Wightlink’s Call Centre, the hub of the fast moving booking system for the busy ferry company, has moved to smart new offices within the terminal building at  its Portsmouth Harbour facility in the first stage of an overall head office move into new premises, with some departments moving to the same building and others relocating to the company’s Gunwharf terminal.

With around 40 full time staff, rising to about 60 at the height of the booking season, the Wightlink Call Centre handles 750,000 calls a year and operates 7 days a week with staff working shifts to enable all bookings and enquiries to be dealt with.

The new Call Centre has an entirely new and computerised telephone system which is highly efficient and can handle hundreds of calls an hour.  Also based in the Call Centre is the company’s web based booking system and all tickets, whether booked by phone or via the internet, are despatched from here.

The Wightlink Call Centre is run by two senior Duty Managers, Kathy Warren and Michelle Robertson, who have 25 years service between them. It is their calm management style which is at the heart of this vital operation, making sure the calls are answered, the bookings made, the tickets despatched and all the hundreds of questions from customers dealt with politely and efficiently.

Commenting on the new Call Centre, Michelle Robertson said: -

“This new office is a delightful environment to work in and will make my job of supervising the staff that much easier.  With the new and more efficient equipment we are able to handle more calls per hour and can monitor the calls coming in to make sure everyone is spoken to with the minimum of delay. It is frantic at times, but we have an excellent group here who get the job done as quickly as possible. ”

 ENDS                                                                                                        9th July 2007

For more information, please contact: -

Kerry Jackson, Marketing Manager, Wightlink Isle of Wight Ferries

Tel. 023 9285 5427, e-mail kerryjackson@wightlink.co.uk

or

Christopher Clode at Christopher Clode Public Relations

Tel. 01243 431343, e-mail chris@chrisclodepr.com