BRIDGETOWN—Columbus International Inc, operators of Flow and Columbus Business Solutions, has announced the creation of two regional Centres of Excellence for its call centre and customer retention functions to significantly improve its customer experience across all eight of its operations in the Caribbean.
In making the announcement, John Reid, president and chief operating officer, said establishment of the Centres is part of a series of initiatives designed to enable the company to achieve its bold vision of being recognised as the premier service provider and employer of choice in the Caribbean. Through the establishment of the Centres, Columbus has created more than 100 new jobs across the region, and now has a staff of 1,800.
Last year Columbus grew from four to eight countries adding: Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, and Antigua & Barbuda. Now along with the operations in T&T, Jamaica, Grenada and Curacao, the company currently serves more than 650,000 customers.
According to Reid, the company is growing at a phenomenal rate, and “as a major regional player delivering best in class products and services, we also have to ensure that our customer experience is also best in class. In addition to focusing on this goal, Columbus is implementing programmes to create an overall culture of excellence in the workplace. We will introduce a series of employee development initiatives to help us achieve this vision of excellence.”
Since the beginning of the year, Columbus has been making structural changes to bring more focus to its customers and employees. The recent promotion of Michele English, president of the company’s Jamaican operations, to the post of executive vice president and chief customer officer, was one such significant step. Columbus joins a small percentage of international companies to create such a senior level, customer-centric position that focuses on all of the customer touch-points across its operations.
The second step is the creation of these two major Centres of Excellence where Columbus will centralise its customer experience and other key functions which according to Reid, “will focus on harnessing our strengths, maximising resources, including human and capital resources to ensure we reach our customers with one voice, one approach and with one vision of excellence.” T&T will be the site for the company’s regional call Centre while Jamaica will host the customer retention and collections functions.
Marketwired