8 September 2013

Wellington gets ‘sold’ to Asia Pacific national and multi-national businesses

In its first major marketing initiative to create and base its global call centre operation from Wellington, CallActive has launched a “love Wellington” campaign to more than 1200 potential clients in the Asia Pacific region.

Mayoral candidate John Morrison, who “discovered” Melbourne-based CallActive when setting the St Kilda AFL ANZAC Day club game earlier this year, said the Capital was being marketed as cost effective, culturally aligned, language consistent, modern infrastructure, educated workforce, close proximity, stable economy and a safe environment.

“At a time when Wellington is losing major businesses it is fantastic to see CallActive establish itself here and aggressively market the Capital as the perfect place to set up and do business,” Morrison said.

“They are using Wellington as a reason for new clients to join them and when they have an expression of interest they bring them here to do their due diligence, so their clients can see for themselves why Wellington is such a good place to base their call centre business.

“This all translates into jobs. It creates a future for our large student population as they transition through their education and go on into their chosen professions, but CallActive has a special interest in helping mothers gain confidence and make a return to the workforce.”

Morrison said call centres were transitioning into much more than “someone on the other end of telephone line with a sales pitch” and were transitioning into the “shop windows” for large national and multi-national business operations.

“When people have a problem with their television channel or want to query an account, they want to talk to a person who can give them the answer to their questions, rather than a computer. Call centres are also moving into the digital enquiry and response as consumers take up the option of making their enquiries or requests via emails or social media,” Morrison said.

The call centre company is employing and training 20 new staff a week, with 90 Wellington staff, but it has the potential to provide 1500 to 2000 over the next few years.

CallActive chief executive Rick Allan said CallActive this week won a contract for an Australian energy company in direct competition to Auckland businesses.

“It means another 35 to 40 jobs before Christmas with scope to increase at the start of 2014. We have appointed a training co-ordinator and we are bringing our back office to Wellington, which will create still more jobs over the next year,” he said.

Morrison said CallActive’s progress in just three months has been quite remarkable.

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