PRESENTATION AT THE PUBLIC INQUIRY ON CALLS TO CUSTOMER CARE HELPLINES TO LODGE COMPLAINTS

Transcription

1 PRESENTATION AT THE PUBLIC INQUIRY ON CALLS TO CUSTOMER CARE HELPLINES TO LODGE COMPLAINTS Presented by Vee Networks Limited A member of the Celtel Group 29 th August

2 CONTENTS Background Call Centre Statistics Type/Categorization of Calls Received Celtel Customer Satisfaction Indices Result of Independent Survey Challenges with Free helplines Practices in Other Jurisdictions Recommendations Expectations 2

3 BACKGROUND Celtel s call centre has been the network s unique selling point. Celtel was the first and currently is the only network to offer a toll free 24 hour customer care helpline. (Over the last two years Celtel has won the Best Customer Care Operator awards at the Telecoms Awards). Over time however, the call center has become open to abuse by subscribers. Call minutes to the call center have gradually increased, this invariably, taking up valuable network resources. Records reveal an average of 1,140,000 calls each month to the call centres. Most calls average less than 3 minutes with 70% of these calls either being hoax and general enquiry calls. In order to curb this waste of potential network resources it has become pertinent to ensure that only genuine business calls are made to the call centre. Celtel thus recommends a considered introduction of charges for calls to a customer care helpline where there is an interaction with a call centre agent. This shall be justified during the course of the presentation. 3

4 CELTEL CALL CENTRE STATISTICS Average no. of calls to the helpline daily: 100,000 Average no. of answered calls daily : 40,000 Number of call centre agents : 525 (Avg 160 per shift) Average no. of calls taken per agent : 120 per 6 hour shift Average time spent on a call : 2:45 Average wait time : 4:54 Highest wait time : 6 minutes Percentage of calls abandoned : 60% Number of calls received on the IVR : 580,000 monthly 4

5 TYPE OF CALLS RECEIVED General information: Promo enquiries Pricing information Product information Sample General enquiry Total: 60% Inability to use phones: Hand set problems Network related problems SIM related problems Recharge and Billing problems Sample Complaint Total: 30% Hoax Calls (Callers asking for agents personal details or for selection of music) Total: 10% Sample Hoax Call 5

6 CELTEL CUSTOMER SATISFACTION INDICES The company s performance on various Customer satisfaction metrics (July 2006) are as shown: Wait time : 46% Speed of resolution : 56% Quality of solution : 72% Agents knowledge Ability : 74% Agent s Attitude : 86% Customers Experience : 76% Total : 69.7% Target : 80% (minimum) Clearly the problem is the wait time: Too many people are holding on to the lines with general enquiries that can be handled through another medium. Customer Satisfaction rating wait time has been the biggest problem 6

7 INDEPENDENT SURVEY CONDUCTED BY CELTEL In a survey conducted by Celtel Nigeria in Dec. 2005: Number of customer sampled: 6903 Results 49% want a charge applied so that they can get faster service. 22% said they would like faster and better service if paying a charge will guarantee it 29% of customers do no want to be billed. Clearly, all customers want faster access to the call centre and other help services. The way to provide this is to move general enquiries to a self service (IVR) platform so that the call centre is free to deal with problem calls. 7

8 Challenges with Free service More time serving a general information service rather than solving problems. Network loses subscribers because genuine complaints cannot be made to the call centre. Call centre becomes subject to abuse and increases the incidents of hoax calls. Celtel call centre agents are trained not to drop calls on any subscriber because of the customer centric nature of the network. Network resources are overstretched because of the increasingly unnecessary calls to the call centre with no commensurate return for providing such service to the detriment of other subscribers. Possible sanctions may be imposed by the industry regulator in view of declining quality of service standards. 8

9 PRACTICES IN OTHER JURISDICTIONS Vodacom SA T-mobile UK Vodafone UK Celtel DRC Celtel Zambia Free Self-service via IVR Billed Assisted service from Call centre agent Free Self-service via IVR Billed Assisted service from Call centre agent Free Self-service via IVR----- Billed Assisted service from Call centre agent Free Self-service via IVR----- Billed Assisted service from Call centre agent Free Self-service via IVR----- Free Assisted service from Call centre agent 9

10 CELTELS RECOMMENDATION FOR TREATING CALLS TO THE CUSTOMER CARE HELPLINES Celtel will maintain 3 dedicated customer care helplines namely 111 (IVR self-help), 114 (Pre-paid) and 131 (Post-paid). Customer care helpline 111 shall be free to all subscribers. It shall be without any human interaction and will be self servicing. Subscribers will be taken through a series of self help IVR flows to solve basic enquiries. Details are itemised in a subsequent slide. The customer care helpline 114 will be manned by customer care agents and will be a billable number. Calls to the helpline 114 will be charged at N0.10k per second or N6.00 per minute dependent on the subscribers billing platform. This is significantly subsidized when viewed against current voice call rates. Subscribers calling helpline 114 will be notified during the IVR flow pending connection to a Celtel agent that their call is chargeable accordingly. Customer care helpline 131 remains free for post-paid subscribers. 10

11 SERVICES AVAILABLE ON THE SELF HELP LINE Prepaid information Cost of Veego line Information on Bumpa card Information on Vstep Veego tariffs/validity info Veego validity periods Veego tariffs Information on Veego Sim replacement, line reconciliation/migration/cancel call diverts info Information on SIM replacement Information on migration Information on canceling call diverts Value Added Services Airtime transfer/mms, Call me back, Vmail, 12 free SMS, SMS centre number and how to send text, Problem sending SMS, Handset warranty, Vmobile crisis centre, Handset warranty and Conference calls. Self service Current Promos Voic queries, Voic provisioning PUK number enquiries, Recharge unbarring, Report stolen line and line deactivation, Provisioning handset for MMS and WAP Project ROSE SMS competition, Bumpa card promo, Monthly airtime bonus, Coca Cola Recharge and Refresh. These services are not exhaustive and shall be updated as circumstances warrant. NB: Other means for resolving general enquiries include pamphlets/brochures published, broadcasts, adverts, shops and distributors. 11

12 BUSINESS RULES FOR CALLS TO THE HELPLINE Calls to the customer care helpline 114 will be charged at N0.10k per second and N6.00 per minute respectively dependent on which billing platform the subscriber is on. 2. All subscribers calling the call centre will be notified during the IVR flow that their call is chargeable only after the first two minutes with the applicable charges. This will ensure that there is no doubt or ambiguity as to whether or not their calls are chargeable. 3. Queued calls on the 114 will not be billed. Billing is contingent upon agent picking up the calls. 4. Access to customer care helpline 114 is at the discretion of the subscriber. 5. Billing on calls to the customer care helpline 114 commences from the third minute after call is picked by a call centre agent. 12

13 EXPECTATIONS IF RECOMMENDATIONS ARE IMPLEMENTED * Reduce significantly the number of basic/general enquiries made through the call centre billable line. * Increase significantly with the encouragement of the NCC the utilisation of the IVR self help line for basic enquiries. * Reduce customer average wait time when trying to reach a call centre agent to less than 120 seconds on the average. * Significantly reduce the incidence of hoax calls. * Ensure that network resources are not overstretched and are thus appropriately utilised. * Ensure that QoS standards as agreed by the industry are maintained. * Improve the total customer experience on the Celtel network 13

14 CUSTOMER CARE CENTRES * Celtel is committed to being Nigeria s most caring network. * Celtel since inception has spent a significant amount of resources in developing customer care centres and recruiting customer care agents who attend to subscribers. * Celtel customer care centres include the following; - Call centres at Iganmu, Lagos and Uyo, Akwa Ibom. - Celtel owned Vstores. - Franchise shops run by Celtel business partners. The Vstores and Franchise shops run by Celtel business partners are currently about 40 nationwide. * All these outlets add to the total customer experience and continue to extol our customer centric values. 14

15 THANK YOU 15