Our new TKC Voices series goes behind the scenes with the people who keep our operation moving. This month, we sat down with Ricky Georgiou, Control Operations Manager, to explore life inside our Command Centre.
Tell us about yourself and what you’re responsible for.
I’m Ricky, Control Operations Manager at The Keyholding Company. I’ve been in this role for just over a year and, day to day, I’m focused on three things: the team, the data, and the processes. How are we performing? Where can we improve? And is there a smarter, more technology-driven way to get there?
The Command Centre is the heartbeat of TKC’s operations. Walk us through what a typical shift looks like for you.
Every shift starts the same way: by digging into what happened overnight. In a 24-hour operation, that could be anything from a standard alarm activation to a major access issue. I need to be on top of the details before the day begins.
From there, I jump on a call with our Account Managers to dive into updates for our largest clients. If an urgent issue landed overnight, I want us to catch it and respond to it early.
Come the afternoon, I’ll review our latest call data, run a training session with the team on a newly built process, and then start asking the harder questions. Where are our current systems slowing us down? Is there a technical fix? If I can nail it down, I’ll start building it out.
Your team are taking roughly 40,000 calls a month, across 50,000 properties, with a 30-second average answer time. What does it take to maintain that?
Collaboration, above everything else. We are constantly looking out for each other, spotting where someone needs support and stepping in before something becomes a problem.
It’s also about making sure everyone understands why the work matters, not just what to do. Behind every call is a real person, often in a stressful situation, who needs a fast, reliable response. That’s not a small thing. When the whole team feels that responsibility, it drives the kind of hard work and attention to detail that those numbers demand.
Technology is changing a lot about how the Command Centre operates. Where do you see the biggest impact?
Quality assurance. Previously, checking call quality meant manually combing through records and sampling a handful of calls per person. With 40,000 calls a month, things could slip through the cracks.
Now, our AI-assisted system flags calls instantly based on how they were handled and how the customer responded. That’s drastically cut the time we spend hunting for areas to improve. Instead, we can react in real time and get in front of issues before they become patterns.
Long term, I think routine calls will become increasingly automated, freeing up the team’s headspace for more complex problems. When a high-stakes incident lands, you can’t automate the empathy and critical thinking this team brings. That’s where the human element is completely irreplaceable.
Some of our biggest clients have dedicated teams following entirely bespoke processes. What does that level of service actually involve?
For clients of a certain size, a shared environment doesn’t work. They have their own processes, their own terminology, their own way of doing things. A dedicated team means their calls are always answered by people who know them, know their language, and deal with everything their way. It feels less like outsourced security and more like an extension of their own team.
If you could spend a week in any other role at TKC, what would it be and why?
Honestly? I think I’d choose CEO. I’d love to see how the biggest decisions in the business are made. How do you weigh up huge competing priorities? What does that decision-making process look like?
The Transformation team is a close second. They are constantly pushing boundaries, finding new ways to use technology to redefine what’s possible for TKC as a business. That’s the kind of energy I like to be surrounded by.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given, professionally or personally?
Something Abi Shuttleworth, TKC’s Group Managing Director, once said to me has always stuck: it’s easy to think departmentally, but wherever possible, think company wide.
It sounds simple, but it changed how I approach everything. Time you invest outside your own remit still moves the whole business forward, and a stronger business lifts every part of it, yours included. Whenever another team needs a hand, I’m there.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself.
I’m in a German Netflix documentary that was filmed here, in the Command Centre!
One of our clients featured in a documentary about the night-time ecosystem in London and, because we operate as their Command Centre, the crew came here to film, and I was on camera for the day.
My speaking role lasted all of two seconds, and it’s dubbed over in German. But it still counts.
