Spotlight on call centres – May 2012

spotlights shining down on a blue carpet
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In this feature we bring you news of the different activities that call and contact centres around the country are getting involved in.

This month we include Tesco, SWALEC, Fusion, LV=, EDF Energy and 2Touch.

Tesco Customer Service Centre is ploughing the way for a Cardiff community project

The Jubilee Gardens project has seen unused land in the community centre transformed into a working community garden.

Sian Davies & Daniel Meighan community centre employees

Sian Davies & Daniel Meighan community centre employees

Volunteers from Tesco and the local community have created a planting area which they wish to make available to local residents and young children in the area.

The partnership aims to use the garden to build a relationship with young children and their families in the area. The goal is to teach younger children about gardening, teaching them how plants grow, to give them a closer connection to the environment.

Mark Rowlands heads up the Community Team at the Tesco Customer Service Centre, which is involved in a string of local schemes and partnerships in Cardiff.

“The project is supporting local people with the aim of helping local children. I have seen the gardens develop over the months and with the recent addition of a new greenhouse, which we’ve found, donated and built, the project is going from strength to strength. I’m very excited about this project and look forward to working with the team in the future and developing further links with the residents.”


Tesco supports charity Vision Twenty One

Tesco supports charity Vision Twenty One

A new partnership between Tesco Customer Service Centre and working charity Vision Twenty One is supporting young adults with learning difficulties.

The aim of the charity is to support young adults with learning difficulties and help them make the sometimes difficult transition from childhood to adulthood, with a view to finding meaningful employment for everyone they help.

Less than 1 in 5 people with a learning disability are in work compared with 1 in 2 disabled people generally. 65% of people with a learning disability in the UK are willing to work but only 1 in 3 people with a learning disability take part in some form of education or training to support them into a job role.

Vision Twenty One now has 16 projects covering Catering, Horticulture, Retail, ICT, Woodwork, Pottery, Arts/Crafts and Card Making as well as Training and Mentoring, located around Cardiff, Newport and the Vale of Glamorgan. Tesco has partnered with Vision Twenty One to provide volunteers to support young adults in the enterprise schemes around Cardiff.

Mark Rowlands, Community Team leader from Tesco, said: “After seeing a presentation from the students at Vision Twenty One we were keen to support the charity. Our staff have been helping the students to get some of their handmade cards and pottery into local shops to raise money for the charity. It’s been a really great experience for everyone involved.”

The volunteers will be regularly involved with the charity to help the students get practical work experience over the summer months.


Fusion Peterborough donates over £4,000 to good causes

Since July 2011, Fusion Contact Centre in Peterborough has donated in excess of £4,000 to a variety of charities and good causes.

Recent, locally supported charities include:

  • New Ark, Fengate
  • Fletton United
  • Peterborough Yacht Club
  • William Law Primary School
  • Peterborough RDA – Riding for the Disabled

Fusion has a dedicated ‘Give’ Committee that has a monthly budget to support worthwhile causes in the local community. The Committee meets to discuss applications submitted by Fusion employees. Requests vary greatly – any given month could see support for school football kits, donations towards guide dogs for the blind or funding for playground equipment.

Fusion employees get involved in February Hairy

Fusion employees get involved in Febru-hairy

The Give Committee also organises internal fundraising activities. Recently, Fusion Peterborough took part in Sue Ryder’s ‘Febru-hairy’, to raise money and awareness for the local hospice. Employees paid £1.00 to dress up in loud, elaborate wigs and rollers, and they also had the opportunity to endure some hair-raising waxing and threading. In total, the event raised over £1,000 for the hospice.

Rebecca Shipp, Chair of the Fusion Peterborough Give Committee, said: ‘The Give Committee is a wonderful way for employees to feel part of a decision-making process, and to ‘give something back’ to the community where they live. At Fusion we do our best to make fundraising fun and give everyone the opportunity to get involved.’


The Sky’s the limit when it comes to fundraising

A fearless bunch of adrenaline-fuelled colleagues at 2Touch ‘flew’ 250 metres across the River Wear to raise money for charity.

Kirsty Watt, sales support administrator at the Sunderland-based contact centre, rallied a team of 16 daredevils to ‘zip’ into action to support two of Wearside’s much-loved worthy causes – St. Benedict’s Hospice and the Foundation of Light (formerly SAFC Foundation).

The event was jointly organised by both charities and was the first zip slide across the River Wear, providing thrill seekers the chance to zip wire from the roof of the Stadium of Light across the River Wear to the opposite side of the river, landing at the Liebherr Cranes.


EDF Energy employee heads to Bulgaria for Taekwon-do Championships

Jenny Harling

Jenny Harling

EDF Energy is supporting one of its employees in Exeter as she represents England in the European Taekwon-do ITF Championships.

Jenny Harling, 34, who works in EDF Energy’s Complaints Resolution team, will fly to Bulgaria on May 14 for the annual competition, and the company’s sponsorship has helped her to pay for entrance fees, accommodation, insurance and flights.

As Jenny does not practise the sport professionally, her team is not funded by the International Taekwon-do Federation (ITF) as many other European squads are.

Jenny, who lives in Exminster and works at the energy company’s Gadeon House office on Exeter Business Park, will compete in a team of six and hopes to win medals in the ‘Team Power’ and ‘Team Sparring’ events.

The 34-year-old has been training three times a week in Exeter and once a week in Reading with her team-mates, who are based all over the country, in preparation of this year’s championships. The squad are currently ranked fourth in Europe.

She said: “The whole team have been training really hard and I can’t wait to get to Bulgaria and try and win back our European Champion title in the ‘Power’ division. I’m really grateful to the sponsorship from EDF Energy, without which I wouldn’t have been able to attend.”

Julie Henkus, EDF Energy’s Head of Customer Services, South West, said: “We would like to wish Jenny the best of luck in the European Championships. She’s worked with the company since 2004 and is a valued colleague, we’re really pleased to be able to support her.”


LV= wins award for fast-track training programme

LV= accepting their award

LV= accepting their award

LV= has won a UK Claims Excellence Award for its fast-track home insurance training programme.

The training programme was developed at the beginning of 2011 to help LV= train large volumes of customer service representatives (CSRs) to deal with the growing customer base. There was a clear need to get new CSRs up and running in a short space of time, while maintaining excellent customer care and adhering to compliance requirements. The training programme significantly reduced the time taken to get new recruits handling live customer calls, while actually increasing customer satisfaction by 6% and achieving record scores for employee engagement.

Peter Horton, Chief Operating Officer for general insurance at LV=, said: “LV= prides itself on offering excellent customer care and the training team were faced with an enormous challenge to get new starters trained quickly without compromising on our high standards. The training programme has been very successful and I am delighted that the team has been recognised by the industry with this award.”


Fusion Sunderland’s support of local education totals £40,000

Fusion Site Manager, Sarah Burns, presents the cheque to Highfield Primary School

Fusion Site Manager, Sarah Burns, presents the cheque to Highfield Primary School

Fusion, the Sunderland-based insurance contact centre, continues to show support for its local community by donating a further £20,000 to Highfield Community Primary School. The much-needed cash boost will provide the primary school with an array of reading-related materials, initiatives and activities that will help and encourage children to read.

Fusion’s partnership with Highfield Community Primary School began in December 2010, when Fusion made its initial donation of £20,000 in support of the school’s music programme. Following the success and positive impact the music programme had in the local community, Fusion’s pledge to donate an additional £20,000 will secure its partnership with the school for a further three years. The donation will be invested in hundreds of new books, as well as reading mentors and story-tellers, in an attempt to make reading fun and interactive for pupils.

Tony Barrett, Contact Centre Manager at Fusion Sunderland, commented: “Fusion employees have been involved in the Right to Read programme for some time, working with students to develop their reading skills, and this was partly the inspiration for our involvement in the current reading project. At Fusion we are looking forward to getting involved even more over the next three years and doing our best to make a positive difference in our community.”


SWALEC celebrates learning for all as it invests in new Smart centre

SWALEC is showing its commitment to providing learning opportunities in the workplace to mark Adult Learners Week in Wales as it prepares to open its new Smart Energy Centre.

The organisation employs over 900 people at its Cardiff Gate headquarters and offers a range of development and training opportunities for staff – all with an emphasis on customer service.

This year’s figures reveal that 14 per cent of staff are currently studying towards a company-led NVQ qualification in subjects including Team Leadership, Learning and Development.

28% of SWALEC’s local Customer Service Staff are due to complete accredited qualifications including Customer Service, Business Administration and Energy Awareness this year.

40 members of the company’s Metering Team are currently studying industry-accredited qualifications in Renewable Energy and Energy Awareness, and all members of the workforce are offered ongoing role development and refresher training.

SWALEC Head of Customer Services, Gareth Wood, explains the need for such commitment: “For some businesses the recession brought reduced training budgets, which on the face of it looked like a simple way to save money with immediate effect. As an organisation, we have always believed that our staff and their development lay at the heart of our success. Investment in upskilling existing employees is essential for future business growth.”

Gareth continued: “We have a strong history of workplace learning and investment in staff training as we believe that it’s vital to ensuring top quality customer service. In the current economic situation, we believe that a positive attitude to learning and continuous skills development is more critical than ever.”

Author: Jo Robinson

Published On: 16th May 2012 - Last modified: 22nd Mar 2017
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