The City of Cape Town will launch a FreeCall line at the Luyolo Multi-Purpose Centre, Gugulethu on Wednesday, 20 February 2013 as it takes another step in bringing customer care closer to disadvantaged communities.
The City has installed 64 FreeCall lines in outlying areas and disadvantaged communities in Cape Town and a further 20 are set to be connected by the end of July 2013. Many informal settlements, including some without Telkom infrastructure, will benefit from these new lines.
“The purpose of the FreeCall lines is to improve service delivery by increasing access to the City’s call centre. We are extending the network of FreeCall telephones to areas where low volumes of service complaints and requests are currently being registered – usually because of a lack of cellphone airtime on the part of the customer or a lack of available telephone lines,” says the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Corporate Services, Alderman Demetri Qually.
The FreeCall lines can be used to contact the City for various enquiries and service requests such as accounts enquiries, refuse collection, illegal dumping, water leaks, sewer blockages, faulty street lights, pot holes and damaged roads.
A call centre agent will respond to queries from customers using the FreeCall lines and, where further action is required by a particular service department, the complaint or request will be logged by means of a service request. The customer will be provided with a reference number for follow-up purposes.
The pilot phase of this project was launched in July 2009 when four FreeCall lines were installed in City facilities.
“The lines connect directly with the City’s call centre number, and residents are encouraged to report faults, register complaints and make enquiries at no cost. They will also now receive an acknowledgement SMS with reference number for follow up,” says Alderman Qually.
