THE new call centre introduced by the Road Accident Fund (RAF) will ruffle the feathers of those who've been abusing the system for far too long.
The fund has implemented a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution, allowing agents to manage claimant interactions from registration to finalisation.
"It has been a struggle for claimants to get a hold of us, especially those coming to us through lawyers.
"What we're doing here is integrating all platforms. Whether that means writing to us, sending us a WhatsApp, calling us directly or emailing us," said RAF chief executive officer Collins Letsoalo.
Letsoalo spoke before the Midrand launch on Monday, 9 October, alongside Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga.
These latest efforts are part of the fund's commitment to make 2023 the "Year of the Claimant".
It also happens under Transport Month, an initiative first launched in October 2005.
The contact centre is open from Monday to Friday from 7.30am to 4.30pm, and claimants can reach agents via their new contact number, 087 820 1 111 or customer service email address.
At least 300 agents are available to answer claimants and attend to their pleas. If a call is missed, they will return it.
The project manager at RAF, Thembi Masilela, explained that the centre would operate on three platforms - claims query management, complaints management, and Know Your Rights.
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The Know Your Rights platform is a campaign initiated for claimants to know how much their representative was paid, as this information is usually withheld.
Like any new project, Masilela stressed the need for a pilot phase filled with much trial and error.
"There was a lot of learning. We had to develop scenarios looking at the basic queries we revived from our claimants, and we had to simulate that with the contact centre agent with the systems they will be using on the day we activate. Gaps were identified whether it was a process issue, or a people issue, or a system issue, and the relevant teams would be pulled in to assist," he said.
Minister Chikunga praised the move as a step in the right direction, cutting out middlemen and strengthening relationship trust between agent and claimant while improving service delivery.
