Credit: Dreamstime
Telstra and Ericom partnered to bring an emergency contact centre to the storm-ravaged communities of the Northern Beaches.
The two parties brought Telstra’s contact centre Genesys cloud platform after this year’s ‘super storm’ on 9 February for Northern Beaches Council.
Implemented by Sydney IT services provider Ericom, the rapid roll-out was designed to enable a rapid response to more than 150 calls over six-hours on a Sunday afternoon as the storms caused fallen trees, powerlines and flash flooding.
According to the council, calls made to their customer service line on weekends normally go to an outsourced after-hours service, which can sometimes have a call wait time of up to 20 minutes.
However, during the storm, staff volunteered to take calls out of hours, using the Genesys system to access systems either in the office or remotely.
In the days following the storm, the contact centre team again experienced a huge influx of calls, responding to over 1,500 enquiries over the course of one day, more than 30 per cent above their daily average.
According to the council, contact centre staff were able to maintain the average call wait time of 1 minute and 59 seconds.
Genesys Vice President Australia and New Zealand, Mark Buckley, is proud that the company was able to support such a vital service and ensure the council could respond appropriately to meet the needs of residents during such a difficult time.
“We are glad that Genesys and Telstra were able to assist Northern Beaches Council and their community through this disaster,” said Genesys vice president of Australia and New Zealand Mark Buckley.
“In crises like these, every second matters and contact centre agents need to work quickly to resolve customer issues as swiftly as possible while still providing a high level of empathy to those they are assisting.”
