As part of gathering perspectives for this article, we spoke with Senior Manager: Customer Contact Centre, Mr Rowan Farmer, who highlighted key customer service trends, challenges, and ongoing initiatives aimed at improving the overall customer experience.
1. Please provide an overview of the Customer Contact Centre and its role within Telecom Namibia.
The Customer Contact Centre (CCC) is a key link between Telecom Namibia and its customers. The CCC is responsible for several operational functions, namely the Call Centre, Technical Service Support Team, Social Media Desk, and the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC).
Through these functions, we provide customer support, technical assistance, digital customer engagement, service coordination, and maritime communication and emergency support.
The CCC also works closely with other departments to ensure customer enquiries and service-related issues are directed to the correct teams and followed through to resolution.
2. Why is the Customer Contact Centre such a critical part of Telecom Namibia's customer experience strategy?
For many customers, the CCC is their first point of contact with Telecom Namibia when they need assistance.
We play an important role in how customers experience our organization by understanding their needs, providing accurate information, resolving enquiries where possible, and coordinating assistance with other departments when required.
The CCC also provides valuable feedback to the business on recurring customer concerns, service challenges, and areas requiring improvement.
3. Average, how many customer enquiries does the CCC handle, and what are the most common issues customers contact the team about?
The CCC handles a significant number of customer interactions every day across our various service channels.
On average, the Call Centre receives approximately 1,800 to 2,400 calls per day, while our social media and email channels handle approximately 250 to 300 customer interactions per day.
Common enquiries include internet and connectivity problems, fixed-line faults, mobile services, billing and account enquiries, reconnections, service activations, network-related issues, and general product and service information.
4. The CCC is often the first point of contact for customers. How does the team ensure customers receive professional, timely, and effective support?
We use established service standards, processes, escalation procedures, training, and performance monitoring to maintain consistent customer service.
Our staff are expected to listen carefully, understand the customer's needs, provide accurate information, and resolve matters as quickly as possible.
Where an issue requires further assistance, it is escalated to the responsible team and followed up until feedback or resolution is received.
5. What happens behind the scenes when customers report service-related issues?
When a customer reports a service problem, the CCC gathers the necessary information and performs initial troubleshooting where applicable.
If the matter cannot be resolved immediately, it is referred to the relevant technical or operational team for investigation.
The CCC assists with monitoring the case, following up with the responsible teams, obtaining feedback, and keeping the customer informed where required.
6. How does the CCC collaborate with technical and operational teams to resolve customer concerns and service interruptions?
The CCC works closely with technical teams, Field Services, ICT, Network Operations, Billing, Finance, and other operational departments.
We provide these teams with the customer and service information required to investigate an issue, while they provide technical feedback and resolution updates.
This collaboration is important because delivering a good customer experience is a shared responsibility across Telecom Namibia.
7. What measures are in place to ensure customers remain informed during major outages or network incidents?
During major outages or network incidents, the CCC works closely with the relevant technical teams to obtain verified information on the failure, affected services, impacted areas, and progress toward restoration.
The PR Office coordinates the customer communication process, including requesting the relevant affected customer data and preparing the approved customer message based on the information provided by the technical teams.
Once the customer data and communication are ready, the Customer Contact Centre sends targeted SMS notifications to affected customers, informing them of the service interruption, affected services, and relevant updates.
The same information is shared with our frontline staff so that customers contacting us receive clear and consistent information. Where appropriate, information is also communicated through social media and other available customer communication channels.
8. Customer service can be demanding. How does the CCC maintain a high standard of service, even during peak periods?
We continuously monitor customer demand, service levels, staffing, workloads, and operational performance.
During busy periods, resources are prioritized toward the areas experiencing the highest customer demand. Supervisors closely monitor operations and make adjustments where necessary to ensure customers continue receiving assistance.
The CCC also depends heavily on teamwork. When volumes increase or major service incidents occur, employees and supervisors work together to manage customer expectations, prioritize urgent matters, and ensure enquiries continue to be attended to.
Strong teamwork, effective supervision, clear processes, and committed employees allow us to maintain our service responsibilities even during demanding periods.
9. What qualities and skills do you believe are essential for a successful Customer Contact Centre team member?
A successful CCC team member needs strong communication and listening skills, patience, empathy, resilience, accountability, and problem-solving ability.
They must remain professional under pressure and be willing to continuously learn as technology, products, systems, and customer expectations change.
Most importantly, they must understand that every customer interaction represents Telecom Namibia.
10. How has the CCC evolved over the years to meet changing customer expectations and technological advancements?
The CCC has evolved far beyond the traditional telephone-based Call Centre.
Today, our responsibilities include the Call Centre, Technical Service Support Team, Social Media Desk, digital customer communication, operational coordination, reporting, and the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre.
We are also increasingly focusing on automation, digital channels, integrated systems, and artificial intelligence to improve both the customer and employee experience.
11. Can you share a recent example where the CCC played a significant role in resolving a customer challenge or supporting a major business initiative?
A good example is the Penduka90 Project, where the CCC worked closely with Field Services technicians to reduce outstanding fault orders and improve the speed at which customer services were restored.
As part of the initiative, the CCC developed an escalation portal that allowed faults requiring technical intervention to be sent directly to technicians. Technicians could receive these call-outs on their mobile phones in real time, giving them immediate access to the information required to attend to and resolve customer service failures.
This improved coordination between the CCC and Field Services, shortened the communication process, and contributed to reducing the number of outstanding fault orders.
The project demonstrated what can be achieved when customer-facing and technical teams work together toward a common objective. Customers experienced faster service restoration and responded positively to the level of service they received.
Most importantly, initiatives such as Penduka90 help rebuild customer confidence in Telecom Namibia by demonstrating that we can provide the fast, responsive, and reliable service our customers expect from us.
12. What are some of the biggest misconceptions people may have about the work performed by the Customer Contact Centre?
One of the biggest misconceptions is that the CCC only answers telephone calls.
Our responsibilities are much broader and include customer service, technical support, ICT Helpdesk functions, social media engagement, case and escalation management, customer communication, reporting, operational coordination, and maritime communication and rescue coordination.
The Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) is a particularly specialized function of the CCC. Based in Walvis Bay, the team supports maritime safety and Search and Rescue coordination within Namibian waters.
The MRCC maintains continuous maritime watchkeeping and radio communications, monitors and responds to distress situations, maintains communication with vessels, and coordinates with the relevant authorities and emergency services when maritime assistance is required.
The team also supports communications with vessels operating in or entering Namibian waters and plays an important role in ensuring that maritime safety and emergency information is communicated and coordinated effectively.
This is a very different environment from a traditional customer service operation, but it demonstrates the broad and important responsibilities that fall within the CCC.
13. Beyond answering queries, how does the CCC contribute to Telecom Namibia's broader mission of keeping Namibia connected?
The CCC helps identify service problems, coordinate fault resolution, support service restoration, manage escalations, and communicate with customers.
Through the Technical Service Support Team, we support technical escalations; through the Social Media Desk, we engage customers through digital platforms; and through the MRCC, we support critical maritime communications and emergency coordination.
Every successfully resolved fault, restored service, answered enquiry, or correctly coordinated escalation contributes to keeping people connected.
14. What makes you proud of the CCC team and the work they do every day?
I am proud of the team's resilience, commitment, and willingness to serve our customers every day.
The CCC operates in a demanding environment where employees may face high customer volumes, system challenges, network interruptions, service failures, resource constraints, and customers who are understandably frustrated when their services are affected.
Despite these daily challenges, the team continues to perform its responsibilities and remains committed to delivering the level of service expected by Telecom Namibia.
Our employees often have to work through circumstances that are outside their direct control, while still remaining professional, managing customer expectations, finding alternative solutions, and ensuring that matters are correctly escalated and followed up.
I am equally proud of the diversity of responsibilities the team manages—from customer service and technical support to social media engagement and critical maritime communications.
Much of their work happens behind the scenes, but their commitment, resilience, and contribution to Telecom Namibia and the customers we serve are significant.
15. Looking ahead, what is your vision for the Customer Contact Centre's role in enhancing customer experience at Telecom Namibia?
My vision is for the CCC to continue evolving into an integrated Customer Experience Centre that is increasingly digital, automated, proactive, and data-driven.
Customers should be able to contact Telecom Namibia through their preferred channel, while our staff have a single view of the customer's history and interactions.
We also want to use automation and artificial intelligence to handle routine enquiries, improve response times, identify customer issues earlier, and allow our employees to focus on more complex customer needs.
Ultimately, our goal is to make it easier for customers to do business with Telecom Namibia and easier for our employees to serve them effectively.