Lahore, Pakistan Has Plans for a Civic Complaint Line
In Pakistan, the city of Lahore is setting up a web-based call center to deal with civic complaints and questions. The call center's fifteen phone lines will be open for calls regarding every municipal issue from health and education to utilities and telephone service, reports the Daily Times of Pakistan.
Emergency Centers Consolidating in the U.K.
In Worcester, a city northwest of London in the U.K., local ambulance and fire personnel are angry with plans to consolidate England's 46 fire control call centers into nine larger regional centers. Worcester emergency workers fear that the loss of their local center would mean agents with less local knowledge, which could endanger lives.
"Yes computers and IT systems are great, when they are working," Yvonne Eaton, a fire control agent, told the Worcester News. "But when they are not then the experience and knowledge of staff plays a vital role."
Plans to consolidate emergency call centers began in 2003 as a response to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in America.
Cruise Line Center Profiled in Oregon Paper
Eugene, Oregon's Register-Guard featured a profile of a local call center in the Sunday, July 8 edition. The write-up on the Springfield, Oregon Royal Caribbean call center was a part of a series on local businesses.
Agents at the cruise line's call center enjoy a cafe with subsidized food, a gym, an abundance of skylights and windows, white noise for aural privacy, and spacious work areas, according to reporter Bob Welch.
Call Center Agent Saves Lives?
According to Colorado's 9News.com, a Visa credit card call center consumer fraud agent, Steve Maline, was talking to a cardholder about a potential identity theft when the man started gasping.
"I said, 'sir are you having a heart attack?' He said yes,'" Maline told 9 News. The Vias call center is in Denver, but the man in distress was in Texas. Maline, with the help of his manager, was able to contact an emergency crew that saved the Texas man's life.
Call Center Doesn't Save Lives
A year ago, Tongan Prince Tu'ipelehake, Princess Kaimana and their driver, Vinisia Hefa were driving on highway 101 near Menlo Park, California when a speeding Mustang sideswiped their SUV, causing an accident that killed the three.
Critics say this could have been prevented if staffing levels at the Golden Gate Communications Center weren't so low -- "Only 96 of 150 authorized positions were filled," reports the Palo Alto Daily News.
It turns out that a flurry of calls about the speeding Mustang came in to the center minutes before the fatal accident, and some say that having more agents would have meant quicker responses and, maybe, a California Highway Patrol officer could have intercepted the Mustang before the accident occurred.
That's a lot of maybes, but staffing levels remain low today, even after the CHP admitted that low staffing may have been to blame.
Relief may finally be in sight. Next year. "By the end of June 2008, the center that serves the nine-county Bay Area expects to fill 138 of 147 authorized positions," a CHP sokesman told the Daily News.
Call Center Novel Filmed
Chetan Bhagat's 2005 novel One Night @ the Call Center is finally being filmed in India.
It will be titled "Hello..." reports the Hindustan Times, and it will star Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif.
The film adaptation will be co-written by the book's author, and the film's music will be provided in part by some of the many bands in Delhi's call centers. The film opens this summer.
Uganda to Explore Call Center Outsourcing
Kampala, Uganda's Makerere University will be opening a $1 million (U.S.) call center in hopes of attracting lucrative offshore business, reported East African Business Week.
In the mean time, the center will handle national directory services. The center will employ 200 agents, working in three shifts, and will be scalable to 700 seats.
"First we are going to set-up a one-stop centre providing directory services and strive to create a database of say 400,000 clients," the University's Micheal Niyitegeka told Business Week. "Then we will expand our portfolio to provide services like customer care, data entry, indexing, and telemarketing for banks and telecom companies."
The center will be staffed mostly by students. Uganda's official languages are Swahili and English.
Xerox Transfers Irish Agents to IBM
Nine-hundred call center employees at Xerox's Ballycoolin, Dublin, Ireland call center will become IBM agents.
"This is the outcome of a review that will see through a partnership with IBM employees of Xerox seamlessly transfer to IBM. All 900 staff will have the same terms and conditions of their employment and will remain at the same facility," a Xerox spokesperson told Silicon Republic.com.
Flood Disaster Call Center Set Up in Oklahoma
The Bartlesville Examiner Enterprise in Oklahoma reports that the Washington County Emergency Management department opened a call center to deal with flooding.
President Bush has declared parts of Oklahoma a federal disaster area. River waters in Bartlesville were almost five feet above flood stage.
The call center (918-331-2710) will take damage reports from citizens between 8 AM and 8 PM.
