Vodafone team shows world how putting the customer first helped their business
11th December, 2004
11th December, 2004
When the Vodafone Fiji Quality Circle team brainstormed almost 10 months ago for a project for this year, they focused on ideas on how to serve the customer best in line with company objectives.
So the project chosen was how to reduce the time taken to close customer enquiries.
Ten months later, not only did the team cut down customer enquiry times in their Customer Care Call Centre from 3 days to under one day, but they saved the company over $500,000.
Now the award-winning team is set to join teams from all over the world to compete at the International Convention on Quality Control Circles in Bangkok this week.
Vodafone Fiji's Mayur Narsey and Suman Lata lead the 11-member team, named Fort Knox after the American national armoury, as a symbol of strength.
The Fort Knox team was one of two quality circles judged the best projects within Vodafone Fiji. Nine teams took part in Vodafone Fiji's internal quality circle competition.
Amazingly, the Fort Knox project took 5 months to complete but did not require an additional budget. In addition, potential customer disconnections dropped from 33 per cent to 20 per cent.
The project revolved around improving customer response times at the Vodafone Fiji Customer Care Centre which is a "one-stop-shop" for information and assistance on Vodafone Fiji products and services. The service can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, simply by dialing 123 from any mobile phone or land line in Fiji.
The solution involved the Vodafone Fiji IT team developing a software solution - named Traker - that logged customer enquiries and sent hourly alerts until the enquiry was closed.
Narsey says the Traker solution brought many intangible benefits as well as reducing customer response times.
"Customer satisfaction has increased as has customer loyalty towards Vodafone Fiji as customers perceive value in Vodafone's prompt service," says Narsey.
He said Vodafone business managers can now also analyse common enquiry types and measure the responsiveness of their team.
The solution also meant there was no need to employ additional staff to manage customer enquiries.
Narsey says higher customer satisfaction means the number of potential disconnections has dropped and there was reduced likelihood of customers switching to other communication means.
This in turn has resulted in greater usage of mobile phone services and increased revenue.
The Vodafone team joins quality circle teams from all over the world making presentations in the areas of Technology and Innovation, Maintenance and Support, Service, Health Care and Quality Management.
Project submissions include reducing time in fetching blood for patients and reducing the long waiting time for outpatients in Singapore hospitals among other issues.
So the project chosen was how to reduce the time taken to close customer enquiries.
Ten months later, not only did the team cut down customer enquiry times in their Customer Care Call Centre from 3 days to under one day, but they saved the company over $500,000.
Now the award-winning team is set to join teams from all over the world to compete at the International Convention on Quality Control Circles in Bangkok this week.
Vodafone Fiji's Mayur Narsey and Suman Lata lead the 11-member team, named Fort Knox after the American national armoury, as a symbol of strength.
The Fort Knox team was one of two quality circles judged the best projects within Vodafone Fiji. Nine teams took part in Vodafone Fiji's internal quality circle competition.
Amazingly, the Fort Knox project took 5 months to complete but did not require an additional budget. In addition, potential customer disconnections dropped from 33 per cent to 20 per cent.
The project revolved around improving customer response times at the Vodafone Fiji Customer Care Centre which is a "one-stop-shop" for information and assistance on Vodafone Fiji products and services. The service can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, simply by dialing 123 from any mobile phone or land line in Fiji.
The solution involved the Vodafone Fiji IT team developing a software solution - named Traker - that logged customer enquiries and sent hourly alerts until the enquiry was closed.
Narsey says the Traker solution brought many intangible benefits as well as reducing customer response times.
"Customer satisfaction has increased as has customer loyalty towards Vodafone Fiji as customers perceive value in Vodafone's prompt service," says Narsey.
He said Vodafone business managers can now also analyse common enquiry types and measure the responsiveness of their team.
The solution also meant there was no need to employ additional staff to manage customer enquiries.
Narsey says higher customer satisfaction means the number of potential disconnections has dropped and there was reduced likelihood of customers switching to other communication means.
This in turn has resulted in greater usage of mobile phone services and increased revenue.
The Vodafone team joins quality circle teams from all over the world making presentations in the areas of Technology and Innovation, Maintenance and Support, Service, Health Care and Quality Management.
Project submissions include reducing time in fetching blood for patients and reducing the long waiting time for outpatients in Singapore hospitals among other issues.
