Tan Kin Lian's Blog: A responsive call center

Saturday, March 20, 2010

A responsive call center

The Straits Times published a reply from Singapore Airlines, promising to improve the responsiveness of their call center.

This problem is faced not only by Singapore Airlines but also by many large organisations in Singapore, i.e banks, telephone companies, airlines and government agencies. The key causes of the poor response are:

a) large volume of incoming calss
b) outsourcing of calls to third countries
c) mis-use of technology that frustrates the customers, e.g. automated voice response systems
d) poor method of handling the calls

A good example of a responsive call center is NTUC Income. I called 63 462663 (63 INCOME) a few days ago. The call was answered by a human voice on the 3rd ring. The staff recognized me, as my mobile phone was registered with them. They have a simple verification of caller.

I asked this question, "I have several policies with NTUC Income. Can you check if any of my policies are overdue and not paid?" This question, which required a search of life, general and health insurance policies (kept in different databases), was answered in 1 minute, "All your policies are paid up to date".

NTUC Income achieved the global award (#1) for innovation and customer service 4 years ago, when I was the CEO. It was achieved through the innovative use of low cost technology backed by a practical, common sense approach in providing customer service. I am happy to note that the high standard of customer service of the call center has persisted over the years.

Tan Kin Lian
Note: If you deal with an organisation with a bad call center, ask them to consult me at kinlian@gmail.com.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...: Yes , the call centre is responsive. It is your legacy. Try calling the CEO or by email you will hit a wall of silence, no decency to reply directly or indirectly.
This is new social enterprise way certainly not cooperative way.; March 20, 2010 11:02 AM
Anonymous said...: SIA really sucks. Not just the telephone mode; even the internet check-in can very very frustrating to use. It says you can check in 48 hr to 2 hrs before departure. But I got a few experience that you totally cannot check in. Another issue is, SOMETIMES, after you log in with your KrisFlyer membership and password, they still insist you need to key in the booking reference number and e-ticket number. Sometimes, yo don't need to do that, because your confirmed flight schedule will display by itself. So I am really puzzled ???

The others that have poor telephone servic is UOB and DBS. You have to go 5 to 7 steps to reach a specific phone service but wait for 10 minutes and still listening to the music and no one pick up the phone. There was once I called at a 2 hour interval for 3times in a day but still no help rendered. They might as well cancel this whole crap when no one can be contacted at all. It's just for show only, I think.

3rd class service in a first world country....; March 20, 2010 5:07 PM
Anonymous said...: It is NOT a first world country, hor..it is a 3rd world country with a 4th world service; March 20, 2010 5:20 PM
Anonymous said...: Yes, I was around when Mr Tan put in place "personalised" call centre without keying in many buttons, while all other organisations where taking the frustrating "impersonalised" route.

And Mr Tan kept the products affordable, as he did not see the need to boost his ego by spending money to be No:1, instead he passed the savings on to policyholders.... sad what is happening there now....; March 20, 2010 5:40 PM
Anonymous said...: I guess he must be telling people that it is his effort....again another case of using Kin Lian's backside skin for his face.; March 20, 2010 6:52 PM
Anonymous said...: I guess the new management should be given credit for not scrapping it away to save cost and to use an automated machine for screening the callers before directing to a customer service personnel.

To start something is easy; to maintain it is tough; to improve on it, it is challenging.

Credit should be given when is it due. The old system management implemented it, the new system maintained it. Good succession planning, I would say.; March 20, 2010 7:19 PM
Anonymous said...: There are some rumours that the management plans to outsource the call center. How arrogant. More loss of jobs. Is the board of directors going to approve it? Are they aware about what is happening?; March 20, 2010 7:30 PM
Anonymous said...: Change them at the AGM..Why do the directors act on the instruction of the ceo and not the other way round?
Are the directors over paid? Are they qualified? Is there conflict of interest?; March 20, 2010 10:50 PM
Concerned said...: A lot of wasteful money has been spent on advertisement on the company products and services. To increase revenue, a company would do well to improve its level of services or products. These will speak for itself. No point spending tons of money on advertisements and when you call them for enquires you are met with a blank wall.; March 20, 2010 11:27 PM
A Singaporean said...: The present centralized call center of NTUC Denticare for making dental appointments is also good. It was only improved within the past two years if I remember correctly. Previously, each dental clinic handled their own booking, and it required many calls before someone actually bothered to take the call. And that's for booking of appointments!; March 21, 2010 1:09 AM
Anonymous said...: Call centres are usually not seen as core functions of FIs, and other insurers and banks do it. Hence I won't be surprised if the call centre is dissolved and outsourced. Even telesales are outsourced together with the call centre. I.e. the call centre operators perform both typical call centre functions as well as telesales. This is what ntuc call centre is also doing. By outsourcing, the mgmt then frees up cashflow and reduces operational costs, for minimal lost of telesales revenue. Whether this will translate to value-add and better bonuses for customers is a big question mark.; March 21, 2010 2:07 AM
Tan Kin Lian said...: There is a mis-perception that outsourcing a call center to low wage countries will increase profits. Many advanced countries are now taking back their outsourced call centers due to lower quality of customer service and increasing cost (i.e. the wages in the third countries will also increase).

The cost of handling a call can be low in the home country, if there is an efficient way to handle the calls.

If the call center is unproductive, the cost per call is high even in low wage countries.; March 21, 2010 6:41 AM
Anonymous said...: ANON, March 21, 2010 1:09 AM,
they may be making more sales but they don't value add.
Should look at the books during the AGM; March 21, 2010 10:55 AM
Anonymous said...: I was recently quite pissed off by CPF hotline. They are you to dial 1, dial 2 & then you are put on hold. What a waste of time!; March 22, 2010 10:49 AM
Anonymous said...: SIA hires a lot of useless people who commands high salary but do nothing. The mgmt had better to do something about this. Singaporeans do not necessary have to support SIA.; March 22, 2010 10:52 AM
BPO said...: Hello,
Even I have a good experience with NTUC Income. The customer services provided by them are of high quality and efficient.; March 22, 2010 12:21 PM
Anonymous said...: Remember when you experience excelent call service with NTUC , it is MR. TAN KIN LIAN.
Good call service is synonymous with TKL and NOT the FT who is always using some body's backside skin for his face.; March 22, 2010 2:51 PM