Outsource Magazine

Sometimes, the news is reassuringly conventional and all the more practical for that. Take the 24 March 2010 announcement from Kenya's largest BPO provider and outsource call centre operator, KenCall that it has "launched a pioneering new Rapid Transition contact centre model." The idea is a solution to the emergency and time crucial emergency situations in which nobody wishes to find their business but that, when they do arise, can destroy a norganisation overnight. There are also, of course, planned situations when additional call handling capacity can make the difference between a successful campaign and a wasted investment.  As KenCall explains, "Private and public sector organisations are regularly stuck with the need to quickly set up or expand their call handling capacities [such as in] public health crises or during high profile marketing campaigns."

KenCall has drawn on experience gained from its famine relief contact centre to develop a model that helps organisations respond rapidly to public health crises or during high-profile marketing campaigns. The white paper also cites case studies of successful rapid roll outs from NHS Direct, the City of London Police and KenCall itself. in fact, KenCall’s featured case study looks at its ambitious four day set up of a 109 famine relief centre in 2009. KenCall worked with the government and telecommunications providers to set-up a national 109 number for famine victims to call when they needed help.  The system allowed KenCall agents to take up to 12,000 calls a day from famine victims and produce detailed reports to deliver aid supplies when and where they were needed.

Sometimes, doing routine things really well and coming up with ideas to improve operations away from the glamour of the new will actually result in something that is likely to be valued by users for decades to come and this idea from KenCall might just fall into that group. As Nik Nesbitt, KenCall’s Founder and CEO, comments, “Being able to speak to customers whenever they need you is vitally important. The tragedy is that companies and organisations are frequently unable to do this when it matters most. In times of crisis or business opportunity, people often flounder unable to cope with inbound calls."

Interested parties can download a free copy of the whitepaper here.