Customer Delight through

Improved Processes in
Telecom Industry
A Case Study of Pakistani Call
Centers
Presentation Agenda
• Abstract
• Research Methodology
• Research Limitations
• Introduction
• Ineffective and Inefficient Processes
• How To Improve the Processes
• Conclusion
Abstract
It has been observed that Pakistani Call Centers
often lose projects due to poor understanding of
customer expectation in terms of response, speed,
innovation and consistency. This is mainly due to
poorly designed processes.
Apparently customers are not satisfied with their
products/services. This is because of poor training
that is being provided to them by the Call Center
managers. The Call Centers visibly lack various
dimensions of quality. They are not adhering to any
basic norms and practices of TQM in these Call
Centers.
This study would review the effectiveness and user
friendliness of different processes being run in a few
Pakistani Call Centers. This paper aims to measure
and analyze the quality of the processes so that the
gaps between the current and the required
processes could be identified, which in turn can
induce the element of quality to achieve customer
delight.
Research Methodology
The data collection is done through
meetings, interviews, visiting agents,
observing and analyzing old records.
Research Limitations/Implication
the study includes data of 4 to 5 Call
Centers located in Islamabad. Research
period for data collection and analysis is
limited to 3-4 months. The paper is limited
to only one process of the Call center
industry and that is ‘Telemarketing’
Process Improvement brings In
Customer Delight
Introduction To call
Centers
• Inbound Call Centers
The Customers call in and the
System Prompts them for
information, the call is then
transferred to an appropriate
person and the call is handled

• Outbound Call Centers

In this kind of Call Centers,
the Call Center Employee
initiates the Contact from a
client or a customer list and
may track the customer
interaction in a specialized
software program.
Processes in an outbound Call
Center
• Telemarketing
• Training
• Hiring
• Sales
• Accounts
• Issue escalation etc
Telemarketing
Telemarketing…….
Majority of the
workforce of a call
center is involved in
this process. Call
agents are the only
resource to convince
the customer in order
to sell their products or
services. The way a call
agent behaves on the
call is the only criteria
for the customer to
accept or reject the
product. In our call
centers the call agents
lack many of the
factors that make a
Ineffective and Inefficient
Telemarketing Process
• The Processes being run in the Pakistani Call centers Were
defined and were being executed but some of the attributes
of the processes were not up to the mark.
• Lets Focus on the attributes of this processes that make the
process ineffective and inefficient. That is why the process
lacks user friendliness. If we handle these attributes
ultimately the process would improve and bring customer
delight in our Telecom industry
Attributes making the
process Inefficient and
ineffective
Ethics
• In some of the call centers the Call agents have been noticed to have rude
behaviors with the clients, especially when the customer is loose tampered
the call agent’s also loose temper which they should not do. The tone of the
call agent should be humble and consistent throughout the call no matter
what is the response of the Customer.

Accent
• Call centers here in Pakistan are mostly American, European and
Australian based. The first issue that can be noticed is that the Pakistani
call agents do not have a proper accent that is reasonable to any of the
customers of the above named countries. Secondly some of them speak in
the accent they like, not even knowing that they are mixing many of the
accents that are spoken in different continents. In Most of the call centers it
can be noticed that the agents pretend to be from the same country as that
of the customer. Since the accent is different, the customer feels that the
agent is not from his country (which he has been told). As a result the
customer loses trust and at times loses tamper as he feels being cheated
and rejects the offer even if it is giving him benefits.
Attributes making the
process Inefficient and
ineffective…….
• Intelligence
Convincing someone (who even does not know you) on the phone on the
very first call is quite challenging. Certain level of intelligence is required in
order to satisfy the queries of the customer. Energetic and straight forward
answers are the key to make a sale. A customer would never like a dumb
person talking to him who cannot even answer his basic queries. In our call
centers, whoever knows to speak English is considered to be the best
candidate for the post of call agent. No one even tries to know the level of
intelligence he/she has.
Attributes making the
process Inefficient and
ineffective…….
• Speed
As we all know time is very critical for everyone. No one has the time to
listen for a long time to call agents. Most of the customers are educated
and they get a sense that the call agent would normally be persuading
them. In such a situation the customer does not like to give much time to
the call agents. What our industry needs is to understand the importance of
customer’s time. We should bring speed in our work. The customer who
does not seem interested should be left early but ethically and the saved
time can be used for other customers. Care should be taken for the
customers as well as our own time.
Attributes making the
process Inefficient and
ineffective…….
• Honesty
In the third world countries this is a
common practice, the call agents hide the
facts and figures from their customers, like
the hidden charges. Call agents do not tell
the disadvantages of the product, they only
talk about the advantages of the product or
the service they are selling. Even if the
customer asks for facts that lead to the
dark side of the product they suddenly
change the topic and persuade the
customers. In this scenario many of the call
agents have been successful in making the
sales but in the long term this approach is
devastating for the name of the company.
People start losing trust in the company’s
Attributes making the
process Inefficient and
ineffective…….
• Loss of Customers Data
It has also been noticed that the important
data of the customers like the Credit card
number and its pin is often mad public
between the call agents. Many of the call
agents have been noticed for using
customer’s credit card for their own
purposes. Care should be taken about the
customer’s data and it should not be used
for fraudulent activities.
Attributes making the
process Inefficient and
ineffective…….
• Failure in culture Adoption
The call agents often get confused when it
comes to the culture of another nation. For
example call agents have been noticed to
greet either in the local style or they greet
at night as if they are greeting in the
morning. I.e. saying good evening when its
morning in the customers country. It is
noticed that certain customers talk about
their customs and traditions which our call
agents do not know as a result they get
blank. Certain customers start talking about
the cities of their own countries which are
unknown to our clients; this creates a gap
between the customer and the call agent
Attributes making the
process Inefficient and
ineffective…….
• Communication Skills
Communication skills are very important in
this field, not only speaking but reading and
listening is also very important. Listening to
customers at times is very difficult.
Different customers have different accents
and some speak in a very strange accent
that at times is not understandable to our
local call agents. As a result confusions are
created. And the correct information cannot
be conveyed to the customer. Some agents
are intelligent enough to use Phonetics,
mostly get confused when the client is
Attributes making the
process Inefficient and
ineffective…….
• Lack Of Product Knowledge
The call agents selling the product need to
know each and every feature of the
product. Many of the agents in our industry
do not have the full information of the
product. And in scenarios where the
customer asks the agent something the
agent does not know he/she starts looking
for the information which wastes time and
the client hangs up.
Attributes making the
process Inefficient and
ineffective…….
• Long Process
The process is indeed very long. First you
have to convince the customer for buying
your product and then there is a long
process in which Client has to answer the
questions asked by the Interactive voice
response (IVR) machine. About 25 percent
of the people drop the calls due to the long
process of the IVR.
Attributes making the
process Inefficient and
ineffective…….
• Distortion

Distortion in the call also creates a negative

impact. The client gets the idea that this is
not a local call, which brings about the idea
that they are being manipulated. It has
often been noticed that after a distortion in
the call the client asks “Are you from India?
Why don’t you improve your own quality?”
And since our subcontinent lacks trust the
client is often dissatisfied and is not
interested.
Attributes making the
process Inefficient and
ineffective…….
• Carelessness in Call Disposition
On the average an American receives about
20 calls per day in which he is being
convinced by many people to buy there
products. Some of the people are annoyed
and request the agent to put them in the
‘Don’t call lists’ but some of the agents
either mistakenly or angrily enter there
number in the call back list which causes
frustration to the client when he is called
again for the same story of the product.
Recommendations
Improving the Hiring
process
• There is a need that the people
who are hired have the attitude
and the aptitude to work in such
environments. Hiring people on
A single criteria ( Good Spoken
English ) creates problems like
bad attitude within the team,
bad attitude with the client.
• HRM should consider the
background of the employees,
there psychology, etc so that
they can induce long term
professionals in the industry.
Training People
• Call Agents must be trained
about the basic human
psychology and how to be
successful with the clients.
• By training, customer care can
be induced in the call agents.
• Agent must be trained to be
people-oriented because they
are going to deal with
different kinds of people.
Agent must know how to
delight the angry customers
and Turn Customers into there
Fans.
Training People………
• Agents should know the right seat on
the right bus I.e. The agent must be
trained to understand individual
differences.
• To bring Customer delight, multi
tasking should be included in the
training.
• Train Agents to use phonetics
Monitoring the Calls
The calls should be monitored, without
monitoring it can never be known whether
the performance is up to the mark or not.
Each call should be monitored and should
be dealt with seriously, because each call
contributes to the over all impression of the
company. When the call is monitored
different data about the trends of the failed
and successful calls can be extracted out
and theses trends can be induced to the
agents by the trainers. This data/ recording
can also be used in the counseling process.
Counseling Call Agents
An agent is a human and
can make mistakes;
It is the supervisor that can
tell why a call was not
successful, he can then go
to that particular agent
and tell him the problem
that he had in the call that
can be accent, behavior or
listening skills
Reward and recognition
Reward and recognition are
the important factors that
can bring motivation in any
person.
A simplest example of
Recognition can be ??????
Review meetings
It is necessary to have
review meetings with
the agents so that it can
be known what progress
has been made. And
what are the areas the
call centers are lacking.
Conclusion
The problems mentioned
above are mainly because
English is not mother
language of the industry
under discussion.
Cross culture environment
is quite challenging for its
professionals.
When all the attributes of
the process discussed
above are satisfied the
customers would feel
satisfaction and thus
delight.