Taking care of the ‘crazy calls’
It’s the age-old question; ‘how many units of power does it take to cook a chicken?’
That’s right, it’s not just the 111 guys that have to answer ‘‘crazy calls’’. Blenheim call centre Call Care answers the out-of-hours phones for companies around the country.
Call Care celebrates 25 years this year, and owner Stephen Plant recalls some of the more interesting requests.
And, given they answer the phone for everyone from power companies to podiatrists, the calls can cover pretty much anything.
‘‘We have about 500 customers
"We have about 500 customers and we answer about 2500 calls a day so it gives a lot of scope ... One minute you are wearing one hat and the next second you are wearing another." Call Care owner Stephen Plant
and we answer about 2500 calls a day so it gives a lot of scope ... One minute you are wearing one hat and the next second you are wearing another hat.
‘‘You might be crying with someone one minute and then laughing with someone the next,’’ he said.
Plant said they got a call every Christmas, without fail, from someone ‘‘stressed’’ that their power had gone out, and their turkey was in the oven.
When you answer phones for a living you’re bound to get some ‘‘fruit cakes’’ on the other end of the line every now and again, Plant said. Someone once called about a ‘‘blocked toilet in the middle of the road’’, but the team never got to the bottom of that call.
Over the 25 years, a lot had changed at the 24-hour call centre, which even had a customer in Scotland. In fact, fewer than 5 per cent of their customers were based in Marlborough.
‘‘When we first started there was no such thing as text messaging, cellphones were scarce ... even faxing was not that common so there’s been a lot of technology changes.
‘‘We had been in business for 10 years before text messaging became common place,’’ he said.
While technology had changed, one thing remained constant - the ‘‘crazy calls’’ on a weekly basis, Plant said.