Telecom SNAFUs
Most of my posts are in the NewIndia category.
This is because we are all part of this emerging nation and the issues I see are thus a result of that 'teething troubles' - or I seem to think so at least.
Just as a child needs guidance from parents, our country needs a lot more guidance from it's parents, it's own citizens who have seen the pros and cons of the governance and practices worldwide.
But unfortunately, that is not the case these days. Citizens are all up in arms blaming the government, and the governance, for it's malfunction, rather than looking unto themselves as to how they could see better options being put in place - (maybe by selecting a better government??)
Thus my thoughts here are related to some small steps, by which things can be improved upon, rather than leaving them unattended, at the least, uncorrected.
Connecting with people is the key for a growing economy - participation, collaboration, cooperation at every level defines growth.
The telecom revolution like the agriculture revolution has taken the country over and connected it like never before.
It has helped in terms of competition and choices for people.
The customer is getting probably a good value for money with the rates reducing from the once upon a time exorbitant(compared to today's ) rates.
But the basic tenets of communication are not getting reflected in the practices of the service providers. These seem to be getting overridden with the increasing volumes in business.
Let me explain one observation of mine which is related dirctly to the quality of customer service (at contact centers) and indirectly, with the profile of employees
Employees of a company represent it's profile in more ways than one. They are it's policy messengers, brand carriers and shapers, and status symbols.
- when I was serving in the Tata group, Orange- later Hutch - now Vodafone was a client of our project group.
In those early times, mobile phone companies carried an elite tag/brand;
employees usually joining these companies at the call center were from the upper middle and upper social class of the society who wanted to work for the in-thing of the market.
So you would find finely attired and mannered men and women, sophisticated, with crisp accents, working the fronts at the contact centers, taking calls; representing a workforce that actually demonstrated som level of maturity at their individual levels and hence towards their jobs and thus the customers
- at least being courteous and patient and resolving issues efficiently, esp. talking to senior citizens.
Today, see the contrast.
The call center or the contact center culture represents a very different picture now.
The culture of these employees has changed drastically. Most of them are the locals, who have probably had a vernacular education but have been able to qualify for these jobs.
They are from a background where English is probably not their language of education nor they are not aware of the nuances of the language to the extent that their job might need. Nor do they seem self-driven to present themselves sophisticatedly, in terms of carrying themselves or their mannerisms.
These are a cross section of people coming from the burgeoning middle and lower middle class - a section that is now eyeing their exposure to the world through the growing retail industry, and is trying to change their ways and means by taking up these jobs at the call centers (one of the examples I want to illustrate).
Also notice that these people are from a social engineering level that somehow manages to get their work done - what in the literal terminology is called 'Jugaad'
These folks either do not understand, feel the need or pay attention, towards a very important aspect - the quality of life, and correspondingly, quality of services, to the extent needed.
They work to improve their quality of material life - by showing high levels of consumerism(instant gratification, instead of delayed gratification by working on their individual personality, education and presentation).
This is a case in most contact centers and this has changed over the last 4 years or so.
I have interacted with the call center folks across companies - Reliance, HSBC, Vodafone, Citibank, Airtel, SBI and have seen a very high change(drop) in their quality of support.
--
Reliance - Most difficult to get your problem across to, everyone switches to an artificial, unauthentically trained Hindi conversation mode after a minute of English chat, which seems very mechanical and totally feels like hitting a brick wall
HSBC - The quality of the executives answering the calls has dropped drastically, the English is poor, the Hindi, not so much upto the mark
Citibank - this is one SP which still has some quality maintained in their contact center service in terms of their responses to English queries
Airtel - customer support in the Madhya Pradesh area is VERY pathetic
--
The high level issues I see clearly in this drop of service levels are more people than process defined:
1. Reducing levels of manpower quality joining the forces - leading to a crunch in quality of service
2. Individuals who are less motivated by the vision of the company they work for, who contribute LESS to the company they work for, but want their self-interests (materialistic) progressed faster
3. People who take their job as a 'job to do' than take 'ownership' of the work with keen interest in improving its quality
4. reducing levels of education quality leading to all the above
a Catch 22 situation
In terms of impacts of all this you see poor quality of service. following are a few situations you would see happening
a. you are required to hold longer on the phone nowadays;
b. the phone will get disconnected when you are giving or taking the most important piece of information from the executive;
c. the executive interprets your query in his own terms and repeats the concern from a totally random poin of view in a tone that leaves you exasperated
d. the IVR places you 'on a hold' saying "your call is important to us" or asking you to "call back" because "your call is important to us" (AirTel for instance)
e. the IVR and contact center functionality has in fact widened the gap between you and the service providers' decision makers by introducing the block headed (sorry!!) contact center individuals
f. You are required to enter your card numbers/PIN in the system and yet asked to repeat the same when speaking to the executives, leaving you wondering who might be actually using that info you just punched in
g. You end up hearing - the systems are under maintenance' when you need the most critical information, and this situation repeats itself at least 2-3 times with that service provider
h. you feel you are stuck with this SP for your life and need someone to resolve your issues RIGHT NOW
This is because we are all part of this emerging nation and the issues I see are thus a result of that 'teething troubles' - or I seem to think so at least.
Just as a child needs guidance from parents, our country needs a lot more guidance from it's parents, it's own citizens who have seen the pros and cons of the governance and practices worldwide.
But unfortunately, that is not the case these days. Citizens are all up in arms blaming the government, and the governance, for it's malfunction, rather than looking unto themselves as to how they could see better options being put in place - (maybe by selecting a better government??)
Thus my thoughts here are related to some small steps, by which things can be improved upon, rather than leaving them unattended, at the least, uncorrected.
Connecting with people is the key for a growing economy - participation, collaboration, cooperation at every level defines growth.
The telecom revolution like the agriculture revolution has taken the country over and connected it like never before.
It has helped in terms of competition and choices for people.
The customer is getting probably a good value for money with the rates reducing from the once upon a time exorbitant(compared to today's ) rates.
But the basic tenets of communication are not getting reflected in the practices of the service providers. These seem to be getting overridden with the increasing volumes in business.
Let me explain one observation of mine which is related dirctly to the quality of customer service (at contact centers) and indirectly, with the profile of employees
Employees of a company represent it's profile in more ways than one. They are it's policy messengers, brand carriers and shapers, and status symbols.
- when I was serving in the Tata group, Orange- later Hutch - now Vodafone was a client of our project group.
In those early times, mobile phone companies carried an elite tag/brand;
employees usually joining these companies at the call center were from the upper middle and upper social class of the society who wanted to work for the in-thing of the market.
So you would find finely attired and mannered men and women, sophisticated, with crisp accents, working the fronts at the contact centers, taking calls; representing a workforce that actually demonstrated som level of maturity at their individual levels and hence towards their jobs and thus the customers
- at least being courteous and patient and resolving issues efficiently, esp. talking to senior citizens.
Today, see the contrast.
The call center or the contact center culture represents a very different picture now.
The culture of these employees has changed drastically. Most of them are the locals, who have probably had a vernacular education but have been able to qualify for these jobs.
They are from a background where English is probably not their language of education nor they are not aware of the nuances of the language to the extent that their job might need. Nor do they seem self-driven to present themselves sophisticatedly, in terms of carrying themselves or their mannerisms.
These are a cross section of people coming from the burgeoning middle and lower middle class - a section that is now eyeing their exposure to the world through the growing retail industry, and is trying to change their ways and means by taking up these jobs at the call centers (one of the examples I want to illustrate).
Also notice that these people are from a social engineering level that somehow manages to get their work done - what in the literal terminology is called 'Jugaad'
These folks either do not understand, feel the need or pay attention, towards a very important aspect - the quality of life, and correspondingly, quality of services, to the extent needed.
They work to improve their quality of material life - by showing high levels of consumerism(instant gratification, instead of delayed gratification by working on their individual personality, education and presentation).
This is a case in most contact centers and this has changed over the last 4 years or so.
I have interacted with the call center folks across companies - Reliance, HSBC, Vodafone, Citibank, Airtel, SBI and have seen a very high change(drop) in their quality of support.
--
Reliance - Most difficult to get your problem across to, everyone switches to an artificial, unauthentically trained Hindi conversation mode after a minute of English chat, which seems very mechanical and totally feels like hitting a brick wall
HSBC - The quality of the executives answering the calls has dropped drastically, the English is poor, the Hindi, not so much upto the mark
Citibank - this is one SP which still has some quality maintained in their contact center service in terms of their responses to English queries
Airtel - customer support in the Madhya Pradesh area is VERY pathetic
--
The high level issues I see clearly in this drop of service levels are more people than process defined:
1. Reducing levels of manpower quality joining the forces - leading to a crunch in quality of service
2. Individuals who are less motivated by the vision of the company they work for, who contribute LESS to the company they work for, but want their self-interests (materialistic) progressed faster
3. People who take their job as a 'job to do' than take 'ownership' of the work with keen interest in improving its quality
4. reducing levels of education quality leading to all the above
a Catch 22 situation
In terms of impacts of all this you see poor quality of service. following are a few situations you would see happening
a. you are required to hold longer on the phone nowadays;
b. the phone will get disconnected when you are giving or taking the most important piece of information from the executive;
c. the executive interprets your query in his own terms and repeats the concern from a totally random poin of view in a tone that leaves you exasperated
d. the IVR places you 'on a hold' saying "your call is important to us" or asking you to "call back" because "your call is important to us" (AirTel for instance)
e. the IVR and contact center functionality has in fact widened the gap between you and the service providers' decision makers by introducing the block headed (sorry!!) contact center individuals
f. You are required to enter your card numbers/PIN in the system and yet asked to repeat the same when speaking to the executives, leaving you wondering who might be actually using that info you just punched in
g. You end up hearing - the systems are under maintenance' when you need the most critical information, and this situation repeats itself at least 2-3 times with that service provider
h. you feel you are stuck with this SP for your life and need someone to resolve your issues RIGHT NOW
bottom line - the telecom service providers are NOT doing any good job or giving any MAJOR benefit in the long run, but squeezing the Indian 'mango junta' (aam junta) of all their juice to fill their own coffers.
Presence of any effective regulatory and grievance redressal body is lacking
The procedures for issue redressal are too complicated and not widely known to people to be able to have faith in the system.
So what does the common man do but bear this brunt of oligopolistic mal-practices.
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