Mayor Plato pays visit to City call centre
THE City’s contact centre receives an average of 2.5 million calls a year and mayor Dan Plato paid the centre a visit yesterday to interact with the staff and observe the working environment of the customer relations department.
There are 200 permanent staff at the contact centre and they handle call queries regarding water, electricity, municipal services, accounts and rates services.
When the staff help customers on the phone, they transfer calls to the mayor if customers need to talk to him.
Pat Lockwood, manager of customer relations at the City, said they strove to improve the services at the contact centre for the new year by using WhatsApp more, because it was a much more productive system, and it would be expanded throughout the City.
“This visit aimed to provide Plato with a better understanding and appreciation for what we do, and it is to show we are here to serve customers and to support him with service delivery in Cape Town,” said Lockwood.
Plato said: “I also receive lots of calls and complaints from the public, and it is very important to know how they deal with them. It does, however, depend on the nature of the complaints – certain complaints like water and electricity need to be dealt with immediately,” said Plato.
He added that he was quite happy with the centre and saluted the staff for their good work. His visit was also intended to help him keep tabs on the services being provided to the public.
“There are three customer departments – this is just one of them – and I will visit the others to see how they operate. All the staff here are very professional,” said Plato.