June 2010
Softline Pastel, South Africa’s leading developer of accounting and business software has received international recognition by winning three awards at this past weekend’s Contact Centre World Awards run by ContactCentreWorld.com, the online magazine for the global contact centre industry.
Pastel’s 140-seat call centre based in Woodmead in Gauteng won the Best Community Service category, was a runner up for Best Help Desk and placed third for Best Customer Service. There were five finalists per category with only three of those actually being placed. Pastel was placed in each of its categories.
The awards ceremony was held in London and benchmarks entrants against the best in the Europe, Middle East & Africa region. The judges consider both management strategy as well as the actual achievements of the support centre and the final result is determined based on a combination of written entry and judging by industry peers.
“We are thrilled that from almost 1000 entries from over 40 countries, we were able to scoop up three awards at this prestigious event,” says Tamsin Bradford, Pastel’s support manager. “By winning in three categories, we have also raised the level of awareness of the South African call centre industry and its globally competitive levels of service.” Other South African representatives included Volkswagen, Aegis and O'Keeffe & Swartz.
Qtel, the Qatar-based telecommunications company and Yapi Kredi, the Turkish bank were the respective winners of the Customer Service and Help Desk categories.” Both were worthy contenders and deserving winners. I am looking forward to implementing some of these companies’ winning methodologies at the Pastel support centre.”
“While the Community Spirit category wasn’t as flooded with entries, Pastel seems to have inspired many of the attendees from across the region to get more involved in their surrounding community.”
Pastel’s support centre takes over 80 000 calls a month. Some of its best-practice tactics include stringent and ongoing training and assessment practices, the creation of specialist product-focused teams, constant investment in cutting-edge technologies and recruitment policies that attract and reward career call centre agents and not part timers. But what really stands the support centre apart from its competitors is its focused, quality assurance programme that takes into account direct feedback from customers.
“Winning competitions like the Contact Centre World Awards confirms that our strategy is the right one but also gives us the opportunity to source the future trends that will ensure we remain world class,” concludes Bradford.