2016-Nov 04: Immigration Contact Centre – Key Messages to Staff

Visa Pak 284: Information regarding the Immigration Contact Centre and how branches can co operate with high call volumes.

Visa Paks

4 November 2016

Immigration Contact Centre – Key Messages to Staff


The Immigration Contact Centre (ICC) is experiencing extremely high volumes resulting in extended call wait time for Immigration New Zealand (INZ) clients. Customer contact increases in relation to seasonal peaks and high numbers of on-hand applications in visa processing offices. Other matters such as policy and process changes can also have the effect of driving contact to ICC.
 Although ongoing system improvements and resourcing initiatives are underway at ICC, visa processing offices can assist in reducing call volumes by considering the following steps.

Proactive communication
Keep customers informed at major application milestones such as when allocated to an officer for processing or where delays are to be expected due to medical/third party referrals. If the delays are likely to be significant, a quick email to a client letting them know the reason and that an officer will be in touch at a later point may potentially stop frequent requests for updates on the progress of their application.

When an officer has their first interaction with a client, they should provide a realistic timeframe for next steps in the application process. Let them know that there is no need to follow up with INZ on the progress of their application as we will contact then as soon as we need more information or a decision has been reached.

Out of office messages
When initiating automatic out of office messages, instead of featuring the ICC phone number, include contact details of a colleague or buddy who can reply to urgent requests on your behalf until you return.

Review office-specific communications
Some offices may have unique newsletters, compliment slips or other written handouts specific to their market. Guide customers towards the INZ website and other potential online information links as the primary source of information instead of ICC as a first point of query. Consider whether references to ICC are necessary in these communications when information can be found through other means.

Reply to customers within SOP timeframes
Clients will often make repeat contact with INZ if their emails or messages go unanswered for several days. If you receive contact from a client or adviser, including contacts escalated from ICC, acknowledge their message immediately. If you are too busy or unable to provide a substantial or robust answer to their query at the time of query, give them a timeframe by which you will reply to their email/phone call. If the query is not urgent most customers are willing to wait for a substantial reply for a little longer if they have had their initial communication acknowledged.

Keep ICC updated
Where significant events occurring in your market or office are outside of BAU, such as a change to counter services operations, a sudden increase in wait times for label issuance or a shift in where applications are being processed, please send ICC the details. If ICC staff are aware of these issues or changes they will be able to more efficiently deal with queries from clients.