Teleservice

Tele-service:
Eureka being an outsourcing firm provides facility for Telemarketing & Teleservice verticals. Tele-service referred herein is for Customer service activity which is designed as after sales support or pre-sales inquiry.
Tele-service is a touch point for a Customer or a prospect in the life cycle of service delivery for all business establishments. Tele-service is commonly associated with inbound call flow management & identified with Customer service.

Tele-service origin took place during the evolution of telephone networking to connect millions of users wherein the calls were connected by the operators at the telephone company. The operator’s assistance was required to connect two long distance calls & also attend to any issues. It was difficult for the Telephone companies to manage so many connections via an assistant operator which increased the cost of service. So they designed the automatic exchange for direct dialing which further developed to the modern day switch from electronic to digital platform.

Many Customers like organizations wanted their own telephone operators located within the office premise to connect calls to respective extensions of various departments. So the design of epabx electronic private branch exchange unit was installed so that inbound calls could land to this unit & the operator (Receptionist) could route it to respective target extensions. The organizations used to publish only single Pilot number in their advertisement for buyers or potential business prospects could dial the number & get connected to respective executives.

In course of time, the pilot number with several hunting lines used to get insufficient as information about the organization used to reach more distant locations producing more inquiry. The receptionist was unable to cater to the inbound calls which used to vary as per the peak hours in a day based on the media of advertisement. So an IVR – Interactive voice recognition system was engaged to intercept the calls of the prospects or Customers with options on requests.

Due to the competitive markets, organizations wouldn’t want to lose out on business opportunity so they set up their own Customer service department. The department comprised of several receptionist who would answer to the query of the prospect or Customer & route the information to respective department or transfer calls in some cases. The receptionist was further recognized as Teleservice or (CSR) Customer service representatives as they captured relevant data along with attending to the prospect or Customer.

The Customer service representatives were given access to organizations information tool which showcased details of the product & updates on Customers purchased details. The tool evolved into software application over an intra web which was integrated with several departmental databases known as CRM – Customer Relationship Management. An ACD – Automatic call diversion was evolved with features of automatically routing of the inbound calls to CSRs who were on an available mode. The CSRs after the interaction with the Customer used to update the CRM with relevant details. The base of Telephone instruments was provided with a feature called as CLI – Caller Line Identification facility to be able to record or view the telephone number of the caller.

The CRM is further integrated with digital telephone connection & server using respective technical cards. Advanced intelligent systems have capability of CTI – Computer Telephone Integration which triggers the callers profile details on the screen of a computer to the CSR with recognition of CLI mapping it to Customer database on the server. Analog lines do not support the CTI capabilities.

The inbound call center with CSRs is an important hub for the business houses to manage their Customer requests, failing which the losses are huge. So the organizations consider the Customer service setup as a sensitive touch point for showcasing their values. Today, the call center caters to several new touch points for supporting Customer service like SMS, email, Chat, induced marketing campaigns, viral internet marketing, & Postal service which evolved into a new business line as (CCM) Contact center management. The CCM supports the inbound enquiries which is generated through various marketing campaigns on several medias & mediums like Television, Newspaper, magazines, outdoor advertising, digital displays in public places, SMS, emails etc… displaying a toll free number.

The number of calls hitting the inbound call center varies throughout the day & through the week which is termed as call traffic. The number of Customer service representatives allocated to the call traffic is managed by a work force management tool which is designed on erlang ratio based on the trend of past few months across various media campaigns & mediums respectively.

The inbound call center is now turned into a profit center by promotion of up sell & cross sell initiatives after addressing the request of Customer. When the volume of enquiries go up & the management cost of the call center is high due to non-scalability & technology aspect it is outsourced by the organization to a BPO company to address the requests on behalf of it.
Therefore, the BPO Company has to provide service equivalent as it was if the call center was under the management of the organization considering it as an extension of it.
Tele-service is a complicated & driven by highly skilled workforce with state of the art technology available to support updated information. Overall quality scores have to be 90% with Accuracy of information delivered to be around 95%.

Tele-service process at Eureka is bifurcated into following groups:
A) Account Status & Product Inquiry.
B) Complain Management.
C) Retention & Collection Management.
D) Verification Process.
E) CSAT & ESAT services.

Applied across the industry like Insurance, Banking, Telecom, Real Estate, Retail & Others.
However, This draft is designed in generic to cover the basics of Tele-service.

A) Account Status & Product Inquiry: The most commonly known setup of Tele-service which addresses all the inquiry related to tracking status of application, logistics of delivery, billing details, product updates, value added features, registration of complain, accolades & in some instances the support is extended to partners like dealers, agents, suppliers, franchises etc.

The CSR for this profile undergoes a stringent educational program to be trained for handling query of the caller. Identification of the caller is highly sensitive prior to disclosing any account details. The product information is shared with interested callers as there is no identity theft or compliance issues in interaction with them.

CSR has to be provided or equipped with relevant information through a CRM tool or systems which can be referred for sharing details with the caller in a minimum turn around time. The first time resolution (FTR) is achieved through the best in breed process cycle over a cutting edge technology.

Today, callers use SMS, email, toll free numbers to connect with contact center. Therefore, integration of the platforms is essential into one framework for CSRs to access details despite the route taken by the caller to reach them.

B) Complain Management: Complain is a concern shared by a caller who might have become a Customer or a well wisher. The CSR is the frontline window or the first contact with the caller to address the complaint. CSR acts as a facilitator for routing the complaints to respective process owners or departments on resolution.

The CSR undergoes an educational program on process flow cycle followed by each department & their inter links to resolve a complaint type. The complain type is designed basis the stages of life cycle of the Customer like misinformation of product features at pre-sales, & post sales like delay in product delivery or damage goods, product break down & delay in service, behavior of company representative or breach of trust etc.

Complain management follows an escalation matrix if the resolution TAT goes beyond agreed SLA by a department or process owner. Today, a Customer knocks the door of consumer courts which is a reputational risk for the organization. This process is outsourced by client to an outsource agency based on trust & support them with all relevant information tools. This is a critical process to be outsourced for a client & requires frequent checks on quality & accuracy of information shared with Customers. Retaining the Customer is managed by the retention department in most of the organization.

C) Retention & Collection Management: This is an outbound activity falling under the Tele-service vertical due to the nature of it being a Non-Marketing process. Every organization realizes the cost of acquisition is higher to retention of a Customer. A Customer shows signals prior to disconnecting its relationship with the service provider (client) like non-payment of renewals, delayed payments, wrong contact numbers, shift of contact address, frequent complaints, low usage, less transactions on the account, decrease in account balance etc.

Retention process is a more active than passive activity & Customer behavior study is important to track or group the Customers for contact. The group is contacted by CSRs and pro-actively reminded on the status of their account or update on risk of losing privileges. The prime objective of the retention CSR is to keep the Customer in the books of the company. Bad accounts termed by the company is not retained they are moved to collection unit for recovering any financial or asset belonging to the company.

CSR is educated on relationship management & equipped with information to connect with relevant process owners to support the Customer for any request which triggered their behavior to discontinue relationship. Collection team is trained to interact with defaulters & conduct skip tracing for contacting Customer. The Customer is updated with repercussions or risk if he/she doesn’t comply with the company on the grounds of legal or CIBIL ratings based on the intense or size of collection.

D) Verification Process: Know your Customer (KYC) is essential for all clients as per the guidelines laid by AML – Anti money laundering due to the transactions which supports terrorist or unethical white collar crimes. The company has laid certain prerogative for itself while providing a product or service to a prospect. They could be from verifying the contact details for both residential or office, residential proofs, reference authenticity or guarantee, pan card validity, document justification & other areas enlisted by the client for verification.

General belief of verification process is to maintain an updated Customer profile data & also inform for any identity theft. Client outsources this process for a neutral statements & lowering the risk of prejudiced decision.

CSR is compelled to follow strict checklist & standard questioning pattern to acquire information from the Customer in order to verify their details. CSR is given knowledge based on the updates in KYC norms or requirements by the client. The information captured by CSR on the Customer is kept highly confidential & under supervision.

E) CSAT & ESAT services: Customer satisfactory survey & employee satisfactory survey plays a key role in detecting the health of a business for a client. Therefore, the survey for gauging the service aspect forms a part of Tele-service.

Customer satisfactory survey comprise of a checklist prepared by the client on areas which is in contact with Customer like Customer service, TAT on resolution of concern, product feature details, delivery process of goods etc. The list is designed to capture important areas of a Customer life cycle & gauge the success ratio on the service. The Customer is given an option to choose from to rate the parameter of the checklist. The survey supports the client to manage their budget basis the ratings given by Customer. They can spend more on innovation the service for a parameter which is on high rating or develop low areas to enhance to delight.

Outsourcing this process is to avoid the risk of being influenced by company loyalty rather Customer loyalty. This data is referred by operations & marketing department to work around their strategy to service or attract new prospects respectively. The result in most of the cases is different to what was conceptualized as a brand equity service.

CSR is directed to ensure there is no prompt or hint to the Customer for a positive answer. The method of asking questions is to be able to make the Customer understand the objective & answer at his/her free will without any repercussion on their relationship with client.