December 17, 2001
By Lucille Davie
"I LOVE people complaining - I get a rush," says shift supervisor Mervin Louis at Johannesburg's newly-opened call centre in Constantia Kloof, Roodepoort, about 30 kilometres west of the city centre.
The Jo'burg Connect call centre became operational on 1 December and callers need dial just two numbers for help with emergencies (375 5911) or municipal service complaints (375 5555).
"Sometimes I wonder how I do it, but I love it," continues Louis with a smile. He says that there is a technique he uses with callers, which he teaches to call operators as well. "You must acknowledge that the customer is upset but don't try and explain why he couldn't get through (if that's the problem), just indicate that you are there for them. Then empathise, use their name repeatedly and sort out the problem."
Already people have got to know about Louis and his love of complaints. A call comes through and the caller asks to speak directly to Louis. Within minutes Louis has the details of the problem and is faxing the caller his electricity bill so that he can pay it before going on holiday.
The call centre is buzzing: it is staffed by 24 people, rotating every 24 hours in 3 shifts. Although there have been complaints - mainly about delays in answering time - there were eight complimentary letters received within the first week, says Philiswa Dhlamini, head of Communications at Jo'burg Connect.
"A standard waiting time for calls to be answered is 20 seconds. At present our response time is 1 minute 35 seconds and our service level is 80%," she adds. It depends on peak times, Dhlamini says, for instance, lunch times are busy times, or outage times, when up to 20 people can phone for the same electricity power failure.
The call centre handles calls in two ways: all revenue complaints - water and electricity, rates and taxes - go through to another section in the centre and are dealt with by people with expertise in those areas. Other complaints like faulty robots are given a reference number then sent through to the Johannesburg Roads Department. It doesn't end there - those reference numbers are followed up until the complaint is finally sorted out. All calls are taped in order to check details in case of disputes and to give feedback and coaching to call operators.
"From 1-7 December we received 2 347 calls. Our object is to minimise sending the call elsewhere, and to let the customer know what is happening at all times," adds Dhlamini.
Operators receive several weeks' training to get their "telephone air ticket". This implies that they "have nice manners, speak clearly, are computer literate, can empathise, are inquisitive and fast thinking, don't personalise a problem, are proactive and don't make a customer look stupid".
Operators are encouraged to speak the language of the complainant, in a further effort to deal with the problem efficiently.
The office hums with the polite "How may I help you?" responses of the operators, who sit behind navy blue separating boards, punching customers' information into their computers. With matching navy blue carpets and pleasant earth-colour walls, the atmosphere is relaxed but busy. A notice on the whiteboard reflects the happiness of the supervisor: "Hi guys, you are really making a difference. Another compliment. Well done."
Upstairs the atmosphere is different. This is the room that handles the emergency calls. There are five operators who work 12-hour shifts - two days, two nights, then four days off. These operators get a month's training which includes a basic ambulance course (BAC) to enable them to take callers through basic medical rescue procedures.
The room hums to the urgency of "Please state your emergency". They sit in front of three monitors: one to give them incoming information, another to give the status of calls currently running and which vehicles have been despatched, and a third a mapping screen, to show where the caller is calling from.
Operators here redirect accident calls with injuries to the emergency medical service operators next door to them, or accidents with no injuries to the metro police department.
A problem that operators have to tackle is hoax calls. "We get about 15-20% hoax calls a day," says operator Matlading Sebei. "They are usually from children and we point out to them the seriousness of them blocking the lines for real emergencies," he adds, taking a fourth hoax call from the same number.
Twelve hours in front of three monitors with an earphone around the head makes for a long day, but Sebei says that "even if you get busy you can't get stressed or tense, you've got to stay calm".
Next door in the despatch centre things are not so calm. Shift supervisor Piet Olivier complains that the "emergency room should have at least 12 operators working the phones instead of five, which means that my staff of 10 per shift are having to do three people's jobs".
Olivier says that things are not working as smoothly as they should be because of this staff shortage. "My staff are under pressure and we don't want to let the public down," he says with concern.
Dhlamini says: "We are busy training and recruiting new staff which should overcome these problems."
Operators in the despatch centre have advanced rescue qualifications and can take callers through the procedure when a patient is having a fit, for instance, until the ambulance arrives.
"Sometimes we have 3-4 DOAs (deaths on arrival) a day. But generally we deal with accidents, collapses through heart failures or old people falling, domestic accidents like falls from the sixth floor of a building, shootings and stabbings," says call operator Molly Thobejane.
With emergency calls the operator stays in contact with the caller until the ambulance arrives, keeping both parties updated on the progress of the situation. "I answered a call of a known cardiac patient who had had a heart attack at home. The patient was unconscious, with no pulse and no breathing. The caller was doing CPR (cardiac pulmonary resuscitation), and as soon as the emergency services arrived they tried to revive the patient, using drugs and machines but it was too late, the patient couldn't be resuscitated," says Thobejane.
She adds: "It is sometimes bad, it hurts, but you have to go to other calls, you have to try to cope, to reassure yourself and carry on."
So if you have a city complaint, the call centre is waiting for your call, and if you are not satisfied with the operator's response, ask for Mervin Louis, he loves complaints.
