Telecom Customer Service

C: Before getting into the reasons for increased complaints, I have a few preliminary questions. Since when are we seeing an increase in the number of complaints? Is this a factor of something better being done by a competitor?

I: Let’s dive into the case first and I will answer these questions on the go. The problem is being faced pan India and some of the products and services being offered include direct tv, broadband, 4G.

C: First, I will try to understand the different reasons for which the customers require “customer services”. Then I will look into the different avenues through which the customers could contact the company.

I: Sounds good! Let’s call the first step “Needs” and the second step “Accessibility”. Let’s talk about these first.

C: Needs would include help/queries about current features or products, complaints about current features/products, enquiry about additional features (e.g., changes in calling or internet pack) . These could be accessed via: phone calls, emails, company website, company’s app.

I: Sounds good! But do you think there’s one more way through which the customer could access the client’s services. Especially relevant during 2014-2015 when internet didn’t have as much penetration.

C: Through the physical service centres!

I: Correct! Now the client is facing problems because of its calling feature. What shall we do next?

C: I will try to break down a caller’s journey to understand at which step the caller is facing a problem. A caller will search for the customer care number, they will call and wait for the attendant to respond, they will be given a compliant reference number, their issue will be resolved then and there, or they would need a follow-up. After their complaint is resolved, their reference number will be closed, they might be asked for feedback later. I’m assuming that all of this will also be recorded. Do we know at which step we are facing a problem?

I: I really like how you’ve broken down the caller journey. My client was facing a problem at the second step – when the customers call and get their issues addressed.

C: Customer will make the call. I’m assuming that they will hear an automated tone which will direct them to press some digits on their phone to reach the required facility. After connecting with an attendant, their issue might be resolved by the same attendant, or they would be directed to some other attendant. Their issue might finally be resolved.

I:Correct! There are different “wait times” associated with the entire process and callers often drop off because of the inconvenience they face because of huge wait time. Would you help me define each one of them?

C: Wait time 1: time the caller takes to reach to the correct facility/attendant. It often happens that you need to press a lot of buttons until you get to speak to the correct POC.

Wait time 2: time the customer care person (attendant) takes to pick up the call
Wait time 3: Time the attendant takes to resolve the issue. They may direct the complaint to another person, which will again lead to some wait time.

I: Our client was facing problems with the wait time 2 and 3.

C: Wait time will be a factor of number of complaints, number of attendants, time taken to resolve a complaint and the infrastructure available with the client.

I: Excellent! I like how you’re structuring the problem. Let’s call the number of complaints as n, number of attendants as x and the time per complaint as t. Could you make a formula for me to get to the average wait time or avg time taken by an attendant. Then we will see how we could reduce the same.

C:Average wait time will be: (Number of complaints* time per complaint)/Number of attendants = (n*t)/x

I: Perfect! Out of these, the client doesn’t have the budget to increase the number of attendants or improve the infrastructure available. We have only 2 options: either to address the number of complaints or the average time taken by an attendant. Let’s look at each of these separately.

C: Since we don’t have a lot of control over the number of complaints, let’s first look at the time taken by an attendant to resolve a complaint.

C: Time taken by an attendant will depend on their manner of communications, their technical skills, their training and expertise. There should be a match between the strengths, area of expertise of the attendants and the type of complaints they are answering. Call attendants should also be given regular training sessions on how to interact with the callers. Also, since there could be a hundred reasons why a customer might call the helpline number, the call attendants should have a quick and structured list of answers to general queries available with them such that they could offer help faster without thinking much.

I: I absolutely loved your last recommendation. This is exactly what we had also recommended. Such a quick list is called an “SOP” in the telecom industry. Let’s see how we could decrease the number of queries or complaints now.

C: The company could come up with self help options. These could include user manuals in case of a product, company website with answers to Frequently Asked Question (FAQs), complaint redressal through mobile application, complaint resolution through bots (both calling as well as chatting feature)

I: This is EXACTLY what we had also recommended. We asked our client to streamline its complaint registration and resolution feature through a mobile application. We also asked them to introduce an IVR system.

C: What is an IVR system?

I: It’s an Interactive Voice Response System, exactly as you had recommended. You have made me and the client very happy. Let’s close the case now!