Philippines call centre won't take Kiwi jobs: Orcon

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CEO denies jobs will be lost in New Zealand as a result

By Sim Ahmed | Auckland | Thursday, 16 February, 2012 | 16 Comments

No New Zealanders will lose their jobs as a result of Orcon opening a new call centre in the Philippines, says CEO Scott Bartlett.

“There are absolutely no roles being removed from our business as a result of this call centre,” says Bartlett.

“This isn’t us going through a reduction, if anything it’s because of massive growth in the last year.”

Bartlett told Computerworld the decision to open a call centre in the Philippines in April is not an indictment against New Zealand, but came about as a result of recent growth from its Genius product.

"In the first few months of Genius we ended up selling what we thought we would in an entire year," says Bartlett.

"The past eight to nine months have seen a pretty dramatic change here, especially with Genius. We’ve recruited 100 additional roles since July last year to help cope with the demand."

He says the call centre will help alleviate customer wait times, and improve overall user experience.

Twenty to 30 people will be hired for the Philippines call centre team, which will be managed by Auckland-based Datacom. This team will focus on non-technical enquries such as account information, billing, and other general queries; while technical queries will be dealt with by Orcon’s existing North Shore call centre.

“The people we hire in New Zealand are fantastic problem solvers. The team here will be specialists hired to solve technical issues,” says Bartlett.

Bartlett says Orcon plans to hire a further 13 to 14 new staff for its North Shore centre.

Comments

Job loss? I don't know what he was talking about with regards to job loss, we've heard a hell of a lot as of late with regards to people losing their jobs, and that includes accounts staff. Wouldn't surprise me at all if we see job loss in the short forecast.
Posted by Anonymous at 11:49:07 on March 9, 2012

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not a good move Orcon Offshore outsourced support- who cares so long as the support can fix the problem while on the phone and not fob you off with a case number.

Genius service is crap - be warned!. 2 months of a nightmare of a service - try running a business with a service that decides 5 days out of 7 that is won't work fully. Voip concept is great yet Orcon's solution is far from consumer market ready.
Posted by Anonymous at 21:34:31 on February 21, 2012

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Orcon - the new JetStar All Orcon had to do was be better than Telecom. Not difficult, but they managed to make Telecom look good.
Vote with your feet, people, I did.
Posted by Anonymous at 10:43:24 on February 20, 2012

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Orcon The customer service from Orcon is a disgrace I spent 4 m to get my Genius installed and they did not acknowledged that or compensate also I ve lost my original Phone Nr (porting a DDI to Orcon is a no no)also the service is bugged with micro outages.Shame on you.....and hire the right people with Telco knowledge not chimps.Like Telecom s call center the Phillipins one will be crap and they will abuse customers or minimize Orcon's liability.

Posted by TELCO Guru at 12:30:03 on February 18, 2012

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Orcon I have had a great experience both times I called the Telecom call centre in the Phillipines. I dont think location matters in this respect - (NZ or Overseas) both ways you get what you pay for.
Posted by Anonymous at 10:44:58 on February 20, 2012

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Philippines might be better I've been an Orcon user and fan for a while, and agree the past year the customer service has been unacceptable. Earlier this week I had a fault resulting in many of my usual numbers being unobtainable. I gave up on the call centre after 20 minutes on hold, and used the faults email instead. Response time - 5 days. Lucky I had a mobile with another carrier!

By the way, service on 018 Directory has never been better than since the shift to Manilla!
Posted by Anonymous at 9:50:45 on February 18, 2012

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What a load of rubbish Man I have been with Orcon for many years and I have promoted them to many people over those years.

In the past year I have had 10 customers go to other providers and all because their support has taken a dive.

The main reason this is a problem is they have tired to go to big to fast and we all know that most companys that grow at this rate loose all the original people that helped them get there.

Posted by Bagacious Being at 21:16:11 on February 17, 2012

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Move it to Pluto I've been an Orcon customer for years and had the misfortune to decide to move house. Based on what I had to go thru with Orcon as a result (4 weeks with NO phone or internet at all, HUGE waiting times to get thru to anyone at the call centre..if I managed to at all), I can see why Seeby W has a multimillion $$ mansion....they clearly spend the bare minimum on things like (a) a decent call centre and (b) providing service to their customers. So Orcon can move the call centre to Pluto if they like: the service could not be any worse.
Posted by Anonymous at 17:04:18 on February 17, 2012

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Call centre won't take Kiwi jobs This would make a great Tui billboard!
Posted by Hamish at 15:42:15 on February 17, 2012

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Can't be any worse Can't be any worse than their current call centre. At busy times there is simply a message that says they are not able to answer the call and then cut you off! Unbelievable from a company that sells telecommunications. I used to be a great fan of Orcon but their customer service in the last year or so has been so poor I left for Vodafone (their customer service isn't any better but at least they are cheaper).
Posted by Anonymous at 13:22:03 on February 17, 2012

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