Metro unveils new and improved Call Centre

The facility, which recently received a R7-million revamp, is situated in Bedfordview and will be staffed by 250 call centre agents and eight supervisors.

It previously had 50 agents, operating at 12 per shift.

The added staff additions translate to 40 agents per shift.

In addition, the metro’s Life-threatening Emergencies Call Centre will have a total staff compliment of 82, who will be allocated at 13 per shift.

Speaking at the launch, Gungubele admitted that the call centre had been an “Achilles Heel” for the metro, for a long time.

“The community expects a particular service from the centre and, if they cannot get it, their perception is that the institution is failing them and, therefore, they can no longer see any good that the city is doing,” he said.

“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.”

Gungubele listed the most common complaints as 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 on the subject matter.

“All these led to members of the community concluding that our call centre was non-existent,” he said.

“After years of trying to turn this situation around, I am quite excited to announce today that, finally, we are steadily turning the situation around.

“Indeed, R7-million in upgrades later, we want to assure our customers that there will be now be a major improvement in the manner in which their issues are recorded and handled by the call centre and, subsequently, responded to.”

Service delivery interruptions may be reported to the municipal services call centre on 0860 543 0000, or on Twitter @EMM_Call_Centre.

Updates are available on @EMM_Call_Centre and @EMMInfo