ITI Articles

New Zealand Management Academies contact centre students have just given charity organisation LifeLine a huge funding boost.

From June 23 to July 4, 16 NZMA Certificate in Contact Centre and Employment Skills students took part in a live campaign, aimed at raising money for and awareness of the telephone counselling service.

The Auckland West Academy students lent their services free of charge, and during the two-week campaign called over 12,000 numbers in the Waitakere area and raised a significant amount of money for the cause.

NZMA contact centre tutor Penny Hostetler said LifeLine was thrilled with the result and have already booked NZMA students in for further campaigns in October and November.

“This is the second campaign we have run for them and both times they have been very pleased with the outcome,” she says.

“LifeLine does not run an ‘annual appeal’ and they are mostly reliant on business sponsorship and now our telemarketing campaigns.  They do such good work and it’s really wonderful to be able to help them.  Running these sorts of campaigns is NZMA’s way of giving back to the community.”

The students involved were in the final three weeks of their 20-week contact centre course.  Towards the end of each course the students take part in a campaign for a charity.  NZMA has run previous campaigns for Books in Homes, Heart Children New Zealand and the Get Organised Charity Event, to name a few.

Penny said the campaigns benefited everyone.

“As well as giving us the chance to contribute to a worthwhile cause, it also provides a great opportunity for our students to gain real work experience.  During the campaign the students put into practice everything they have learned during the course and also learn first-hand how to deal with different customer situations.  They are also assessed for seven unit standards during the two-week period.”

At the end of the campaign the students all wrote letters of thanks to LifeLine’s Sarah Frayne, telling her how valuable they found the experience.

Student Jenny Wightman described it as a “remarkable opportunity”.

“During the campaign I gained real life experience in talking to customers on the phone.  Because it was cold calling, I came across many different kinds of people; I learned some very useful skills and improved my English a lot.  In particular the experience taught me how to treat some difficult customers in an appropriate way and to be patient, calm and friendly with them,” said Jenny.

Her classmate Gaylene Thompson agreed.

“The campaign has been a great experience in my role as a customer service representative, as I have been able to put to good use skills and techniques I have learnt during my NZMA course.  To be able to use them in an authentic environment has been invaluable,” said Gaylene.

“It was great hearing how passionate my classmates were about raising funds for LifeLine because they felt it was such a worthwhile cause.  Also to hear them as CSRs was humbling because they all brought their own personal qualities to their role as fundraisers for LifeLine.  I enjoyed the campaign very much.”

NZMA’s Auckland South and Hamilton Academies also run regular campaigns for charity as part of their Certificate in Contact Centre and Employment Skills courses.