New local recruits start servicing regional customers

December 21 2020

Horizon Power’s new purpose-built Customer Experience Centre in Broome is a step closer to completion with the first six members of the new customer contact team taking their first calls from Horizon Power customers located throughout regional and remote Western Australia this week.

Earlier this year, as part of the role it is playing in support of the State Government’s WA Recovery Plan and consistent with its ‘regions first’ guiding principle, the largest electricity service provider in regional Western Australia announced it would relocate its customer contact centre from Melbourne.

Horizon Power is investing more than $2.9 million to set up a new, locally-sourced team of contact centre professionals and a bespoke Customer Experience Centre, which is currently under development in the Paspaley Plaza in Broome’s Chinatown, eventually creating 10 new local jobs including two Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander traineeship positions through the support of the Nirrumbuk Aboriginal Corporation.

Horizon Power’s GM Customer Experience, Krystal Skinner, said new team members taking their first calls is an important milestone in delivering a new standard of service for customers.

“It is not unique for a customer-focussed business to outsource aspects of its call centre interstate, but our decision to bring our call centre operations back from Melbourne to Broome is a reflection of Horizon Power’s commitment to investing in our regions of operations, our desire to create local employment and always improving our levels of service to our customers,” Krystal said.

“We are doing this in conjunction with our existing service provider, Computershare, who have temporarily relocated two staff to Broome to ensure reliability and continuity of service delivery, which demonstrates their commitment to what we are trying to achieve.

“We are working closely with Computershare to gradually transition the contact centre from Melbourne to Broome over a period of about six months to give the new team enough time to come up to speed and ensure that we continue to deliver a high level of service to our more than 45,000 customers located across the Kimberley, Pilbara, Gascoyne/Midwest and Goldfields/Esperance regions.”

Computershare General Manager Utility Services, Ben Corin said six new recruits from Broome had joined the business and already undergone three weeks of training and induction in preparation for taking first calls from customers.

“Computershare Utility Services is excited to expand upon our long-standing relationship with Horizon Power to establish a new Customer Experience Centre in Broome,” Ben said.

“We understand the significance of the WA Recovery Plan and are delighted to play our part in stimulating the economy and creating jobs for Western Australian regional communities.

“We have embraced the opportunity to create local business partnerships with the Broome Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) and Nirrumbuk Group Training (NGT) and we look forward to developing these relationships in the long term.”

 

Media contact: Jodie Lynch (0457 800 661)

Email: Jodie.lynch@horizonpower.com.au