Netsafe wins top NZ contact centre award for second year

Netsafe's Contact Centre has been recognised as one of the top performing centres in New Zealand for the second consecutive year. The organisation was awarded the NZ Contact Centre award for the Not-For-Profit sector at the CRM/CCNNZ Contact Centre Awards event held recently. Additionally, Caitlin from Netsafe was honoured as the Most Outstanding Customer Service Representative, while Andrea Leask, Chief Digital Harms Officer, was a finalist in the Contact Centre Manager of the Year category.

The CRM/CCNNZ Awards celebrate excellence in Contact Centre operations, acknowledging the achievements of professionals who excel in leadership, education, stakeholder engagement, customer commitment, and support management. The Most Outstanding Customer Service Representative award highlights individuals demonstrating exceptional attitude, WOW factor, and professionalism. Caitlin was recognised for her outstanding dedication to service excellence and supporting Netsafe's objectives.

Brent Carey, Chief Executive Officer of Netsafe, expressed pride in the team's accomplishments. "I'm immensely proud of the Contact Centre team's achievement at this year's awards. This team is on the frontline, in the trenches, providing support to New Zealanders who have experienced harm online. People accessing our service may be experiencing the worst moment of their life, and our Contact Centre team provide non-judgemental advice, support and education to people of all ages and walks of life, to resolve their complaint. It's great to see their dedication to empowering people across New Zealand to have safe and positive online experiences being recognised," he stated. Over the last financial year, Netsafe received 28,468 reports of online harm.

The award evaluation involved a series of "mystery shopping interactions" over a five-week period conducted by expert judges specialising in Contact Centre operations. Each communication, whether via phone or email, was assessed on specific components of customer service, including time to answer, greeting, quality of listening, overall attitude, professionalism, and value added (such as advice to resolve the issue and prevent future online harms).

Andrea Leask explained that the Netsafe team works tirelessly to ensure a positive customer experience. "Their focus is on providing quick and efficient resolution of online harms and delivering the best service possible to the community they serve," she said.

Netsafe's Contact Centre is operational from Monday to Friday between 8am and 8pm, and during weekends and public holidays from 9am to 5pm, offering their services 362 days a year. Additionally, customers can submit reports via the company website, email, phone, or text message at any time.

The recent achievements add to Netsafe's list of accolades. At the YouTube NZ Marketing Awards, Netsafe, along with 2degrees, TBWA\New Zealand, OMD New Zealand, and Eleven PR, won the Best Use of Content Marketing Campaign for the First Phones Programme. They were also finalists in the Campaign Excellence – Not-for-Profit and Campaign Excellence – Best Use of Video Marketing Campaign categories.

Furthermore, the organisation received four Gold awards at the Muse Creative Awards for Hectors World in the video, education, cause/awareness, and children's categories. Netsafe also earned a Silver award for animation.

Looking ahead, Netsafe is a finalist in the 2Degrees Auckland Business Awards in the marketing and innovation categories for Re:Scam. They are also finalists in the Best Awards for small-scale websites and digital campaigns, again for Re:Scam developed by DDB Aotearoa NZ Group.