By Casey Neill
Patterson Cheney has created 15 new jobs in Dandenong.
The Dandenong Street contact centre should grow to 30 employees in the next 12 months.
Intellicall directors Robert Zima and Jesse Green started working on the call hub in February.
They were due to switch over the first lines by Friday 7 July, and will stick around until the end of the year to finish the move.
“They’ve really welcomed us as part of the family,” Mr Zima said.
“They’re one of the more progressive automotive companies.”
Mr Green said the centre was the most advanced of any he’d been to.
“It’s a one-stop shop. We handle all types of calls,” he said.
“We’re not an answer and transfer service.
“We actually take the call and we manage it from beginning to end.
“The guys have had almost four weeks of training.”
Contact centre manager Michella Vornovaty and her team are now taking “inbound calls for our service and sales departments for both Toyota and Isuzu trucks and utes”.
The other dealerships – Honda, Holden, Mercedes-Benz, Iveco Trucks, Man, Western Star Trucks and Dennis Eagle – will come on board in coming months.
Previously, reception at each dealership fielded these calls. Ms Vornovaty said this system would provide more consistency.
“I guess we really want to set ourselves apart from other dealerships and stand out,” she said.
She said all staff members lived locally, with some able to walk to work and many ditching long train and car journeys.
Patterson Cheney started when Mr SA Cheney became an assembler of US vehicles in 1915.
Bill Patterson bought into the business in 1972 and it’s been known as Patterson Cheney ever since.
The Bertalli family now owns the company, which is one of Australia’s largest car and truck dealer groups and employs about 650 people.
That’s set to grow with the new Waverley Mercedes Benz.
The company’s Dandenong operations were originally in Lonsdale Street and a truck dealership was just behind the post office. These combined in 1983 on the current Cheltenham Road site.
Mr Zima urged people to visit www.pattersoncheney.com.au/careers for new contact centre positions.
