Australia Post to upgrade call system

Australia Post is to upgrade its call centre system in an attempt to reduce call waiting times, improve information accuracy and increase efficiency. Australia Post is to upgrade its call centre system in an attempt to reduce call waiting times, improve information accuracy and increase efficiency.

The current system, which is over 10 years old, will be replaced with a nationally consistent system in a bid to provide improved services to Australia Post’s six million customers.

General manager of Australia Post’s Commercial Division, Bill Mitchell said there would be no job losses or forced redundancies under the changes and that all call centre operations would remain in Australia.

Mitchell said the upgrade would give staff the “tools needed to assist customers more quickly and accurately.”

“At the moment our call centres work independently making the transfer of information difficult,” he said.

“There is an inability to re-route calls between call centres or divert overflow calls across a national grid.”

Mitchell said this impacted on Australia Post’s capacity to operate efficiently when combined with sharp increases in calls.

He said under the upgrade, six independent State-based call centres would be centralised into a national linked system from two locations, enabling them to share information.

He said consolidating the call centres into two existing Queensland and Victorian sites would bring Australia Post into line with industry best practice.

“Call centre staff working in New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania will be offered the opportunity to be retrained and redeployed into other areas of Australia Post,” he said.

“Staff will be fully supported throughout the process and have access to a HR support team to help them with career choices and transitions within Australia Post.”

The upgrade is expected to take around 12 months to complete and will begin in August.