The Contact Centre Management Group (CCMG), a professional body of the contact centre industry in South Africa, recently announced the top businesses and professionals in the industry. Recognising it as a business role model in innovative ways of working, Discovery Health received both the “Best Domestic Contact Centre” and the “Best Contact Centre Support Professionals” awards, while Discovery Vitality received the award for “Best Technology Innovation”.
Commenting on this acknowledgement, Karren Sanderson, Chief Operating Officer at Discovery Health, says, “Contact centre innovation and high service standards in South Africa are key factors that set businesses apart. Being recognised through an award of this nature, is extremely gratifying. With over 45 million customer interactions each year across multiple service channel facilities, keeping up award-winning service standards requires significant innovation, planning and smart execution. In our ongoing pursuit to perfect and personalise service rendering, we are encouraged by this credit of our work that also recognises every person in our operations team who ultimately make it possible.”
Joe van Niekerk, COO of Discovery Vitality adds: “There are so many integral parts of our business that put Discovery’s values into action – but our servicing and operations centre teams essentially become the ‘face’ of our business to the public and they have represented us excellently. It is a proud moment to have received these awards.”
The National Contact Centre Awards are organised by the CCMG, which represents over 2,000 contact centres, 22,500 top and middle managers and 10,000 agent-level individuals.
The award category “Best Domestic Contact Centre” is awarded to the best contact centre facility in South Africa that houses inbound and outbound customer service channels. This year, the “Best Contact Centre Support Professionals” award was presented to Angela Rademeyer who heads up Data Science at Discovery Health.
Vitality’s Best Technology Innovation award was presented for its innovative Ask Discovery virtual agent, a contact center functionality that uses artificial intelligence capabilities to serve customers via a chatbot.
The business places customer experience at the centre says Sanderson, “Service excellence has always been a fundamental part of our differentiation. We invest in new ways of thinking around what clients want and need and implement technology that enables easy contact and query resolution. This award not only affirms that we are on the right track, but also motivates us to continue identifying ways we can keep delivering the best experience in the industry. As a team, we are grateful for this recognition.”
