One call at a time

Ester Kamati

Rodney Seibeb, an employee at Mobile Telecommunications (MTC), values the interactions that he has with clients. The young man, who deals with clients first hand, takes pride in the fact that clients trust him enough to make their problems disappear when they call him at the MTC call centre.

Describing MTC as the “best place to work for,” Seibeb says it brings him joy to know that he has provided clients with an excellent service, and if the pressure of dealing with tough clients kicks in, the MTC facilities make provision for their employees to get rid of the stress.

Seibeb says often when the customer has difficulty using the service and trustingly calls him as the agent to resolve his query, he feels a sense of accomplishment when he is able to assist. “Imagine you are in a foreign country. You can’t roam, you can’t communicate with your family and friends. So at MTC our goal is to meet our customers’ expectations whenever they call in.”

He added that as an agent, he feels joy when he hears the words “thank you so much for assisting me” from clients. He is tasked to create a personalised package for each and every consumer, be it a student or business client.

Seibeb believes in the notion that “the customer is always right” and when it comes to interactions that are a bit sour or dealing with angry clients, Seibeb always reminds himself that clients do not have extensive knowledge about the products and services and therefore the customer is not wrong. He added that it is his responsibility regardless of the circumstances to give an apology and listen to the client’s query. When they call in, “that customer is giving us an opportunity at the end of the day to fix it (the problem),” he said, adding that they could have gone to another service provider but decided to give the company a chance to redeem itself. “The magic thing that I do and it really works is - I don’t take it personally.”

Professionalism and proactivity are characteristics that are of outmost importance to Seibeb. “There is a difference between giving a service and going the extra mile.” Going the extra mile, he suggests, means advising clients to upgrade to a more beneficial package after studying their records instead of just topping up their airtime, if that is what they called about.

Working in a customer service department, “you need to be relatable and bring solutions to the customer,” which he ties to proactivity. He advises against using slang and colloquial language with clients. “We are the first-hand customer approach so that’s how the customer will perceive MTC. If I give a bad customer experience to the client, that is how they perceive the whole company.”

Cross-selling is one of Seibeb’s most valuable abilities, which helps him excel at his job. Based on the client’s stated requirements, he always suggests something that may work better for them. “Instead of you buying N$200 airtime, why don’t you just subscribe to Super-Aweh?” is a typical example of how he gives clients more convenient and affordable options using his cross-selling skills.

Seibeb is a part-time artist who composes and sings his own music. He also loves reading. “If you read, it enables you to see things from a different perspective. It becomes broad, it becomes huge.” He likes to read self-help books, “something that will benefit me at the end of the day about how to be responsible and change of mind-set”.