Ekurhuleni Metro launched its new-look Life Threatening and Services Emergencies Call Centre last Friday.
This celebration of the R7-million revamp was held at the centre, which is located in Bedfordview.
It will eventually be staffed by a total of 250 call centre agents and eight supervisors, compared to the current 50 call centre agents operating with 12 per shift.
Ekurhuleni’s mayor, Mondli Gungubele said at the launch that call centres could either make or break an institution.
“If your call centre is dysfunctional it clouds all the good work that you are doing as an institution.”
He said the metro’s call centre had been an Achilles heel for Ekurhuleni for a long time.
“There was a time when there was no week that would go by without our people complaining about the poor quality of service they experienced from the facility.”
He said the complaints were about calls going unanswered, callers kept on the line for a long time, delays in the dispatching of trouble-shooting teams and call takers lacking information.
“All these led to members of the community concluding that our call centre was non-existent,” Gungubele said.
