Good customer service makes a brand - Martinu Ndala

No one understands customer service more than customer-facing agents, who ensure that every call ends with a satisfied customer. After all, customer service makes a brand and the aforementioned, amongst many other factors, has placed the 'Most-Admired Brand' MTC on the podium.

A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person, and when it comes to this, Martinu Ndala best understands his role as a call centre agent who also works for the MTC Spectra helpdesk support team.

For any aspiring call centre agent, this career is known to be very demanding but also extremely rewarding as it is an environment where learning does not stop as one is faced with different obstacles and challenges every day.

The young professional’s journey at MTC started in 2019 as an inbound call centre agent, who was promoted to an outbound support agent in 2020 before joining the Spectra team.

"It has been a continuous learning journey. I have gained a lot of experience from being part of the Spectra team and call centre. It is never a guaranteed smooth journey, but one has to experience all the quality and uniqueness of being in a call centre. It can be stressful at times, but at the end of the day, as long as the customer smiles and has their issue resolved, we should be fine for the next call," said Martinu.

Build knowledge

Call centre agents are required to have a 360-degree orientation of the company’s products and services. For Martinu, this, he says, makes work easier because one cannot advise a customer on an issue that they do not know themselves. Martinu has a Radwin certificate, something he took on out of curiosity but has helped him along the way.

"I now know the colour coding of connectors and Huawei routers are my playground. I have basically been equipped with the playbook for customer service throughout my time at MTC. The company has endless opportunities and while you can take a horse to the river, it is surely true that you cannot force it to drink," he said.

As a Spectra and data agent, Martinu’s job is to ensure that fibre and Netman clients are up and running. When these clients experience difficulties, it is Martinu’s job to ensure that their connection is up and running within 30 minutes from the time the complaint is raised.

For the love of work

Highlighting what he loves most about his job, he said: "Technically, the callout. Just going that extra mile to a client’s premises to ensure their internet connection is up and running gives me joy. I love being a data agent as it provides and equips you with new knowledge continuously. You are put on your toes because you always need to think. Just to add, the part where I also get to test out new equipment; it’s like a kid in a candy shop; the excitement of opening a new router and testing it out to its best capabilities also brings joy and love to me, knowing very well that if I slack, clients will not get the best equipment for their internet."

According to Martinu, experience means everything, and customer service is an experience before and after. The company, with arguably the biggest call centre in the country, prioritises training on customer service for its agents with the ethos of offering the best experience in the industry.

"The MTC customer is literally everywhere. They are in a taxi, at home, at school, and in public places, so your game always has to be on. The best part is that it’s a continuous learning journey and we are lucky to have a customer base that is always looking forward to new innovations and they are not shy about teaching you," said Martinu.

Not all is roses and flowers though. "Nothing beats you down when you are explaining something, and the client starts insulting you. It throws you off completely. But because we also get emotional intelligence and customer service training, we know how to handle such situations."

The number-one requirement to make it in the customer service industry is empathy.



"Empathy is a very important quality of a successful call centre agent. A warm and friendly approach will go a long way towards developing a good rapport with a caller. An agent must be able to convey a genuine understanding of a customer's concerns and assure them that they are being heard. The rest will follow once you have empathy," he said.



In addition to empathy, Martinu says being patient and providing feedback add up to what makes a good call centre agent.



"Always follow up with clients, provide constant feedback to clients, as this goes a long way in building strong relationships. Bad feedback is also feedback provided," he said, while highlighting that honesty also plays a huge role.