June 10, 2003
By Tendai Dhliwayo
JOBURG CONNECT, the city's call centre, has dealt with more than 1.6 million calls since its inception 18 months ago.
The call centre, has grown dramatically over the 18 months and is now a fully operational facility. "During the first year the call centre has grown from strength to strength," Joburg Connect said in a statement.
Management of Joburg Connect had implemented certain changes, including employing more staff to handle the volume of calls. The emergency call taking section now has 40 staff members. These changes had "an important stepping stone in our quest for premium customer service", the statement said, adding that the improvements "had a particularly positive effect in the revenue call taking division, as well as cutting down on the time for an agent to respond to the call".
The initial teething problems that had dogged Joburg Connect were common to any new business venture, said communications head, Kgamanyane Maphologela. The call centre experienced problems such as an excessive number of calls, a high abandoned rate, technical instabilities, and low staff morale. Maphologela said: "As in any business, it is necessary to have a settling down period."
Joburg Connect had cut down the abandoned calls rate and now responded to calls much faster. "The time taken to answer calls should be no more than 30 seconds," the utility said. "In the most recent months we have proved that this can be attained." Statistics released by Joburg Connect show that for the last week of May, emergency calls received totalled 29 035 of which 26 455 were answered. Of these the average waiting time was 6 seconds. For the whole month130 126 calls were received and of those 115 842 were each answered within 6 seconds.
"Indeed our customers must come first, otherwise our existence is meaningless," said a statement by Joburg Connect.
To improve the service further all call agents would be receiving on-going training. All prospective new staff members would be required to undergo an assessment test, and once people were employed they would undergo two-weeks of in-house training and learn the basics of call taking functions - emergency systems, first aid, map reading, keyboarding, basic computer skills and medical terminology.
After the basic course staff would receive on-the-job training and ongoing assessments would be done to monitor progress. Trainees were expected to answer and record all calls, obtain critical information and pass it along to the appropriate communication officer for dispatch, Joburg Connect said.
Some Emergency Call Taking Centre (ECTC) employees were presently undergoing a four-week advanced training course at the Wits Technikon. This was, said Joburg Connect, in order to empower staff on emergency related courses as well as to help call takers know the procedures if "customers make an out-of-the ordinary request".
The advanced training would help staff take down vital customer details and help with emergencies such as how to dispatch ambulances and how to monitor the condition of patients over the phone while paramedics travelled to the scene of an accident, said the company statement.
The call centre is divided into two divisions:
- Care Connect: 011- 375 5555, for all council enquiries and complaints (customer relations and revenue).
- Emergency Connect: 011- 375 5911, for emergency and life threatening calls only, ambulance, fire, metro police and traffic. (Emergency call taking centre).
