. 

Despite the engineering focus, it was a family connection that prompted the move into the lift industry. A national company, also headquartered in Stockton-on-Tees, was looking to move away from its historic customer service supplier, and the team was introduced to Lemon by Martin’s father. Pickerings Lifts became one of Lemon’s first clients.

On the back of this success, further lift companies joined the client list, with Independent Lifts (now the team at Classic Lifts), Caltech in Scotland, Lift Able (now TKE Home Solutions) and Handicare increasing Lemon’s experience and reach within the sector. 

In following years, Lemon’s client base continued to expand. Lift companies large and small moved their out-of-hours call answering to the company. Some lift companies even deployed Lemon from the outset and flourished in doing so. Target Lifts is one such example. Today, Lemon manages customer calls for approximately 30 lift operators, and have become a leader in the lift call centre niche. 

CEO Martin Anderson said: 

“We’re now nearly 20 years in, and we’re still the go-to service providers for the lift industry. Millions of lift calls have been answered, millions of engineers dispatched and lots of friendships have been made. Like lifts, our business has had ups and downs throughout that time, but the bonds remain strong. Lift folk are a pragmatic bunch. They understand that some variables remain outside of your control and that end users can be demanding. The critical element is a passion for service, for the client and for doing the right thing.

“We now need to navigate the choppy post-pandemic waters, and there will be a need to bring in fresh talent to face the challenges of tomorrow. Tech will also play its part, and Lemon’s passion for providing reliable, professional call answering services will remain steadfast. It’s an honour to serve the lift industry, and we will never take that responsibility for granted.”