AN EVALUATION OF CONTACT CENTRE SYSTEM AND SERVICE AGENTS’ COMPETENCY LEVELS AT ABC IN THE EASTERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract

South Africa depends on ABC for electricity supply and has a Contact Centre which acts as the face of the company. The Contact Centre provides customer service to the community and is expected to deliver consistent and excellent service to customers. The aim of the study was to evaluate the underlying factors for ABC Contact Centre customers’ dissatisfaction in the Eastern Cape. From the population of 80 service agents, 60 were sampled for the survey and 56 responded to the questionnaire that was distributed. The study found that the Contact Centre’s systems were operated in an isolated environment from related business units, which made it difficult for First Call Resolution (FCR) to be attained by agents and customers had to call several times for one query. The operational processes have not been standardised and executed according to customer expectations due to contradicting key performance indicators (KPIs). The well-being of the Contact Centre workforce has been compromised, which could lead to agents losing confidence, a lack of zeal to perform duties optimally, a tarnishing of the image of the Contact Centre and the organisation. Based on the findings, the study recommended that the Contact Centre management re-design operational strategies and processes to be on par with customer expectations and to avoid contradicting KPIs, Contact Centre systems should be integrated to other business units’ systems and stress tolerance activities should be conducted for service agents.