“Our
goal is to make this the leading BPO facility in Kingston, and the preferred
place of choice for employers and employees in the BPO sector. In addition to housing BPO operations, it
will also include skills training facilities, which will in turn help to supply
the BPO sector with the requisite talent. There will also be facilities and
amenities that will serve those who will work there”
Managing Director of GK
Investments, Steven Whittingham commenting on GraceKennedy Call Center to
located in Downtown Kingston
Looks
like the rumours are indeed true about Call Centers being the next Growth
economy in Jamaica. GraceKennedy has finally made it official; they've entered
into a lease agreement with the Postal Corporation of Jamaica aka Jamaica Post
to set up a Call Center as reported in the article “GraceKennedy
to invest in BPO facility in downtown Kingston”, published Wednesday,
December 16, 2015, The Jamaica
Observer.
They
plan to lease a section of the Kingston CSO (Central Sorting Office) located on
6-10 Camp Road in Downtown Kingston. Apparently my guess as to the location of
the Kingston CSO was way off base, as the Tax Administration Office is actually
on East Street as noted in my blog article
entitled “How
to find work in Jamaica at Call Centers - GraceKennedy’s Call Center at CSO to
open November 2015”.
No
wonder I could never find the Kingston CSO (Central Sorting Office) as I always
wondered where exactly it was located. Most Call Centers tend to be very
secretive both their actual location, so it's nice of GraceKennedy to actually
state exactly where it is.
GraceKennedy Call
Center – GraceKennedy reveals location after Faux Paus leaves my visitors
confused
Not
a big fan of working in Call Centers, but the news is sure to please resident
of Downtown Kingston, as it will help to develope Downtown Kingston, to quote
Managing Director of GK Investments, Steven Whittingham: “We are excited about
this project because of the role we know it will play in the redevelopment of
downtown Kingston, as well as the creation of a minimum of 500 to a maximum of
4,000 jobs”.
For
those of you unfamiliar with Downtown Kingston as I am, scope out this Google
Map which shows you the location of the Kingston CSO (Central Sorting Office).
Very
rare for Call Center owners to reveal their location. Still, my confused
readers now have an idea of where to travel to work, once GraceKennedy starts
advertising for agents, which is expected sometime in the First or Second
Quarter of 2016.
So
aside from GraceKennedy finally revealing the actual location of their planned Call
Center, what else is new about the GraceKennedy Call Center?
GraceKennedy Call
Center - Necessary for Product Customer Support
Not
much really.
GK
Investments Limited, the subsidiary of GraceKennedy Limited, is apparently the
one gunning for the Call Center in this obscure part of Downtown Kingston.
This
section deals with planning future purchases to make more money with minimum
risk as was the case with the move to test out the water in Nigeria as noted in
my MICO Wars Blog article
entitled “Why
GraceKennedy Dunn’s River Nurishment line in Nigeria, Africa is a bet for the
Future”.
GK
Investments Limited is also being super secretive, choosing to go with
business-friendly Jamaica Observer as opposed to the Jamaica Gleaner with
regards to their Call Center. As for the, leasing arrangement with Jamaica Post
as mentioned in my blog article
entitled “How
to find work in Jamaica at Call Centers - GraceKennedy’s Call Center at CSO to
open November 2015”: there are a few
addition details
1.
59,000 square on the 2nd Floor
2.
200,000 square feet in the future
3.
500 Seats
4.
4,000 seats in the future
Plans
are also in place to lease section of GraceKennedy Call Center to other
accounts.
Of
course in all of this, GraceKennedy Group CEO Don Wehby has stated that this
move is an investment in Jamaica as the economy is showing signs of growth,
quote: “I am really happy to see the company investing in the BPO sector, well
known to be a significant growth area for Jamaica. I am even happier to see
that the development is taking place right here in downtown Kingston, which has
been the home of GraceKennedy for 93 years. This is in keeping with GK’s
strategy in terms of making private equity investments in growth sectors,
primarily in the Jamaican economy”.
No
information on these other accounts will be but my Call Center peeps I bump
into from time to time have pointed out that aside from FLOW Jamaica, most of
their clients may be international companies, such as Amazon with few local
Banks with ScotiaBank being one of them.
GraceKennedy Customer
Care – Expansion into America and Europe means Customer Care Required
However,
Grace Kennedy may actually be planning to use the Call Center to host their own
Customer Care Center from their own products, with FLOW Jamaica merely being
one of several Clients that will fill the 200,000 square feet in the future.
This
as their expansion into North America, Europe and Africa necessitates that they
provide some form of support from their growing line of products on Amazon and
elsewhere as noted in my MICO
Wars Blog article entitled “How
GraceKennedy will achieve 20% growth in the USA via Amazon”.
They
may already have contracted a Call Center to do this, but may have realized
that they can do this themselves, much in the same way Digicel handles their
own Customer Care and Call Center. The American and European customers, being
more used to a first World type of service, means controlling the Customer Care
experience was becoming necessary to maintain their high quality brand image.
Job
hunters, as more information comes to light, I’ll post it on my blog as GK
Investments Limited moves in and stakes a claim in the lucrative Call Center
world.
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