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“For banks and telcos, generally, customers are directed to make such calls when they encounter an issue,” she said. “These are more for incident reporting as well as problem reporting.”
So when customers contact these agents, they are really quite unhappy because they are facing an issue that needs to be solved quite urgently.
“The nature of the call, the expectation from the call as well as the high volume of calls may also (result) in a certain wait time so that can actually translate into a satisfaction rating that tends to be lower than other (sectors).”
So what are customer service standard like in these industries and have they slipped, as some people claim? To find out, CNA went behind the scenes to find out what is driving the complaints and what they are doing about it.
MANAGING HIGH CALL VOLUMES
When CNA visited UOB’s contact centre last week, it was bustling with activity.
Dozens of customer service officers were on the phone, speaking to callers while others chatted online with customers.
The sound of their voices and the clacking of keyboards filled the room. Above their heads, a screen showed the total number of calls the centre had received as well as the average time taken to respond to them.
According to UOB, its incident command centre monitors the volume of customer inquiries via its customer hotline, live chat service and email as well as the number of customer service officers available in real time.
Calls are assigned based on the topic as well as the availability of the customer service officer. This means that the system will assign a call to the officer who has been available for the longest, to ensure that the workload is evenly distributed.
In the event of a spike in customers’ calls, the bank’s head of group technology and operations Lawrence Goh said they have established protocols in place including deploying additional customer service officers to assist with the higher call volume.
For customer service officer Ajaypal Singh, who had answered more than 20 calls since he started his shift three hours earlier, this was considered a “manageable” day.
On average, he handles between 30 to 40 calls per day, which is equivalent to one call every 12-15 minutes. On busy days, this can spike to 60 calls per shift.
“It does happen where we are always on our seat and it's back-to-back calls,” he said.
“It is important to watch out for things like burnout, so I do actually speak to my friends and ask ‘are you okay? Do you need a break?’ So we take turns in that sense, and once we do ... we are able to better manage the call flow.”
Then there are times when customers get agitated, and he has to manage their emotions while trying to resolve their problem.
“Customer service abuse does happen … every now and then, but not too frequently,” said the 25-year-old, adding that some customers might hurl vulgarities.
“Instead of focusing on the customer's abuse and then trying to fight back, (I) will always try to identify the root cause of the problem, which is what (I’m) trained to do.
“I will always remember not to take it to heart and that it is nothing personal. It's more towards the customer just being angry at certain things that have not been done for him.”
