Readers who want to connect with buyers, sellers or service providers through The Leader’s Classifieds advertisements can expect a new level of assistance and support with the opening of a new onshore call centre.
James Caulfield, the manager for Classifieds and Contact Centres with Australian Community Media, has been the project leader overseeing the new call centre. It’s the direct result of customer feedback he said.
“Our customers have spoken and we’ve listened,” Mr Caulfield said. “We’re bringing our Classifieds support service home.”
Mr Caulfield said Australian Community Media, a division of Fairfax and publisher of this masthead, believed the step was in the best interests of customers.
“Our customers have made it clear they prefer to deal with call centres that are Australian-based,” he said.
The new Classifieds support service began taking calls on March 1.
Mr Caulfield said his team was constantly looking for ways to improve their products and services. Key to this was the feedback received from customers.
“We know that our readers value our Classifieds content and there is a continued demand for Classifieds to announce, buy and sell in these trusted community forums,” he said.
Australian Community Media has made a substantial investment to establish the Australian-based call centre team that will assist with advertising and subscription needs.
Training commenced at the end of November last year for the team that will be based on site in Bella Vista in suburban Sydney.
“Over the past three months we have been establishing our new contact centre team to provide an improved customer experience and positioning our business for future improvements with growth opportunities,” Mr Caulfield said.
“Our own onshore contact centre will provide services for up to 50 of our publications for inbound classifieds and subscriptions.”
Look in your local newspaper or on the website to find the phone number for your support service team. They can help you place and pay for your Classifieds notice over the phone, 8.30am-5pm Monday to Friday and 1.30-5pm on weekends.
You also have the option of placing your Classifieds advertisement via self-service at advertisers.com.au at any time.
Mr Caulfield said he trusted the Australian public would be pleased with the decision to bring the Classifieds call centre back on to Australian soil.
He looked forward to this next chapter and to ongoing customer feedback for continued improvement in the service.