City Times calls on EMM about their response to calls
EMM answers why only 45 per cent of calls are answered.
According to The Department of Emergency Services (DEMS) 2016/2017 audited report, only 45 per cent of calls to the call centre were answered and dispatched.
The complaint came from a press release by the DA that said they were ‘deeply concerned’ and called it unacceptable for an essential service, but the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM) responded to the statistic explaining why.
The EMM said not all calls are captured as emergency calls.
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“Some of the calls are enquiries relating to service delivery and mainly require to be diverted to relevant departments without being recorded as answered and dispatched calls,” said EMM spokesperson Themba Gadebe.
“Also, due to the high volume of calls that comes through, it is not practical for agents to answer all calls, as some will be calls in waiting until the caller hangs up.”
Gadebe said when this occurs then the EMM has a back office that does follow-ups on these missed calls.
“However, not all of the calls are retrievable,” he said.
“For instance, calls from cellphone networks do not leave the caller identity, which makes it impossible to do a follow-up on them.”
Furthermore, Gadebe said some callers log calls several times before they are able to talk to an agent.
“This means the attempted calls are recorded as missed or unanswered calls,” he explained.
“As a result, when agents make follow-ups, it is discovered that the calls have been attended to.”
Gadebe said the report analysed data about all calls which came through but did not factor the nature of the calls and that not all calls were emergencies.
However, Gadebe acknowledged that there is room for improvements and the EMM are working on the following interventions:
• Strengthening of the back office to retrieve the missed calls.
• Close monitoring of the quality and quantity of operators’ call taking and dispatching abilities.
• Filling of the vacant positions and as well as other interventions that may be necessitated by operational requirements.
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