EKURHULENI Metropolitan Municipality’s Services Call Centre logged its millionth call since the new and improved service was launched in May last year.
The million-call mark is a sign that the metro’s investment in the call taking centre and continuous efforts to improve its service is paying off, said Themba Gadebe, spokesman for the metro.
Last year Ekurhuleni opened a revamped call centre through which citizens can contact the municipality to report incidents which require attention, including potholes, water leaks, burst pipes, electricity outages and more. The staff compliment was also boosted and over 200 agents were employed.
“All of these interventions have resulted in an efficient call centre which compares favourably against international best practice and leading private sector companies,” says Member of Mayoral Committee for Corporate and Shared Services, Queen Duba.
“Performance has improved from 73% of calls being answered within two minutes to 96% of calls being answered within an average of 40 seconds. Furthermore, the percentage of calls which are abandoned amounts to 1.3% of incoming calls and the duration of an average call is just over two minutes.”
The millionth call was received between 7.15pm and 7.30pm on Tuesday, July 21.
The call volume in May 2014 was 46 941. That number has almost doubled to 93 148 in June this year.
Gadebe encourages residents to continue making use of the service which is constantly being improved.
“The metro has linked the call centre to a performance system which monitors the efficiency of the services rendered by the centre and other service departments within the municipality. It is therefore vital that residents utilise the service in order to ensure that their queries are attended to timeously,” said Gadebe.
The Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality’s Services Call Centre number is 0860 543 000. Residents must ensure they are given a reference number when they contact the centre to enable progress on their query to be tracked easily.
