New and improved call centre for EMM

The Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM) officially opened the new Ekurhuleni Life Threating and Services Call Centre on Friday, May 2.

The call centre is at the Community Safety Head Offices on Hawley Road in Bedfordview. The new Ekurhuleni Services Call Centre, launched by the executive mayor of Ekurhuleni, Clr Mondli Gungubele, was upgraded after it received a R7-million revamp budget recently.

Following a welcoming by Clr M Siboza, Executive Mayor of Ekurhuleni Mondli Gungubele took the stand, “We are launching a very important project, one of the most important projects in my opinion. It was clear in 2012 that something had to be done and after years of trying to turn this situation around I am excited to announce that we are steadily turning the situation around.

“With this R7-million in upgrades, we want to assure customers that there will now be a major improvement in the manner in which emergency issues are recorded and handled by the call centre. The upgrading means an improvement in the technology, capacity, the number of calls, the space of the operation, the communication and the skills of the employees,” said Clr Gungubele.

The Ekurhuleni Life Threating and Services Call Centre will be staffed by 250 call centre agents and eight supervisors, an improvement from the previous 50 call centre agents. The call centre will have a total staff of 82, which will be allocated at 13 staff members per shift.

The aim of the new call centre is to improve the response time to life threatening emergencies. Community members who require emergency assistance can contact the call centre and request an ambulance, the fire brigade or the metro police.

Clr Gungubele highlighted the important role the 250 new staff members will have in insuring the efficient operating of the call centre.

“I wish the staff the greatest success in this journey, we encourage the staff to engage with supervisors on ways to improve the facilities which will lead to better service,” said Clr Gungubele.

“In 2016 we plan to have surveillance of the entire Ekurhuleni area, showing where ambulances, metropolitan police and fire brigade services are at any given time. By 2018, we plan to fully command all the services in Ekurhuleni,” he added.

“The launch of the new call centre in Bedfordview is a step towards these goals and plans. Once all the work is concluded, the lives of our people will be made much easier as it will result in the reduction of communication costs, easy payment of services, easy online access to information about the services of the metro, the eradication of mistakes in the billing system as well as prompt responses to customers and other urban management issues,” said Clr Gungubele.

The Ekurhuleni Life Threating and Services Call Centre can be contacted on 10177 or 011 458 0911.

What the call centre will require from callers:

•  Your name and surname.
•  The correct telephone number which you can be contacted on.
•  An explanation of the type of emergency that is being reported. Here you will be required to provide a street name, landmarks or the pickup point.
•  You will be required to provide your residential address.
•  The preliminary information on the emergency incident.
•  Never shut your phone off after making an emergency call.
•  Never refuse to give your details and that of the emergency, as it may be regarded as a false caller.
•  Always assist the call taker to understand the seriousness of the emergency by providing sufficient information.
•  Always try provide as much information as possible regarding the location.