How to find work in Jamaica at Call Centers - GraceKennedy Call Center necessary for Product Customer Support

“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.