The outsourcing of Cable and Wireless Jamaica's (C&WJ) Kingston contact centre along with the Homefone pre-paid and high-speed Internet product lines, have affected the efficiency of its customer care centre, the company confirmed, yesterday.

Earlier this year, 200 employees of C&WJ were made redundant when the company outsourced sections of its call centre operations to ACCENT, a global provider of outsourced customer relationship management solutions.

Rodney Davis, president and chief executive officer at C&WJ, had promised that the company would be working with the experts at ACCENT to ensure that C&WJ customers receive an improved level of service.

However, since outsourcing the Kingston contact centre, customers seeking information have been waiting long periods for service.

Long waits

Some claim to have waited up to 24 minutes before receiving assistance.

Checks made by The Gleaner to the customer care centre saw this reporter waiting over 31 minutes seeking technical support for Internet services.

In a statement yesterday, the company said corrective measures have been taken to address the problem.

"In addition to the 200 customer service representatives currently on the production floor, our provider has hired and is in the process of training over 70 more employees to provide customer service," said Errol Miller, vice-president of corporate communications and corporate affairs.

He noted that the company was aware that customers are still experiencing unusual delays for repair services, Homefone services and Internet technical support, estimating the waiting time to be between three and 12 minutes.

"We expect the service to return to par within 90 days of the transition, and to achieve world-class standards shortly thereafter," Miller added.

The transition period has been ongoing for just under six weeks.

- Yahneake Sterling