5th November 2022 marked not only Bonfire Night, but also the first Cape Town Communication Day in three years (no thanks to the global pandemic!).
A bit of the backstory...
As with the UK Communication Days held in the summer, this was a great opportunity to engage with the Cape Town team with both Rob Kerr and Ian Jenner leading from a TotalEnergies point of view.
It was also an opportunity to give something back to the WNS staff after all their efforts this year which have included being instrumental in driving Trustpilot up to a 4.3 (Excellent) which is something we can all be proud of.
How the day went..
The format of the day was broadly similar to the UK Comms Day, with a briefing on the year to date for TotalEnergies, the challenges in the marketplace and the needs of our customers at this difficult time, and the way forward, from Rob. In addition, Ian Jenner shared a view of the performance for the year for SME Customer Service as well as celebrating some of the successes and focus on the next steps.
There was a breakout session focused on suggesting improvements to how we operate – these are after all now the people who know our customers and processes best. A number of good ideas were shared, some of which we will move forward with.
Time for recognition...
There were a lot of awards handed out to very deserving ‘champions’.
After six years, we have a lot of very loyal and high performing staff in Cape Town looking after our customers – which also offered an opportunity for Rob and Ian to stumble over a few South African names after the microphone was thrust their way.
The fun bit....
We then moved onto the more ‘fun’ (not that gas, power, and customer service can’t be fun….) parts of the day, including an ‘Ultimate Survivor’ team building event with activities including giant catapult catch, archery, and some brain games amongst others. The day ended with some social time with a local Marimba band playing (this is South Africa after all) and also offering some instruction for willing victims…. (volunteers)….
Brandon Losper (Head of the TotalEnergies account for WNS) and Ronelle Swartz (Head of Operations for TotalEnergies for WNS) led from the Cape Town side with some very willing volunteers doing all the organising; the event was compered by the Collections Team Leader Morgan Thomas.
All the team had a great day and to get nearly 140 people on a Saturday was a huge achievement and shows the commitment and loyalty of our staff in Cape Town!
Let's wrap it up, shall we?
Rob Kerr, our Customer Services Director aptly articulates how important these days are both to WNS employees and to us at TotalEnergies:
The communication day events are very important to the business; they provide a platform for two way dialogue, sharing of information on key business priorities and a chance to engage across the whole company. Outside of this they are also just a great excuse to have a little fun and celebrate success. We were not able to do these over the last few years, so it was great to be able to re-launch them in 2022. We have always mirrored the events from the UK into Cape Town, so our team there can also get the same key messages.
The event in Cape Town was a huge success and very enjoyable day. It was good to meet the team outside work and spend some quality time with our friends and colleagues while on our recent visit.
L to R: Rob Kerr (Director, Customer Service, Brandon Losper (Head of TotalEnergies WNS Account)
L to R: Ian Jenner (Head of Service-SME, Customer Service), Ronelle Swartz (Head of Operations for TotalEnergies for WNS
Thanks to everyone in Cape Town for arranging it and making it such a massive success - hopefully it will be a year rather than 3 years until the next one!
“
