Recently I had a really nice chat with two gentlemen on the Aeroline bus travelling from Singapore to KL. We were seated on the really comfortable lounge that the Aeroline bus company has created on their double decker buses and had four hours to kill.

Kasminder Singh

ll three of us were connected to the mobile industry and it wasn’t that great a coincident since the 3GSM conference had just ended in Singapore. One of the guys worked with a mobile content company and the other was a telco consultant. Naturally, we talked about the state of our mobile industry and in particular, the telcos.

We debated about 3G, talked about the killer applications of tomorrow and the wonders of mobile technology. All very nice and enlightening; until we somehow got onto the subject of customer service.That’s when the horror stories started. One after another we traded accounts of our dealings with those dreaded customer service personnel of telcos. We certainly weren’t bashing any particular telco. Between the three of us, we happened to be customers of all three telcos.It seemed that bad customer service is something the telcos have in common.
The list of problems was long. Among them:

• Terrible interactive voice response (IVR) systems that took you round in circles and never gave you the option of connecting to a real person. (By the way, all three of us had figured out on our own how to overcome this: simply choose the option of reporting a lost or stolen SIM card and the elusive service person will be on in a jiffy.)

• Poor product knowledge. Most times the support personnel were not aware of pricing and promotions.

• Non existent technical assistance. The front line staff knew nothing about solving technical problems and only promised to have someone call back days later which was frustrating when you needed, for instance, to access the Internet right away.

• Poor customer relationship management. All of us had the same experience where we had brought up problems before which the front line staff had no record of and we were forced to give details over and over again.

I could go on but you get the picture. And before a call centre guy decides to put out a contract on my life, I am not putting any blame on the front line staff. While they end up taking most of the abuse from irate customers, the problem really lies with the bosses.We were also in consensus on one opinion. If the telcos did not attend to this issue urgently, the problem was going to get worse in the foreseeable future. Phones and services are getting more complex and the demand for support is bound to increase.

It seems that poor customer service is a Malaysian speciality. Granted, it’s not unique to the mobile industry. My American friend who moved here some years ago with his Malaysian wife always tells me that most Malaysian companies won’t survive a day in the States. The reason: bad customer service.When you look at the money being spent on advertising, it becomes almost funny. I’ve always believed that three things make a successful business: a good product, great marketing and excellent service. In the mobile industry, everything seems to be focussed on marketing. I suppose what’s left is spent on improving the network, leaving little for customer service.Anyway, it’s no secret that the bruising marketing wars have led to an inevitable situation where price wars are the norm and margins are razor thin. Also, in case they have forgotten, telcos face a very uncertain future.

Here’s a tip for the telcos.

Don’t take part in the marketing battles. Work at improving your customer service. You will find that you will have no problems retaining your customers and even attracting subscribers from the other telcos. And you know what? You’ll find that you will make even more money than you make now.It’s not difficult to do. Throw away those IVR systems (no one likes to be put on hold) and hire more people to answer calls. Train them well and put more of your engineers on the front line. Solve problems within hours instead of days.

Please don’t tell me it cannot be done. I have had my problems solved within minutes sometimes when I get the right person on the phone.

I hope at least one telco will make this their 2007 resolution. I’ll be the first in line to sign up.

Only just don’t make a big marketing splash about improving customer service and then not keep your word. That’s been seen and done before.

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