National Customer Contact Centre Celebrates Ten Years of Service

EM visits ESB's National Customer Contact Centre, an integral area in the part of ESB customer relations.

As the irish economy has experienced unprecedented growth in recent years, so too have the expectations of the Irish consumer changed, and these rapid and dramatic evolutions have brought new challenges for ESB to master. A key element in meeting these challenges has been the development of the National Customer Contact Centre, which celebrated its 10th anniversary on May 25th.

The National Customer Contact Centre began modestly as a pilot project in early 1996. Staffed initially by only five people and serving customers in Cork city, this unified point of customer contact was designed to handle both accounts and network enquiries. It was not the first ESB customer call centre - the Customer Accounts Service Centre had already been in operation for some years in Fleet Street serving the Dublin metropolitan area. What was different in the Cork project was that the centre would handle all enquiries: not only account queries, but also new connections, house moves, faults, etc. From the outset, a number of issues needed to be addressed, among them additional training for customer contact staff and new procedures for communicating with other ESB departments. How customers would react to a central office replacing their accustomed local area offices when the service was rolled out to other areas was also unknown.

The Cork pilot project quickly proved itself, and in a very short time it was clear that the operational efficiencies achieved were in excess of even the most optimistic expectations. Customers were happy too - their evolving expectations for faster and easier access to services were being met by ESB in a way appropriate to a modern and efficient customer driven company.

Gradually, the Cork Contact Centre expanded its reach beyond Cork itself, and in tandem with the Dublin Centre - which was also transformed into a multi-call operation based on the Cork model - the service was introduced nationwide. Today the Cork and Dublin centres operate as a single unit under the banner of the National Customer Contact Centre - an integral part of ESB customer relations. The National Customer Contact Centre is today the primary contact for customers wishing to enquire about any aspect of ESB business, handling general accounts and moving enquiries for ESB Customer Supply, fault and emergency enquiries for ESB Networks, and public lighting fault reporting for ESB Contracts.

To celebrate the National Customer Contact Centre's anniversary, Padraig McManus, ESB Chief Executive, hosted an event in Cork. Earlier in the day, Mr McManus, Executive Director Sean Wyse and Ollie Brogan, General Manager, Customer Supply, visited the Call Centre in Wilton, where they were welcomed by the management team and staff and received presentations from NCCC management and staff on the improvements and progress made in the area. During the visit, a presentation was made to four original staff members, John Finn, Peter Warner, Mary Corcoran and Kieran O'Callaghan, to commemorate their contribution.

Chief Executive Padraig McManus also took the opportunity to listen in to customer calls with Louise St. Ledger, and said that he was very impressed by the professionalism and courtesy with which staff dealt with customer queries.

At a function to mark the event later that evening, presentations were made to both the Chief Executive and Executive Director Sean Wyse to commemorate the 10th anniversary as staff enjoyed a celebratory night with the usual high standard of Cork welcome. EM