Responsible & Regulated

Finding solutions, one call at a time

Lee Anne Gibson is a problem solver.

A 23-year employee of Atlantic Lottery, she’s worked 12 of those years as a representative in the Customer Care Centre. Also known as the CCC, the team of about 50 Moncton-based employees fields calls, emails and social media posts from retailers, technicians and players on an array of topics, including anything from technical issues and online account access to questions about specific games or responsible gaming resources.

A member of the retailer-focused team of representatives, Gibson troubleshoots lottery and video lottery issues, walking callers through solutions, sometimes remotely accessing terminals to investigate and, if needed, scheduling service calls.

A particular source of pride for CCC representatives is that 90% of problem calls are resolved in-house.

“That’s the beauty of this job, it’s the problem solving,” Gibson says, adding that she likes being able to fix retailers’ issues over the phone because it minimizes the need for a field technician to travel to the site. “If they can avoid needing to go on a call, then I’ve done my job.”

The CCC is typically a hive of activity, humming with friendly chatter as representatives answer incoming calls. One corner of the CCC features an array of retailer terminals and demonstration video lottery machines so that representatives can familiarize themselves and offer hands-on guidance on everything from navigating menus to fixing paper jams.

Representatives also have a step-by-step manual – known as “Manny” – to guide their conversations. Atlantic Lottery logs the types of issues being reported and, if a caller has a problem the CCC has never encountered before, it gets added to Manny so other representatives will know how to fix it.

For education and continuous improvement, representatives meet with their team leads once a week to assess and self-assess performance, share techniques and get updates on any upcoming changes.

Darlene Rand, the CCC’s manager, joined Atlantic Lottery as a representative in 1992 and has since held several positions in different departments – experience that gave her wide-ranging knowledge about how different parts of the business operate.

She says providing representatives with the resources they need to help customers is essential. New representatives undergo a six-to-eight-week period of training, shadowing and mentoring before taking calls from the public on their own.

“Training is the most important thing we can do,” she says. “And not just training on the business, but training on the soft skills as well.”

The approach has garnered recognition for the CCC, which received four Awards of Excellence from Contact NB in 2018, including one for social media and digital innovation.

Pedro Caro Molina, a representative on the player side of the CCC, says he enjoys the unpredictability of the job.

“It’s fun, it’s challenging and it’s different with every call,” he says. “You always have to be changing and learning and getting better every day.”

Molina also says that his supportive co-workers help make the CCC an environment aimed at solving people’s problems.

“When they say that Atlantic Lottery is a customer-based business, it’s because it is. It’s like a small-town mentality where you want to help your neighbour,” he says.

“We are more than just a call centre here. We are building relationships.”

Rand says that customer-first mentality is exactly what she looks for in a CCC representative. “If you have that mindset of customer service and going that extra mile to make sure that they have everything they need and they’re satisfied, I can teach you everything else. You have to come into the role with that genuine desire to help and to make things better.