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LATEST NEWS |
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 Telstra listens to customers, adds contact centre jobs
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Telstra has added more contact centre staff and changed their performance targets in response surveys that show customer concerns over automated call menus, contact centre waiting times and pricing.
Chief marketing officer Kate McKenzie told a business audience in Melbourne this week that the telco had added more staff to handle complaints and had raised the focus of resolving customer queries first time. "We're removing measurements on the length of time our consultants spend on the phone with customers in some centres, replacing them with measures focused much more strongly on resolving the customer's complaint or concern," McKenzie said.
More than half of the Australians surveyed use mobile phones more than land line phones, and 63% said they would like to be able to access the internet anywhere, McKenzie said. She said Telstra has 10 million unique users of social media which was rapidly changing and would force Australian businesses to change their business models. "Few companies are yet using top social media platforms in a strategic or integrated manner across multiple channels and I think it's only a matter of time before everybody has to get into this space." |
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 NZ PM slams offshoring
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New Zealand Prime Minister John Key says companies choosing to outsource their contact centres overseas "are making the wrong choice".
Key told NZ media pointed to Canon's recent decision to open a regional contact centre in New Zealand, saying it is a positive move to open centres at home because it creates employment for people of different age groups and ethnicities. The Canon centre will be operated by NZ company Datacom and service NZ and Australian customers.
Canon's country manager Mike Johnston said superior customer service was a priority and a point of difference for the company. "It makes good business sense to manage the contact centre in house, rather than sending it offshore," Johnston said. |
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Dillwynia agents working from the right script |
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The contact centre team at Dillwynia Correctional Centre outside Sydney is earning praise for its outbound scripts.
The centre staff have regular scriptwriting meetings and know all too well about tough customers and rejection. "Our scripts always need fine tuning and we often work on them as a group. Then they go back to the customer for approval," said Corrective Service Industries overseer Catherine Quinton.
But Quinton said the women inmates who work as agents are more and more priding themselves on their creativity. "The girls have done a two-day selling workshop run in-house by CSI," she said. "We get them to do the scripts and they role-play in the way they'll approach customers. They have to think of questions from customers and put themselves in the customer role. They enjoy it." The process is also proving highly successful in building self esteem and training the women for post-release employment. |
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 Call Design donates in flood devastated Manila
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Donations from contact centre specialists, Call Design, has assisted housing rebuild projects in Galwad Kalinga, the Philippines, after devastating floods caused by Typhoon Ketsana in September 2009 left nearly 1,000 people homeless and over 300,000 homes destroyed.
With both money and personnel being donated, Call Design decided that it would match staff donations on a 'one for one' basis. Managing Director Miles Stanton joined the Call Design Manila team to break the dirt on the first of 2 houses being built in the Galwad Kalinga region as a result of these donations. "The people of the Philippines are gentle and inviting people, you could not in good conscience do anything less than want to help them," Stanton said.
"It was great to see our donations directly benefiting the local community" commented Jaime Sese, Country Manager for Call Design Philippines.
If you would like to help, the Red Cross is also accepting donations via www.ifrc.org. |
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Trans-Pacific subsea cable to boost local connectivity |
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Telco services company Pacnet and Pacific Fibre have announced plans to jointly build the Pacific Fibre cable to Australia, New Zealand and the US.
The city-to-city, subsea fibre optic cable is estimated to cost US$400 million and will boost connectivity between Sydney, Auckland and Los Angeles. "As Australia and New Zealand look towards deploying national broadband networks that will raise broadband penetration and access speeds, this new cable that we are building with Pacific Fibre will deliver the enhanced international connectivity that is essential to support these broadband initiatives," Pacnet CEO Bill Barney said.
"This investment is also an integral part of our overall strategy to expand our subsea cable infrastructure into the Australasia region, to complement our pan-Asian and Trans-Pacific network coverage and boost broadband connectivity into Asia," Barney said. | |
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