Vocus has brought contact centre operations for its internet brands iPrimus and Dodo back up to 85 percent capacity after a “tough few weeks” for its teams in Australia and the Philippines.
The telco issued identically-worded service updates on Wednesday April 9, declaring that “many of our team members are back online and ready to support you with anything from troubleshooting to relocations.”
“Our phone lines are back on and we hope to have live chat up and running soon,” it said.
“We are still running at a reduced rate and have a large backlog of requests to work through.
“We know it’s been rocky and while there will be a wait to receive a call back, we’re working through your lodged enquiries right now to resolve them for you.”
A Vocus spokesperson confirmed to iTnews that the company now had operators in Australia and Manila working from home, and that its contact centres are back to “operating at around 85 percent capacity”.
Contact centres for iPrimus and Dodo were fully offline on March 18 and 19 due to shutdowns in Manila, with priority call queues re-established on March 20 to handle hardship, Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO), and emergency power-related inquiries.
“Since then we have progressively brought the remaining call queues online,” Vocus’ spokesperson said.
“During the period that contact centres were offline, we provided customers with the option to log requests via our website, and we have been progressively resolving the backlog of customer queries.
“Staff are working from home using laptops and desktops we’ve provided with our contact centre partner, and staff are connecting to our usual systems securely via VPN.”
Vocus said in its service update that it is “actively exploring ways in which we can increase our capacity.”
Unlike other telcos such as Telstra and Optus which are in the process of recruiting a large temporary workforce to meet increased demand for customer care services, Vocus is not planning to hire additional staff.
Instead, the spokesperson said, Vocus “have re-purposed some of our existing resources to prioritise critical customer queries.”
“We are also utilising our Australian service team to support Manila operations, and utilising resources previously working in retail kiosks.
“We are also implementing new processes to manage demand, such as encouraging customers to use online tools and offering call-backs to reduce call demand,” the spokesperson added.
