CallingtheCape Highlights Newsletter - April 2006

Dear Stakeholders,

Once again we start preparing for the Annual CallingtheCape Awards happening in August. We will be hosting a very important briefing session this Friday 7th April 2006, open to all stakeholders in the industry, where we will also be joined by our colleagues from SACCCOM who will present the new draft QA framework. Please join us!

Please see Key Dates below for more details.

If you have any suggestions or views that you would like to share please forward them to rhomeez@callingthecape.org.za

(i) Launch of the CallingtheCape 2006 Annual Awards
7th April 2006, 8:30am
CallingtheCape Offices, Cape Town

We are having a launch & briefing session for the 2006 CallingtheCape Awards. Last year we received around 150 entries and the standard of the competition was high: we'd love to do even better this year! If you'd like to consider entering, please attend our briefing session.

Date: Friday 7th April 2006
Time: 8:30am
Venue: CallingtheCape's offices (12th floor, Waldorf building, St George's Mall)

We will be joined at this session by colleagues from SACCCOM who will also present their draft best practices framework for the industry. You will also be able to receive full information about the various table and sponsorship packages available for the CallingtheCape Awards 2006.

Please visit our website to download a copy of the draft framework.

RSVP to Nicky at nicky@callingthecape.org.za

(ii) CallingtheCape 2006 Annual Awards ("Winter Wonderland")
5th August 2006, 6:30pm
Grand West Casino, Cape Town

Join us to celebrate the success of the Western Cape's BPO industry at a "Winter Wonderland" banquet on August 5th at the Market Hall, Grand West.

We will once again be honouring the industry's most outstanding companies and individuals.
All the regional winners will automatically be entered for the national SACCCOM awards, to be announced in August.

All the rules, application forms and submission criteria will be available at www.callingthecape.org.za/awards by the end of May 2006. The final deadline for submissions is Friday June 30th 2006.

The full prize list is still incomplete, but we intend to exceed last year's prizes! Suggestions and donations are very welcome - please email Judith Middleton at judith@duomarketing.co.za  or call her on 021 683 8223.

Once again, we have some exciting sponsorship opportunities available if you'd like to help us make this event a roaring success.

All the awards are being offered for national sponsorship by SACCCOM this year. Sponsors will get naming rights to all the regional as well as national awards. Please contact hlubi@sacccom.org.za or call 0861 723 3366 for more details and sponsorship applications.

Event sponsorship for the awards ceremony and Winter Wonderland banquet is open to Western Cape companies, with CallingtheCape members getting first option. Please email nicky@callingthecape.org.za  for details.

RSVP: Nicky Floris at nicky@callingthecape.org.za  by Friday July 14th 2006.
Cost: R550 per guest or R5,500 for a table of ten.

We'd love to see more agents at the banquet this year, so we have some special offers for companies who invite their agents:

  • Book one table and get a second, agents-only table for R4,000.
  • Book two tables and get three extra agents-only tables at R4,000 each.
  • Book three tables and get five extra agents-only tables at R4,000 each.

We only have 40 tables available, so be sure to book in good time!

(iii) Lunch presentation with FrontRange Solutions & ContactinGauteng
11th April 2006, 12:00pm
The Mount Nelson, Cape Town

Join FrontRange Solutions for a discussion on Forrester's Research Paper: "Twenty-Three Best Practices for the Customer Service Centre". These twenty-three steps to managing customer experiences through integrated metrics, goals and actions will ensure that service expectations and promises to customers are not hollow. Make sure that your customer service leads to the customer satisfaction and loyalty that comes with superior customer service.

This is a sponsored event and there are no costs.

Please contact Traci Freeman to register on +27 861 112 551, email info@contactingauteng.co.za

(i) Call Centre Conference hosted by Marcus Evans,
24th - 26th May 2006,
Cullinan Hotel, Cape Town

Call Centre Managers are faced with many challenges in the management and operation of their call centre. They constantly need to address the issue of how to motivate agents in a high-turnover culture, improve technology and more importantly, keep the customer happy all the time. This conference aims to cover all these issues and more, in order to ensure a successful and energised call centre.

Click here to download the full conference brochure.

(ii) Performance Management For Call Centres

IQPC's highly popular "Performance Management For Call Centres" training course runs again on 28 & 29 June in Johannesburg. Get all the tools and techniques to implement effective processes and systems for optimal team functioning. Learn the latest call centre management techniques from two expert course leaders, including how to develop balanced performance metrics, set KPIs, motivate your staff and improve staff retention. In addition, learn how to successfully implement proven 6 Sigma practices in your call centre, based on a real life example from a leading call centre. Contact Susan Theron on 011 669 5019 or e-mail mailto:e-mailsusan.theron@iqpc.co.za  for more information.

The CallingtheCape newsletter is sent out in the first week of every month. It currently reaches 4 024 (as at 01/04/2006) industry practitioners, financial professionals, investors, and representatives of the media across the globe. The readership is around 80% domestic and 20% international - the international readership comprises mostly of industry practitioners and investors considering South Africa as an investment destination. The readership is predominantly at management level (CEOs, MDs, contact centre managers). The database is made up entirely of industry contacts of CallingtheCape. Please e-mail rhomeez@callingthecape.org.za  if you would like to take the opportunity to reach our thousands of subscribers every month by sponsoring our newsletter.

This month's new members are:

You may visit their websites by clicking on the links above.

If you are interested in joining CallingtheCape please contact Rhomeez at rhomeez@callingthecape.org.za

(i) CallingtheCape Funding from Provincial Government Increased

Minister of Finance in the Provincial Government of the Western Cape Lynne Brown announced in her budget two weeks ago that CallingtheCape would receive an earmarked allocation for the next three years.

The allocation is for R3.87m in 06/07 and then for R4.0m and R5.0m in the next two years.

The money will be allocated to our investment promotion, skills development and SME support programmes and represents a significant increase on the current year. This funding will enable us to provide a much wider range of training programmes to matriculants in Cape Town, ensuring a continued supply of high calibre entrants to the labour market. The funding allocation reinforces the Provincial Government's emphasis on the BPO industry as its most significant strategic sector with the greatests potential to create jobs and empower young people.

(ii) UK Entrepreneur Penny Streeter Launches South Africa Call Centre QAcalling

UK entrepreneur Penny Streeter OBE has set up a call centre in Cape Town, South Africa. QAcalling has its own directly recruited and managed call staff, trainers and dedicated IT systems. This is to ensure that all companies can now benefit from highest standards of customer contact, data management, IT and telephony, according to Penny Streeter.

QAcalling offers outsourced call centre management with capacity available immediately. It is quality assured to UK and EU standards, based on the management team's 10 years expertise in 24-7, 365 call response and management in the UK.

There are 5,000 seats within the 130,000 sq ft freehold premises for inbound and outbound calling - which is an area of particular expertise - for both short and long term campaigns. The company has experience in recruiting and selecting personnel and is able to offer a full service for the supply of both temporary and permanent call centre staff.

"QAcalling provides a comprehensive and flexible range of in-bound and out-bound call centre services to ensure the highest standards of quality, to add value seamlessly to a company's core service proposition," says Penny Streeter.

(iii) BEE companies in Cape Town continue to grow

Recently Callconnexions merged with Direct Channel Marketing and is currently trading as DCM Cape (Pty) Ltd. They have grown from twelve to eighty agents since November expecting to increase that to one hundred and ten.

They have recently assisted the Electricity Department by handling the massive influx of calls due to the power outage problems in the Western Cape. They ramped up to a 24/7 operation within five hours of been given approval. "During these 5 hours we secured agents; conducted interim training; prepared resources for the 24/7 shifts; configured our technology; negotiated overflow configuration with Telkom Share Call Management" said Shamiel Mathews of DCM Cape.

Their short to medium term plans are to secure bigger premises and to grow their call centre to 300 seats towards the middle of 2007.

Another successful BEE company in Cape Town is OC2. They currently has 30 seats with their two anchor clients being Old Mutual Bank (OMB) and Pathcare pathologists.

The OMB contract is an outbound sales contract. "We went live with the OMB campaign in October last year and it has grown from six to eighteen seats. From the start of the campaign, agent sales targets have been exceeded by 50% from only half of the data that they thought was required" says Nikki Hendricks, director of OC2.

The Pathcare campaign went live in January. It is a 10-seat inbound service contract. OC2 handles Pathcare's national account enquiries and have met all SLAs despite high call volumes. As of 1st May OC2 will have 50 seats to accommodate upcoming ad hoc campaigns.

(iv) CADET program update

CallingtheCape has recruited 100 new learners to their CADET (Career Assesment, Development, Education & Training) Program. These learners were previously long-term unemployed individuals. They've been put through a rigorous training program including life skills, numeracy, IT and call centre training.

The learners have had a 70% success rate during the first round of the program and have all been placed with host companies.

The following companies are hosting the learners:

  • 112 Sishayele
  • Direct Axis
  • The Dialogue Group
  • Achievement Awards
  • 1 Call
  •  DCM/Call Connexions
  • Virgin Active
  • International Colleges Group (ICG)
  • HomeChoice
  • City of Cape Town - TOC
  • City of Cape Town – Customer Services
  • Standard Bank
  • Woolworths
  • Metropolitan Health
  • Telkom

We would like to thank the NSF, ServiceSeta, PGWC and the host companies. We will keep stakeholders updated on the progress of the learners.

Rhomeez Hendricks
Communications Officer
Telephone No: +27(0) 21 487 8655 : Switchboard No: +27(0) 21 487 8600
Fax No: +27(0) 21 422 3744 : Mobile No: +27(0) 82 927 8021
Email address: rhomeez@callingthecape.org.za  Website: www.callingthecape.org.za


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