Shaking up the North

Haufiku is a call centre supervisor for MultiChoice Namibia based at Ongwediva.
Ester Kamati
Michelline Nawatises



Simon Haufiku is conquering the northern part of the Land of the Brave. He obtained a national certificate as a boilermaker at the Windhoek Vocational Training Centre (WVTC) and then obtained a Higher Certificate in Management (Logistics Management) from Southern Business School.

Currently, he is busy with his Bachelor of Business Administration (Disaster Risk Reduction) degree.

“I started working at MultiChoice Namibia as a customer service representative,” he says. He became a trainer and after five years, he moved on to his current position as a call centre supervisor.

His job is about preparing call centre representatives for responding to customer queries and troubleshooting problems with services or products. He ensures agents understand and comply with all call centre objectives, performance standards, and policies.

“I answer agent questions regarding best practices or difficult calls, identify operational issues and suggest possible improvements. I am also responsible for monitoring and evaluating agent performance, providing coaching opportunities, and taking corrective action, if necessary,” he says.

There is a lot that goes into preparing reports and analysing data to assist management as they determine call centre goals. Every day, Haufiku works with other supervisors and management to support agents and maximise customer satisfaction.

His biggest challenge is making the career transition from trainer to call centre supervisor. “I had to learn the art of coaching which was a bit challenging,” he says.

His biggest accomplishment was being seconded to the MultiChoice Africa training team where he played a role in the rollout of the new business system into various African markets.

As a part of this team, Haufiku trained other trainers from other countries and provided support in-country before going live. In addition to this, he was directly involved in user acceptance testing for the new business system for Namibia.

His day consists of having to confirm all systems are a go at the office as well as having morning briefings (Microsoft Teams meetings) on various issues that may have impacted the team during the previous shift or that might impact them.

He then gets updated from different departments on any new campaigns/promotions or comms that need to be sent out to customers which may affect the call centre. “I always monitor our call centre queues, agent performance and all other statistics throughout the shift to ensure we maintain our service level,” he says.

Haufiku loves a challenge or anything that forces him to rethink things and adopt. “I am inspired by my mother as she is a true testament that you can do whatever you set your mind to,” he says.

The advice he would give to young people is to run your race as it will never be too late for you to do what you want to do.

The best phase in his life was attending WVTC as he learned so much about himself. If he had an opportunity to change something in the world, he would see to it that everyone should have their basic needs met.

“I believe this will stop most crimes and deaths taking place in the world today,” he concludes.