First impressions count … NMMU’s contact centre

Happy birthday to NMMU's contact centre team who create a great first impression

There’s nothing like a trip to foreign lands to underline the importance of first impressions … cleanliness, efficiency, beauty, friendliness or whatever confronts you first.

And so it is with Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) too.

For many, the first impression of our university is often not a visual one, but an auditory one.

Calls are made to the university via our contact centre, which recently celebrated its third birthday.

The tone, efficiency, professionalism, compassion, understanding, service and enthusiasm offered by NMMU is all conveyed in that initial interaction with a caller.

A judgment is made – good, bad or indifferent - and there’s no second chance to make it a good first impression.

How important then is the role played by those who “man” (though this is an all-women team) the telephones and other contact lines at NMMU. They are tasked with ensuring that those who contact NMMU are impressed with the university’s knowledge, level of service, understanding, professionalism and the like.

They are the rock face of a person’s first auditory experience with NMMU. It is imperative that they not only supply all the right information, but send all the right messages in terms of tone, enthusiasm, care and willingness to serve.

It’s no mean task especially when there are only six of you and about 1 800 calls coming in on peak days (during January and February). But the contact centre, whose team members all have degrees, is more than up to this Herculean task as is evidenced by the following:

• 89% of all admission calls are resolved in the contact centre (ie the calls did not need to be transferred elsewhere). The manager says the success rate would improve further still if his team were increased.
• 61% of all calls are resolved in the contact centre (ie there is no need to transfer these calls elsewhere)
• Since 2012 the contact centre has received 352 995 calls of which 85% were successfully answered
• Some 114 933 e-mails have been processed by the contact centre on the info@nmmu.ac.za address
• Complaints about the contact centre are non-existent
• The contact centre takes responsibility for issues not necessarily related to their work, simply because they care

For me, however, the biggest indication that ours is a high-functioning, professional and caring contact centre is that in the three years of its existence, the staff turnover has been ZIP, ZILCH, ZERO.

This flies in the face of the norm when it comes to those who work in call and contact centres. These employees quickly tire of the routine and their environment, and move on. International research puts the annual attrition rate of contact centres at between 28% and 82% a year.

Perhaps the incentive programme introduced by contact centre manager Deon Barnardo to motivate the team is the reason for their commitment, or perhaps it’s because these women are simply a rare, but dedicated bunch, all deserving of gold stars.

Whatever the reason, those who recognise the importance of first impressions are grateful that we have such a committed, professional team.

Happy birthday contact centre team! You’re our auditory rock face ambassadors. You make us proud …

And it’s not just me who thinks so. Check out the following compliments by those who have been aided by our contact centre team:

To Miss Zwelibanzi

It is so amazing to know that there are people like you, who are prepared to go an extra mile to assist others. I have received the copy of the certificate so I want to thank you. Please enjoy what is left of the day

God Bless

Khusta
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Hi Yolande

It is great to deal with people who are so helpful as you.

Thank you very much for your assistance.

Leon van Tonder

Dublin, Republic of Ireland

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Mrs Odendaal called in for a status on her daughter’s application.

Student number 214085929

Number: 011 305 8900

She said that it is such a pleasure to deal with us, and she deals with a lot of Universities. She is not impressed with Wits at all.

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Dear Thoko,

I just spoke to the above customer and she expressed her gratitude for the excellent service she received from you. She said that you are kind and helpful and she was very happy with the service rendered by the university.

Well done and keep up the good work.

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Good day

Thank you very much for your quick response, excellent service.

Regards,

Kumbula

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To Whom It May Concern

Thank you, I appreciate the quick and thorough response.

Kind regards
Nadia Roberts

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Thank you so much Yolande for your kind assistance. We’ll complete and send back as soon as possible.

Regards

Nicolette Chetty

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Good morning Nomsa,

Thank you so much for your quick and professional assistance, people like you makes it possible to send ones child to NMMU. Me and my family stays in the Eastern Cape and we are proud of it.

Thank you again.

Fernando Scharnick

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Dear Deon

Thank you very much for your professionalism and your kind assistance with the important task that has been assigned to your section – of assisting all departments and our section, and thus alleviating our workload.

It is greatly appreciated. A very special thank you to all your staff also, for doing a fabulous job!

God Bless, to one and all!

Best regards

Nafeesa

STUDENT RECORDS OFFICE

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Hi,

I am very pleased to say that I received excellent service from 1 of your agents (Sinovuyo). She is very professional and polite and manages to be friendly as the same time.

The information she offered me was very helpful. The effort you put in training show’s that you are serious about service excellence and I hope you keep it at the same level so that other people may enjoy this great excellence in the future.

Kind regards,

Motsoari

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To the Awesome person at Info who responded to this query

Many many thanks!!!!!

Enjoy your day

J

Lynette Roodt

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Thank you very much for your kind and speedy assistance

Kind regards

Rochelle Swartz
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Hallo Deon

Broer! Ek gaan vir jou mis. Dit is ‘n professionele kompliment vir jou, want ek besef nou eers hoe professioneel jy die NMMU kontaksentrum aanmekaar gesit het en bestuur. Hoop ek kan nog steeds raad by jou vra oor die dynamics van so ‘n centre.

Mooi dag en groete vir die girls.

Christelle

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Good evening

I am so pleased with your quick response to my mail. It seems like i have found a very good place to study. NMMU is indeed a bright light to my future.

Yours faithfully

Nosive Bavuma

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To whom it may concern,

I would like to say thank you for the efficient and very friendly service that I have received from NMMU, every department and every person that I came into contact with was extremely professional, helpful and provided a fantastic service. This is something we rarely experience from service providers in SA, other Universities can certainly learn from NMMU!

I received my certificate delivered to my offices this morning. You certainly gave me hope that somewhere there is still people who take huge pride in their jobs in South Africa!

A very big thank you to everyone involved!

Lynn Gunning
Senior Manager | Winning Business

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