Six months after Digicel Bermuda moved its customer care team to the island from Trinidad, some customers are still taken aback when an agent with a local accent answers their call.

“There were a lot of customers who wanted to speak to a local voice, someone they could relate to and who was based here,” said Laura Husband, head of the customer care team that answers calls on behalf of Digicel and its partner company, BTC, explaining the move.

“Now, we are here, we are local — and some people are surprised, saying things to our agents like ‘I know your mother’.”

Adds agent Timika Smith: “Using landmarks for directions is better now. If someone asks me where the Digicel store is, I can say it’s upstairs from Boyle’s, whereas someone from Trinidad wouldn’t know that.”

The move created five jobs, three for agents and two for managers, taking the team to 18 agents and three managers.

Ms Husband said: “Our customer care manager, Kijana Millett-Pratt, was an incredible addition to our team, and we are continuously receiving customer compliments about Kennai Burchall and Timika Smith, as well as the other members of the team. People write in, or call in, to tell us of their efforts, which we highly encourage. I couldn’t be prouder.”

Ms Smith said: “It’s about letting the customer know that we care, we understand, and we appreciate them.”

Donn Foggo, marketing and product manager at Digicel, said: “Our customers have been asking for this for a while. This was a good opportunity to not only contribute to economic growth, but support young Bermudians and put our customers first.”

Periodically, Mr Foggo said, a Trinidad-based agent will answer a customer’s call — for example, during extremely busy periods, or when a storm hits.

“That was the case during Humberto,” Mr Foggo said, “as we wanted our employees to be safe at home, but we also wanted to make sure customers could contact someone immediately.”

Ms Husband is joined on the team by Ms Millett-Pratt, quality assurance manager ZacQuaya Butterfield, and customer care agents Ronesha Christopher, Shirl-Ann Taylor, Deanaé Burgess, Janae Minors, Renika Anderson, Ky’Anah Outerbridge, Taisheka Talbot, Tierra Souza-Wolffe, Aubrey Mayes, Valerie Simmons, Aisha Robinson, Julita Looby, Ian Mcpherson, Christopher Wellman, Kyrresha Tucker, Edwin Dill, Mr Burchall, and Ms Smith.