about us
Making it happen since 1993
Welcome to Purple Ink, a proud member of the Phone Plus Group.
Building on the rich legacy of the Phone Plus journey that commenced in 1993, Purple Ink has emerged as a distinct entity within the group.
Under the leadership of Samantha Mills, former contact centre manager and now owner and director of business services, Purple Ink has set out to revolutionize the field of human resources. Samantha brings a wealth of experience in the contact centre industry and is an esteemed member of renowned professional organizations such as the Customer Contact Network of New Zealand (CCNNZ), Marketing Association (MA), and the Auscontact Association.
While Phone Plus initially focused on delivering traditional call centre functions, the company's evolution led to strategic partnerships with businesses, offering expertise in sales, customer service, market research, human resources, and critical back-office administrative processing.
At Purple Ink, we firmly believe in the power of investing in our staff members. We prioritize their training and professional development, ensuring they have the necessary skills and knowledge to excel in their roles. By doing so, we not only foster a highly capable workforce but also contribute to sustainable employment opportunities within local communities, including Northland and Southland.
Join us at Purple Ink as we embark on a new era of human resources solutions, driven by our unwavering commitment to excellence and innovation. Together, we can shape the future of HR services and make a positive impact on businesses and individuals alike.
THE PHONE PLUS FAMILY
OUR VALUES
We are always bold. This can be difficult to sustain, yet we have built up strong and lasting relationships with our clients.
This makes it easy to just pick up the phone and have an honest conversation in order to achieve the best outcome in the most efficient way.
The majority of our new work is generated by referrals based on the quality outcomes we provide for all of our clients.
Regular collaboration and quality assurance ensures an environment of continual improvement. This results in win-win situations for all stakeholders and customers.
We strive to create an extraordinary experience for our clients and their customers.
We work 24x7, supporting our clients at both operational and leadership and strategic levels.
We continually demonstrate foresight by planning for events and always stay abreast of situations, enabling us to flag potential issues and risk.
This is a value-add that we believe we are the absolute best at.
We like to make our work fun in every way! Our team is diverse, embraced and celebrated.
This engages our team to the max which affords us an enormous amount of support in times of need. They love coming to work for us.
Our team are flexible, agile and committed to supporting our clients and their customers.
The fun factor in engaging internally and with our clients' customers generates a continuous flow of compliments received on behalf of our clients.
We always make it happen! And that’s a fact.
Whatever our clients need, we are on hand and agile to support our them to achieve their required outcomes, whether sales or service.
we are kiwi owned, and locally staffed and operated.
OUR PEOPLE
SAMANTHA MILLS
DIRECTOR
Samantha, Group has over 25 years of management and leadership experience within both the public and private sectors. Samantha has proven experience managing and implementing new business and complex change initiatives over multiple sites and well as extensive knowledge of Contact Centre/Help Desks and their technology. Samantha has excellent commercial knowledge within business and consumer fields along with strong Client Relationship Management skills, ensuring a no surprises approach for clients. Samantha is an expert in maximising the value that Purple Ink can provide to our clients by way of sharing insights, our “ínk sights’” and managing risk for our clients’ organizations and businesses which are especially important for Government clients.
With an IT background Samantha’s knowledge and understanding of data and its security ensures all data and personal information is secure as it possibly can – no easy challenge in today world.
STEVE WAGNER
PROJECT LEAD & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
Based in Christchurch, Steve joined Purple Ink in 2024 in our business development portfolio to lead and grow our data collection, insights and research footprint.
Steve has lived and breathed data collection for over 20 years with leadership roles at IRD, Stats NZ and more recently within one of NZ’s leading research and insight agencies.
Steve understands the nuances in collecting high quality data that informs quality decision making. With a strong operational background, Steve has successfully collected data using telephone, face to face, paper, and online data modes within NZ as well as in the Pacific.
SACHUDA NAIKAR
BUSINESS MANAGER
Sachuda joined the Business Group in 2012 and has now been with our business for more than 10 years.
He has over 15 years in 24x7 contact centre services for high profile government, local government and Corporate clients.
Coming from both a strong finance, collections, and risk background, Sachuda is heavily focused on service performance, customer engagement and compliance.
He leads by example and rolls his sleeves up to get a job done and done well. Our team love his fair and considered approach.
REEMA KAUR
TALENT ACQUISITION
Passionate About People!
With a background working in various business roles, Reema is a strong believer for a business to succeed, prosper and live up to its potential, with the right people must be at the heart and forefront.
Her passion comes from comes from a strong customer service and business support background, working with people from all over the world.
Reema helps companies compete more effectively by helping them identify, attract, and secure their most valuable asset: talent.
"I never give up, I’m very resourceful and tenacious and strive for operational excellence with a personal, responsive touch."
MARLIZE NORTJE
BUSINESS SUPPORT MANAGER
Marlize began her career as a customer service representative and found a passion for delivering top-level customer experience. She was able to develop this into teaching others to provide the same level of service as she upskilled into her management role. Within six years, Marlize developed various skills across all business areas from quality assurance, analytics reporting, client relations and team leadership to her current team success-focused role.
“I am at the forefront to implement any change and the evolution of technology into the contact centre space to futureproof our communication and be the best in the business.”
JOSHUA MILNER
HEAD OF BUSINESS STRATEGY
Joshua has over 20 years’ experience in CS operations and vendor management, having established networks across the Pacific. He is familiar with leading key project areas in high-risk situations, ensuring a balance of customer, brand, and integrity.
Joshua is a relationship-savvy CS, projects and operations expert specialising in analytics, best practice and economic theory.
‘’ I have a clear focus on the future, agile frameworks, environmental responsibility, and continual improvement cycles.’’
SAM HASKELL
PEOPLE AND CULTURE MANAGER
With 14 Years Human Resources Management experience, Sam's passion is people!
Sam is motivated to engage the team to achieve a fun diverse culture, a continuous learning environment, with and an enjoyable employee experience, where people love to come to work!
"I love to partner with our business groups to provide strategies to enable our Team Members to maintain success and sustainability. With an aim to inspire all Team members to live our Phone Plus group Values. Challenging the status quo and striving for continuous improvement."
EVIE STRAWBRIDGE
INSIGHT ANALYST
Joining our team in 2025, Evie has an enthusiasm for uncovering hidden gems within the data to provide clients with actionable insights. Evie has excellent communication and storytelling skills. These strengths enable her success in creating guides/surveys, report writing and presentations.
Evie recognises the importance of understanding the purpose of the research and ensuring this is the focus at each stage of the project. After completing a Bachelor of Communications, majoring in Marketing, Evie found her passion within Market Research.
Within her two and a half years of experience in the industry, Evie has worked on, and Project Managed across a variety of industries and different research methodologies, therefore she is equipped with a range of experience to confidently lead projects end to end
JULIA RIBERIO
OPERATIONS LEADER
Since moving to New Zealand in 2018, Julia has gained diverse experience across a range of different roles, bringing an outgoing and dynamic personality to the table. She is a results-oriented professional with a passion for events, communications, and leadership.
With a bachelor’s degree in social communication, (major in Public Relations) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Event Management, Julia brings a strong academic foundation to her work.
Her experience includes project management, client relationship development, and team leadership, honed through key operational roles within the research and events management industries.
Julia is a confident communicator, highly organized, and motivated to learn, consistently exceeding expectations in fast-paced environments. She simply ‘gets shit done’.
OUR FOOTPRINT
The Phone Plus Group is actively working to Principle 9 of the Top Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact and has adopted several initiatives to reduce its impact on the environment and to use resources sustainably:
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Promoting and fostering WFH and hybrid practices. This further reduces the need for travel and supports the environment while giving employees time.
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A reduction of 60% of organisational printers, which has minimised the volume of printing within the contact centre operation. This is saving in excess of 130,000 pages of printed paper per annum
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Guiding clients to make use of email and electronic communications as opposed to direct mail options. These two activities save paper, toner, maintenance kits and envelopes/stamps.
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Recycling all our consumable waste, including bottles, cartridges, bulbs and batteries. We use rechargeable batteries in our equipment.
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Replacing our air conditioning units in the server rooms, reducing operational power costs, and creating further efficiency and longevity of the IT equipment through more effective temperature control.
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Implementing power management best practice by switching off all lights, power switches, monitors and equipment to reduce power draw from equipment on standby. Air conditioning is only used during peak times and when temperatures are extreme, and use of blinds is mandatory to assist with regulation of temperature.
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Car pooling service for our staff and creating flexible shifts where possible to facilitate this on a regional basis again reducing our carbon footprint
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Switching to SIP trunks and other telephony platforms that provide a greater efficiency of power draw and air conditioning requirement. This has so far saved the organisation 65% of our power bill each month and reduces the dependence on fossil fuels.