SYDNEY, N.S. — Not even a pandemic has been able to slow the growth of a once-shuttered Cape Breton call centre that has now become one of the key locations for a growing chain of North American contact centres.
It was just over two years ago that MCI swept in to acquire the Servicom Canada Ltd. call centre and its workforce. Since then, the newly named Sydney Call Centre has added clients and employees, even during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were very quick to get our people at home working, which obviously was step one in satisfying our clients and making sure the growth opportunity remained,” said Todd Riley, senior vice-president of pricing and profitability for the call centre.
“Because we were so quick in front of the opportunity we were able to grow our client base.”
Riley said about 75 per cent of the call centre’s estimated 650 employees are now working from their homes.
The rest remain socially distanced at its main Sydney location where safety measures such as contact tracing, temperature checks and ongoing disinfecting remain in place.
He credited the efforts of Shauna Graham, vice president of operations, and Rick Ward, director of operations, for overcoming the challenging conditions presented by the pandemic.
“I think they have really done a great job rallying the troops and ensuring that the majority of the employees we have are well looked after and they have the best training and the best sales managers out there.”
He said clients have been "exceptionally happy" with the performance of the work from employees working at home.
Tracking has also shown that overall attendance among employees has increased and attrition improved.
“Our retention has been very, very strong and I think those are some key measures, making sure we had the right plan in place to execute.”
Riley, himself, has been working from home and expects that to be a big part of the Sydney Call Centre’s future, even when the pandemic ends.
“I think if the quality and the performance wasn’t there, I think that would be a major asterisk and we would need to pull people back,” he said.
“I think because of the maturity and the tenure and experience people have really taken this opportunity.”
Employees have taken a lot of pride in working from home and have shown great professionalism and discipline, he said.
“We still monitor them from the centre but, again, we have been able to, in particular with Shauna and Rick, manage that program from afar.”
The Servicom call centre was acquired by American-based MCI and its CEO Anthony Marlowe in December 2018 and was named the Sydney Call Centre when it reopened in January 2019.
Riley said MCI has grown from seven to 15 North American locations and tripled its workforce since then to more than 5,000 employees.
Greg McNeil is a business reporter at the Cape Breton Post.
