Our people are our greatest asset. In this blog series, we feature one-on-one interviews with individuals from our global team. Get to know us and our people...
Meet Amy Hamill, our Contact Centre Manager. After graduating from university, Amy kickstarted her career in the fast-paced world of retail management where her interpersonal skills soon got her noticed. These skills stood her in good stead for her first career move when she accepted a role at a bank contact centre.
During this time, SmartPA launched its own contact centre. Given Amy’s experience and expertise in the sector, she was a natural fit for the SmartPA team and joined us as a Client Support Executive. Since then, Amy has continued to grow in knowledge and confidence and now, two-and-a-half years in, she is thriving in her role as Contact Centre Manager within the SmartPA Centre of Excellence.
Read on to discover what she believes sets the SmartPA Contact Centre apart from the competition, and how the pandemic is changing attitudes within businesses.
What is the SmartPA Centre of Excellence?
The Centre of Excellence is the service delivery of SmartPA, and it consists of both our Contact Centre (the call handling side) and Business Support (the administrative side).
It is our role at the Centre of Excellence to demonstrate the strength of our services to clients. It is also our job to ensure we continually develop the best ways of working and deliver exceptional brand experiences.
Why did SmartPA launch the Contact Centre?
The department was borne out of a notable demand from our existing clients who were using our administrative services on a retained basis. It wasn’t long before the department then grew independent of our existing clients and grew into the global team it is today.
Read our 10 reasons why you need a call handling service.
Has the SmartPA Contact Centre evolved since those early days?
Absolutely – namely because we have really listened to the needs of our clients and adapted our services accordingly.
What benefits are there to utilising both the Contact Centre and Business Support services?
It’s a real benefit to businesses to use both our administrative services and our call handing services as it allows for the smoother transfer of information, and all enquiries can be dealt with so much quicker, and to a higher standard.
How does SmartPA differ from other virtual call and contact centres?
We do so much more for our clients than just take a message! We act as their full reception team – booking in appointments, taking orders and payments for example. I think that’s really what sets us apart from other companies.
How are you able to deliver a personalised service for each client?
We never want customers to feel like they are talking to a general call handling contact centre. So, we really listen to what our clients need – we cover off a lot of information with them before our service goes live, so we really get a feel for them as a company and how they’d like us to be on the phones.
Has the pandemic affected attitudes to outsourced Contact Centres?
Yes, I think one of the biggest things to come out of the pandemic is that people have realised the benefits of using a call handling service and it isn’t something to be afraid of. We’ve proved that having someone filter your calls for you can free up a considerable amount of your time, and that has real value.