Cell C disputes poor service levels
A recent helpdesk and email support test of local telecommunications operators saw Cell C finishing last with a call answering time of 5 minutes 57 seconds and a helpdesk agent who was not particularly well versed in the End-user and Subscriber Service Charter Regulations which recently kicked in.
Cell C however disputed the results indicating that it has poor support levels, saying that it is fully compliant with the End-user and Subscriber Service Charter Regulations.
“Whilst Cell C will investigate the assertion by MyBroadband that a call to the Cell C helpdesk took over 5 minutes to be answered, Cell C would like to point out that it is fully compliant with the End-user and Subscriber Service Charter Regulations, which stipulate that the average speed of answer to helpdesk calls over a 12 month period must not exceed 3 minutes,” said Priya Rajmoney, Customer Operations Executive at Cell C.
“Cell C’s average response times averages around 2 minutes over the preceding 12 month period. In several instances, average response times have been less than 60 seconds and in many, less than 1 minute 30 seconds. Cell C will make this data available to MyBroadband on request.”
“Based on this information, we believe that the call made by MyBroadband to the Cell C helpdesk was not an accurate reflection of Cell C’s compliance with the regulations and trusts that MyBroadband will endeavour to provide its audience with a more rounded assessment of Cell C in this regard.”
Cell C’s helpdesk information
MyBroadband took advantage of the offer from Cell C to view its helpdesk information, and we had a few follow on questions about the company’s customer support.
Cell C provided MyBroadband with a comprehensive spreadsheet of average prepaid and postpaid response times, which ranged between 1 minute 18 seconds and 2 minutes 49 seconds. These figures however did not include time spent in the Interactive Voice Response (IVR), something which can take around 1 minute on its own.
Overall Cell C’s helpdesk response times are well within the limits set by the End-user and Subscriber Service Charter Regulations, but questions remain about the helpdesk agent’s inability to assist a caller in lodging an official service complaint.
Cell C said that they are currently training their call centre staff on the End-user and Subscriber Service Charter. “It is also important to note that this new legislation only came into effect on the 24th of August 2009,” said Rajmoney.
e-Mail support
Cell C was also quizzed about the time taken to respond to email complaints, and here the cellular provider said that “as soon as an email is received via the customers service email address an automated response is immediately sent back to the sender and we endeavor to send a comprehensive response within a 48 hour period.”
MyBroadband tested the email support from local telecoms providers, and Cell C fell far short of its promise. A support email was sent to Cell C on 10 September 13:39, and a response was only received on 17 September at 17:35. It should also be noted that this response was only received after Cell C was made aware of the fact that they did not respond to support emails.
“An Internal investigation is underway to check what the reasons were for the delay in responding. Please note that sub-standard service delivery at Cell C is taken very seriously and as such the necessary steps will be followed internally once the investigation is completed,” Cell C said about the poor email support.
Difficult to verify results
The End-user and Subscriber Service Charter Regulations require all licensees to prepare and submit half yearly reports on complaints received and processed and on other regulatory requirements like helpdesk support times, installation times and service activation periods. There is however not a clear framework for the verification of this information and no outline of prohibits an operator from merely changing the statistics to fall in line.
When Cell C was asked how MyBroadband can independently verify the statistics which the company supplied about its helpdesk response times, the answer was: “This can be verified by emailing [email protected]”. This is the same helpdesk email address which was previously only answered after the company was alerted to the fact that there was a problem, and emailing a company itself is hardly a reliable way to independently verify results.
This highlights a potential shortcoming in the End-user and Subscriber Service Charter Regulations which will have to be addressed if ICASA wants to effectively regulate the service levels of operators.
Cell C support – comments and views
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