October 20, 2004
By Anish Abraham
TELEPHONES are ringing off the hook after South African Tourism relocated its various call centres to Johannesburg, adding to the city's label as the call-centre hub of the country.
In a move to consolidate the three centres it had in Cape Town, Germany and the US to deal with European and American markets, SA Tourism has launched a single call centre based in Woodmead.
The initiative is part of SA Tourism's mandate to increase foreign tourist arrivals, money spent, length of tourists' stay as well as addressing issues of geographic distribution and transformation in the tourism sector.
Theresa Bay-Müller, SA Tourism's manager for e-business and research: Europe, is co-ordinating the call centre for the first two months: "SA Tourism put out a tender for call centre operations, which was won by Call Centre Nucleus (CCN) for a period of three years."
The centre has 17 operators who attend to enquiries from English, German, French, Italian and Dutch customers who want more information about travelling to South Africa as a chosen tourist destination.
Marlon Samson, call centre manager at CCN, says one of the reasons they won the contract is the company's Customer Performance Operations Centre accreditation. The Customer Performance Operations Centre is an US-based organisation that certifies the levels of service, quality, and efficiency.
Bay-Müller says SA Tourism had been working for a long time to consolidate its call centres. "If you don't have a centralised database, you don't know exactly what type of information people are looking for," she says, adding that SA Tourism works from a consumer-driven perspective.
The call centre will operate throughout the day, seven days a week, and is designed to handle in excess of 5 000 telephonic enquiries, as well as facsimile and e-mail enquiries, a month. Calls are routed via 26 lines from 16 countries including the US, the UK, Australia and others from mainland Europe.
"Ultimately we would like to be handling in excess of 10 000 calls a month," says Bay-Müller.
The call centre's capacity will be enhanced by the addition of Portuguese and Mandarin speaking call operators from November and Spanish-speaking operators from April 2005.
It is currently the only call centre in South Africa to handle inbound calls in more than six languages.
Operators at the call centre undergo an extensive training programme that includes communication skills, product training with regards to South Africa and an introduction to core markets as defined by the Tourism Growth Strategy.
Bay-Müller says the most common queries to call centre operators include entry requirements, access with regard to flights, transport options within South Africa, where to get accommodation and - especially - more information on the Kruger National Park.
"Many callers are independent tourists, who don't come in groups or as part of tour packages," she adds.
There are an increasing number of calls from within South Africa. Samson says many are in response to the SABC television tourism programme, Sho't Left.
Jonathan Hackner, marketing director at CCN, is excited at prospects for South Africa in the call centre industry. He says there are currently around 80 000 people employed throughout the country by call centre operators.
"We work actively to promote South Africa as a preferred outsourcing destination," remarks Hackner. South Africa has a larger call centre industry than most countries from Europe, which Hackner attributes to low cost of labour.
"We are competing with over 20 countries for work, the main competitors being India, the Philippines and now countries from Eastern Europe," he says, warning that the current strengthening of the rand against major currencies, restrictive legislation and the cost of local telecommunications are negative factors.
The benefits for clients who choose South Africa for their call centres include modern infrastructure and technology, and good training for the operators. South Africa's geographic position also makes it easier for European companies to base their call centres here.
"The American situation is different because of the time difference," says Hackner. Call operators in South Africa have to start work at night - day time in the US.
For the first three months, CCN will report on a daily basis to SA Tourism and will then pass on data on a monthly basis, with quarterly reviews.
Shardla Reghunan, call centre leader, says: "Most of the traffic volume that we get is from Germany, so we have three German-speaking operators to cater for that." She adds that it is company policy to hire mother-tongue speakers.
Bay-Müller adds: "It's unbelievable here, people are so passionate about selling their country."
For more information call the local Tourism Information Hotline on 083 123 6789.
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