This was the statement by the Executive Mayor of Tshwane, Solly Msimanga, during an oversight visit at the Centurion Customer Care Walk-in Centre in Centurion today. Mayor Msimanga was joined by MMC for Finance, Cllr Mare-Lise Fourie.
The Executive Mayor of Tshwane, Solly Msimanga, and MMC for Finance, Cllr Mare-Lise Fourie, today conducted an oversight visit at Centurion walk-in centre.
In so doing, the Executive Mayor and MMC examined some of the improvements made at the customer care centre in our mission to improve the experiences had by our residents in dealing with the city.
Msimanga explained that the role customer relations management is key to ensure that the customer’s expectations are met and delivered. “We have a mandate to ensure that focus is on the customer by taking strategic lead to improve the efficiency of customer relations in a coordinated manner through both our walk-in and contact centres”.
“Tshwane issues 800 000 invoice service statements to customers every month. We make every effort to ensure that invoices are correct. Disciplinary sessions for poor performing consultants is also in place in the form of counselling, coaching and formal disciplinary processes.”
During the month of July 2017, the City received 71 165 calls. 53 085 were answered and 17351 were abandoned. In August 2017, the City received 74 562 calls, 50 609 were answered and 22 545 were abandoned.
Abandoned calls can be attributed to sudden influxes of calls-especially on power outages, IT down times and intensified credit control actions.
MMC Fourie commented: “Research has shown that, despite the industry standard of 80% of calls being answered within 20 seconds, a significant number of contact centres are moving above that target.”
The City of Tshwane is happy to share that 85% of all queries and complaints are resolved on first contact. 90% of all enquiries are closed within one hour. Improving the degree of our customers’ satisfaction requires a collective commitment by the leadership and all employees. Only by asking, where are we going wrong, will we succeed in improving the degree of customer satisfaction” added Mayor Msimanga.
During the visit, Msimanga and MMC Fourie were informed of the five top enquiries that consultants deal with at the City’s walk-in centres on a daily basis. These are explanation of invoices and general billing information, printing of invoices, meter reading reports, water related queries and continuous data purification which is done on a regular basis to ensure accuracy in customer’s information.
Since taking office, the DA-led multi party administration has put the following interventions in place to better client services and ensure that at least 98% of calls are answered:
• Intensify monitoring sick absenteeism.
• Intensify agent and supervisor coaching.
• Ensuring that voice calls are prioritised over emails
• Implemented the minimum number of interactions (calls) per agent- target 50 calls per agent. the aim is to gradually increased it to
the international standard of 75 by November 2017.
• Daily monitoring by supervisors on their top and bottom performers
• Addressing staff not performing on daily basis through counselling
• Referral of a number of staff to occupational health practitioner for work fitness assessment
• Meetings with Unions held and performance presented and discussed, unions have committed to assist in addressing performance and
behaviour issues with members
• Training and development plan of agents and supervisors to be developed
The Customer Relations Management has gone through a number of changes to increase customer satisfaction, including the appointment of a Group Head who shares the passion for improving customer experience.
The planned 2017 Customer satisfaction survey will further provide guidance on how we deal with expectations and perceptions from our residents.