In many cases the phone system would lose people or would hang up on them.

"In extreme cases people would be put on hold for 20 or 40 minutes and we wouldn't know they were there. And sometimes the system would hang up on them and some funny voice would get on the phone and say 'we're all busy now, call back later'", said Ken Dawes, Accent's CEO.

It eventually took six years, five telephone systems or variations, three customer services managers and an expenditure of US$400,000 (US$382,000) before a working solution was found.

Window of opportunity

Accent Blinds was founded by Dawes 23 years ago together with his wife, mother and a business partner. His aim was to be the "best" blinds manufacturer in the Hills area, a collective term for suburbs in the leafy, hilly district in North Western Sydney.