Yoke Har Lee: Staying local pays off for call centre operator

Training is critical, says Telnet managing director John Chetwynd. Photo / Brett Phibbs

It isn't quite Manila- or Mumbai-sized, but in 12 years Auckland's Telnet has become one of Australasia's largest call centre operations.

While those overseas centres are still vying for jobs by offering low-cost solutions, Telnet is increasingly focusing on handling calls which require greater complexity and more attention to the customer's experience.

Since 1997 the company has grown from a 20-seat operation to one with 155 seats, and a growing focus on the Australian market.

Managing director John Chetwynd and his American partners founded Telnet in 1997 when a previous venture - between Baycorp and Telnet Systems of the US - did not take off as anticipated.

In its infancy Telnet had 20 staff in its Hobson St office. "In the early days it was more like you grabbed whatever bit of business and worked like mad," says Chetwynd.

He still remembers the initial years, when revenue was around $50,000 and the average call the company made cost more than it was paid.

The 1997 Auckland power cuts have special memories for Chetwynd. As the city was plunged into chaos, Telnet clinched work from Mercury Energy to handle calls.

Not long after, Telnet won a tender to handle calls for Vector, building a name for itself in a call centre market dominated by multinationals.

Now Chetwynd is looking to exceed $8 million in turnover in the 2009 financial year and Telnet's clients include Sony Ericsson and GE Money.

"This is Telnet's time," he says. "We have put a lot of work into getting things right."

Telnet recently clinched a major contract with Statistics New Zealand to handle inbound calls for the 2011 Census. In the few days leading up to the five-yearly national stocktake, more than 100,000 calls will be made to operators - a huge volume compared to what Telnet typically handles.

New Zealand may not be able to compete head-on with global call centre operations, but the relocation of larger call centres away from Auckland has proven to be a blessing as Telnet picks up jobs where it can provide specialised NZ-based service, Chetwynd says.

"There is significant offshoring going on - to Manila and India. You hear a lot of it. With 70 per cent of the input cost being labour, it is very much like manufacturing."

He accepts that Telnet cannot compete on cost. Its key focus is on servicing companies that need a 20-50 seat operation with local and cultural affinity.

The Kiwi accent can sound comforting for Australasian customers, and in Australia Telnet has managed to beat competitors to win the Sony Ericsson contract. It also handles outbound calls for GE Money into Australia.

As Telnet's operators may handle more than one company or different industries, training is critical.

Chetwynd believes that contact centre operations handling directory services (such as retrieving the telephone number of a bank) will continue to move away from New Zealand to low-cost centres.

Telnet has been using a computer-telephony software platform supplied by Zeacom and has been adding applications to provide the edge to its system.

The company won the Telecommunications Users Association of NZ award for Outsourced Contact Centre of the Year for two years running, 2007 and 2008.

When the company was younger, its challenge was to deliver consistency and learning how to scale quickly. "Now we have a stronger operational management system to enable us to deliver business with more consistently. Now the challenge is to grow."