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A TOTAL of 23 call agents at the City of Windhoek receive between 500 and 1 000 calls a day from residents around the capital.

“We handle all queries ranging from pipe bursts, to sewer blockages, electricity failures, and general account queries,” says Linda Shininge, the section head of the city’s contact centre and quality assurance.

At the centre, phones are constantly ringing and agents have their hands full to attend to all calls.

“City of Windhoek, how can I help you?” one agent answers a call. After a while, the agent tells the customer: “Ma’am, your account has been blocked.”

Shininge says this type of conversation is repeated several times a day.

She says the centre receives between 16 000 and 20 000 calls a month, and sometimes the agents struggle to catch their breath.

They work in shifts of seven agents at a time.

The most calls received regard balance enquiries, call transfers, and follow-up calls.

The fewest calls are about power outages.

The call centre was set up after a council meeting in June 2017 when it was decided that customer services would be centralised.

“We receive all complaints via calls and email, and try to make sure we have zero emails at the end of the day, with all queries answered or at least referred to the right departments,” Shininge says.

“It gets heavy. Some days you can’t even take a tea break. Some people want their sewage to be fixed within hours, which is impossible,” she says.

In June, the city received more than 16 000 calls and managed to answer 15 120 of them.

Despite this, she says service delivery has improved.

“Back then if you reported a water link it would take up to six days for someone to get back to you, but today it takes a day or an hour,” she says.

VERBAL ABUSE

Shininge says although she has not personally been abused verbally by callers, many agents have.

“People call staff members all sorts of names, insulting them. Some even threaten staff members, saying they will come and deal with them if whatever they are asking is not done,” she says.

Call centre agent Rosa Kekuamang says: “It’s impossible to receive the service immediately, because it needs to be verified and arrangements should be made. It’s not like firefighters where they attend as soon as possible. Sometimes they call and people are already in the field at a different location.

“We had a caller who insulted all the call centre agents, and we referred her to debt management. She even called yesterday again, insulting the agent who assisted her, and asked for her services to be reconnected urgently.”

The public can reach the City of Windhoek’s call centre at 061 290 3777, or at [email protected]