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This is the first opportunity I've had to thank you for your
support in re-electing me to the Board. I have again been given the
responsibility of running the Call Centre and with the assistance of
all of you and the staff, I'm sure the future will be even better for
all of us.
I spoke recently with supervisors and controllers and
expressed the improvements that I'd like to see from the Call Centre
staff to assist drivers. I also asked them what drivers could do to
help staff, and these are the points that they would like your
assistance with...
Advise Arrival
The AA button is there for you to let us know if you can't
make your own contact. Over the years, it seems that pressing the AA
button regardless of whether necessary or not has become part of some
driver's own procedure of what they do when arriving at the pick up
point. Staff are instructed to follow procedures and when they receive
an AA instruction, they carry out the function. The problem I have is
that there are now so many AA's being requested, that we're having to
allocate extra staff to this procedure in order to reduce the length
of time it is taking us to contact the client and then respond back to
you. By taking a member of staff away from answering incoming calls,
it affects the number of calls we can answer. I'm sure you've had
clients commenting to you how difficult they can find getting through
to make a booking.
The easy solution would be to employ extra staff, but how
far do we go with this? There is only so much space within the Call
Centre and if we start to outgrow it, we would have to look for |
larger premises. I'm not exaggerating the point, but we really do
need to look at the economics of this. A simple procedure, designed to
improve our service to both driver and client, could lead to having
far more of a cost factor to the Society that ever imagined. We're
asking you all, please only use the AA button when your details
instruct to do so or when you have tried and are unable to make
contact with the client.
New Terminals
Many drivers have now been fitted with the new terminal and
are using the new functions that we have designed. Like all new ideas,
there are teething problems and the messaging facility is causing a
problem with both drivers and controllers. It is only temporary, but
until we can redesign how the controller receives your message on his
screen, we ask you to use it for job related messages only. If you
want to know whether your mate has signed on or you want to tell us of
traffic problems, then these must be done on voice.
Job Queries
Many of you choose to telephone the controller rather than wait for
your voice request to be answered. It's not an ideal situation for the
controller to deal with, but one that we have gone along with to try
and speed things up for you. But some by their |
actions are making it difficult for us to manage. Their impatience
following a VR in not waiting for the controller to get back to them
with an answer, is prompting them to phone the Call Centre and repeat
their request to someone new who probably doesn't know that a
controller is already dealing with it. This often ties up three or
four people at any one time dealing with the same query. This is a
ridiculous situation and one that must stop if we are to ensure that
the Call Centre runs efficiently.
Code 3
I have received many calls from drivers concerning the change made by
the members at the AGM to the 'going home' facility. They've all
expressed their disapproval at the decision and feel that it has had a
detrimental effect on our service to clients after 8pm, because they
can no longer do a ride off the EC5 rank or from accounts that are
despatched as A/D.
I'd like to point out that these conversations are
identical to those I received when we brought in Code 77. From the
Call Centre's point of view, the service to clients has not been
affected by the change; in fact we have experienced many more evenings
when there has been an improvement in service. We do not equate this
to the 'going home' facility, but to the number of extra drivers
working.
Corporate Clothing
A catalogue has been placed in the driver's reception for
you to order any logo'd clothing from. Daytime security guard, Ernie
Fitch, has the order forms and is only too pleased to assist you in
making your choice.
Keith Cain |
