Contact Centre's Cath retires after 48 years

Preparing to retire on 29 August after 48 years with the council feels “surreal”, admits Contact Centre Supervisor Cath Cummings.  

Cath started with the then East Lothian District Council in August 1977 straight from Ross High School on a youth opportunity programme. Originally based within the planning department and attending college on a day release scheme, after six months she secured a permanent role in property maintenance. She remained with the service for 28 years, inadvertently paving the way to her current role in the Contact Centre.

“I was based in Brewery Park dealing with invoices when I first started in property maintenance,” explains Cath. “All the invoices would come over from the stores department then I would process them and take them over to finance. We took turns on reception desk dealing with suppliers when they came in, and then I started doing the tradesmen's timesheets, manually processing them and passing them to finance before answering any queries.”

Improving customers' experiences

Cath’s first steps into what has become the council’s contact centre began in a temporary unit in Macmerry dealing with housing repairs calls. The potential to develop the service more widely became clear and it has since grown into one of our primary channels of customer communication. Over 50 people work in the contact centre at Penston House, handling more than 500,000 calls  every year including our community alarm service which offers vital support for vulnerable residents in their own homes.

“It’s funny as I was trained on the switchboard when I first joined the council at 17. It had wires that you had to plug and unplug to direct calls. It sounds like it was 100 years ago but it wasn’t!,” laughs Cath. Eventually the switchboard function also moved from Haddington to the contact centre and the team continues to find new ways to improve customers’ experiences, most recently launching an online chat function on the website.

“There’s always something new to learn at the contact centre,” says Cath. “I get excited with any new systems that we introduce. Anything that improves customer interaction or customer service: that makes our customers’ lives easier. I loved speaking to my customers on the phone and really missed that.”

"I'm going to miss it all"

As someone who thrives on being busy, Cath admits that retirement is going to be a change but it’s something she’s ready to embrace. With a close-knit family, including her daughter Kendal  and granddaughter Mae, and plans to join a health club, there’s no doubt that she will quickly find a new routine. However she is going to miss the role, her colleagues and contact centre teams. “I like being busy and there's nowhere else in the council that I would have wanted to work,” she says.

“I've done customer services all my life and I love it. You’ll never be bored! The thing I’ve liked about the contact centre is that there’s so much change and we learn something new every day. It’s a great place to work with a really good team – the staff do an amazing job. I’m going to miss it all.”