Satellite TV provider Top TV made a booming entrance into the South African market, with over 50 000 decoders sold during its opening weekend.
Six weeks in, the company has sustained this growth rate by increasing decoder stock and expanding its call centre capacity.
Top TV chief marketing officer Elouise Kelly explains that since the company's opening weekend, 100 000 more decoders have been delivered into the market, with the intention to bring in an additional 40 000 per a month until the end of the year.
Top TV, although confident in its offering, did not expect the considerable demand and has had to make speedy adjustments to sustain the growth boom. Initially, the company's call centre had only 30 agents, but ended up handling 1 000 calls every hour.
“We are obviously pleased with the response, but we are worried that customers are not getting through to the call centre,” the company's publicity manager, Melinda Connor, noted at the time.
The pay-TV provider, aided by a partnership between Dimension Data and Interactive Intelligence, has since upgraded its call centre from a 50-seater launch site to a 140-strong solution.
The solution providers have assured that future infrastructures deployed are not only able to support current customer demand, but also offer manoeuvrability to accommodate expansion as the subscription broadcaster really takes flight.
“At present, the contact centre is primarily geared towards new business, but as enquiries translate into signed contracts, it will further support Top TV's customer interaction and service provision function going forward,” explains Anton Jooste, GM for customer interactive solutions at Dimension Data Middle East and Africa.
“We are coping better than we did at launch. Our call centre call answer rate has increased from 40% to 80%, although we are still aiming for 95%. Our installer base has also been increased and the turnaround time for installations has decreased significantly,” notes Kelly.
At this rate, the company's business plan of signing up 500 000 subscribers over the next few months to ensure success is well on its way. The greater goal, however, is to reach the 5.5 million available households in the market.
“As a business which has only been in operation for just over six weeks, we are refining our operations on a daily basis to ensure we are able to deliver a service which will work for our subscribers and the South African public as whole,” concludes Kelly.
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Top TV makes booming entrance
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