The Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) has extended its call centre hours and is now available between 8am and 7pm to deal with queries.
The CIPC says in a statement it is “committed to continuous improvement of service delivery and to meet customers' expectations”. The statement, issued by commissioner Astrid Ludin, indicates the call centre extended its hours yesterday.
“The extended hours of service are geared to afford customers improved access to our contact centre and to manage the high volumes of calls,” says Ludin. The longer hours will apply until the end of next month, she adds.
The CIPC has been dealing with a large backlog of name reservations and company registrations.
In July, it had a queue of over 30 000 applications, a number that was growing as more firms applied to reserve or register names. By the end of August, this list had been trimmed to 6 712, Ludin has said.
In addition, it has been battling with a high number of calls and was unable to attend to each query. In August, 45 488 calls came into its call centre, but only 21 268, or 45%, were answered.
Ludin said the call centre still requires attention, even though its performance has improved. She added the CIPC is exploring outsourcing its call centre functions, and a decision will be made soon. The office previously indicated capacity needed to be doubled.
The CIPC came into being in May when the new Companies Act came into effect. It is the result of a merger between the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office and the Office of Companies and Intellectual Property Enforcement.
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