Sheffield-based Help & Support

[#1]

@Bob, I vaguely remember saying keep the customer support  in Sheffield, it is good to see that at last you are seeing sens.  
Are PlusNet going to shutdown Africa support center and move all back home to Sheffield?
So that All Billing, Signup's and so on, will be handled by Sheffield only!

[#2]

Well done guys - excellent news. I really do think having a UK based service centre is an very good sales aid - as lots of people are fed of overseas call centres .
And it's great too you are investing in new staff in Sheffield - a great thing to do in these difficult days.

[#3]

Hurrah!
I am so happy as I am all for home grown companies to employ homegrown talent.
When I was on Madasafish, people I spoke to were South African, we both found it difficult to know what each other were saying so it is is good news that it will all be one place in  Sheffield.
1. When will the party celebarations start and invite people who use the forums
2. Will we be introduced to the new staff and what roles they have?
3 Plusnet Towers must be huge if got quite a lot of staff.

[#4]

Well done, a great decision and I'm sure it will pay dividends for Plusnet (and us)
Now if you could just manage to get me  20mb broadband I'll be well happy 

[#5]

Can I say, I told you so?
BTW read my sig!

[#6]

yes you can, I told them so too.
Bob, your article is absolute tosh and an insult to our intelligence. I suggest you go and rewrite it and say the Durban call centre was a complete failure.

[#7]

......hmmmm, a bit mean we can't comment page isn't it?   
I dread to think what 150 newbies will do to customer support? 
Nice to put a re-cap on though, should stories like that not be on the front page for all new customers to see, not just those who wander over to the community pages?
Ah well, I best go check my PM's and to see what the latest is on my thread 

[#8]

Credit where it's due - IIRC BT recently announced its intention to move all call centre operations back to the UK - PN have actually done it.

Quote from: TicnTac

...should stories like that not be on the front page for all new customers to see, not just those who wander over to the community pages?

I doubt PN want to crow about having had a foreign call centre in the first place. 

[#9]

Quote

should stories like that not be on the front page for all new customers to see

It is on the front page of www.plus.net, on the right hand side there are 3 links for the latest news. It's the top one of those at the moment.

[#10]

I assume support for Madasafish customers be moving to Sheffield as well ?
Regards
Mike

[#11]

Hi Mike,
Yes. All of our support operation is based in Sheffield, MAAF included.
dick:quote

[#12]

Quote from: Midnight

Are PlusNet going to shutdown Africa support center and move all back home to Sheffield? So that All Billing, Signup's and so on, will be handled by Sheffield only!

Yes, this has already happened.

Quote from: idlewis

2. Will we be introduced to the new staff and what roles they have?

They're not *all* new! We've been recruiting heavily here in Sheffield for almost a year now. It's a mix of skills that covers pretty much all aspects of our Customer Support operation.

Quote

3 Plusnet Towers must be huge if got quite a lot of staff.

This is us here.

Quote from: john50

Now if you could just manage to get me  20mb broadband I'll be well happy

Shouldn't be too long to wait if the 31st May 2011 RFS date for your exchange doesn't slip.

Quote from: A

BTW read my sig!

Yep, you might want to modify that!

Quote from: Oddball

Bob, your article is absolute tosh and an insult to our intelligence. I suggest you go and rewrite it and say the Durban call centre was a complete failure.

I don't think that's very fair to be honest. The guys in Durban did a great job during the acquisition of Brightview (and afterwards). There's no way the Sheffield operation would have been able to handle this single-handedly. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy we're now in a position to bring support back to Sheffield in its entirety, but credit where credit's due.

Quote from: TicnTac

I dread to think what 150 newbies will do to customer support?

Some of the newer starters have been here a while now. They're not all at the same level of aptitude.

[#13]

Thanks Bob

[#14]

Just gone into the member centre via call statistics page and there were 40 calls in the queue with a wait time of almost 15 minutes (not sure if that was correct with all those calls waiting to be answered). 
Not sure if the work has been all handed back to Sheffield at this time but if it has, Durban is sure being missed!

[#15]

Quote from: poppy

Just gone into the member centre via call statistics page and there were 40 calls in the queue with a wait time of almost 15 minutes (not sure if that was correct with all those calls waiting to be answered).

All work has been handed back to Sheffield and both figures are correct. There are days when the longest wait tips the 15 minute mark and this was the case prior to the operational changes. As I mentioned in a previous post, there's bound to be a certain degree of adjustment whilst we get used to the changes.
I'll see if I can dig some stats out that show some of the reasoning behind our decision...