Service levels at the AA`s largest Emergency Rescue Service Call Centre in Johannesburg have improved significantly in recent months following the implementation of a sophisticated R5 million call centre by Dimension Data.
Barney Mostert, AA`s CEO, says anyone who phoned the AA`s Johannesburg centre during the December holidays -- and again over the Easter break -- would have been amazed at the difference.
In January the AA placed an order with Dimension Data for the award-winning Customer Interaction Centre (CIC) solution to handle all emergency roadside calls for the AA`s Gauteng-based members, as well as its 60 corporate clients and their customers nationally. In addition, emergency medical calls for all AA customers are routed to this 130-seat call centre.
"We opted for the CIC solution because it not only meets our exact needs, but is also one of the most cost-effective, yet technologically advanced communications convergence tools on the market. In addition, because it`s a modular system, integration time is significantly reduced -- and we were facing huge time pressures to ensure that the new systems were in place before the Easter holidays, one of the AA`s busiest service periods.
"Teams of Dimension Data engineers, network specialists -- our computer network had to be upgraded -- programmers and our own call centre and training staff worked closely throughout the project to ensure a smooth roll-out of the call centre and back office telephony systems which included the installation of an Ericsson MD110 PABX.
"Thanks to extremely tight project management and commitment from the team, the 3am cutover at the beginning of April was completely transparent to our national membership base.
"The CIC call centre platform has already produced substantial efficiencies in our national roadside assistance service and is handling around 7 000 to 9 000 inbound and outbound calls a day with ease. When fully integrated with our new computer systems, the CIC platform will provide us with truly world-class customer focused systems," Mostert adds.
The AA has embarked on a master plan to make the organisation more commercial, customer focused and profitable. The call centre is just one area of technology and service upgrade.
According to Jos'e Alvares, account manager at Dimension Data Interactive Communications, further roll-out plans of the CIC system include the employment of advanced systems features, integration to other systems and the launch of a non-emergency call centre to supply all the AA`s other services such as travel or legal information.
"Meanwhile the system already incorporates sophisticated features, including voice logging. Every call to and from the centre is recorded and logged and can be traced in minutes. It`s even possible to e-mail the recording to anyone who requests it.
"The system also incorporates a 20-seat outbound predictive dialler, which the AA plans to implement in a future phase.
"And because the system is able to generate real-time statistics and reports on all aspects of the centre`s operation, the AA is able to closely monitor service levels," Alvares concludes.
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