Hi-tech approach helps to raise the quality of service

PCCW's technical and customer service arm Cascade pours out resources to streamline the workflow

CUSTOMER SERVICE standards in Hong Kong are generally high, but there is still room for improvement, according to Chan Wing-wa, managing director at Cascade.

'Companies can do better, especially by developing frontline staff with a customer service mindset so that they always put the customer's interests first.'

Although better customer service costs money in the short term, the added expense can usually be recovered through greater efficiency.

'Better customer service, in fact, always costs money,' Mr Chan said. '[But] when service quality improves, mistakes can be avoided. The result is the saving of money.'

Cascade is the technical and customer service arm of PCCW. Founded in 2003, the Hong Kong-based company provides telecommunications services, serves as a technical consultancy, and designs and builds network infrastructures. It has a workforce of 3,000 technical experts and consultants.

'We believe that sustaining a lifelong customer relationship is the key to success in today's interactive economy,' Mr Chan said. 'Differentiating customer treatment based on customer needs and values holds the key to increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty, as well as a company's profitability.

'Cascade has a strong customer service team that serves PCCW's commercial customers. We believe a high quality of customer service can strengthen customer loyalty and guarantee recurrent sales for the company.'

The company has introduced a number of innovations to provide better service. Its account service managers carry mobile phones and provide round-the-clock support seven days a week.

'In addition, our staff has to meet a predefined service level agreement as well as a key performance index,' Mr Chan said. 'To streamline the workflow, we make use of the latest telephony systems and information technologies to develop various tools and applications to meet stringent customer needs.'

Another innovation, the dynamics workforce management system (DWFM), streamlines daily operations and increases the productivity, efficiency and customer service standards of its field staff.

'If network failure has been detected in an area, DWFM will automatically assign the most suitable and nearest field staff to restore the service immediately,' Mr Chan said. 'All field staff are given PDAs that can download all the information and exchange network diagrams as well as suggested solutions through the mobile network. The system is highly appreciated by our customers, and we plan to promote this product to overseas markets in the near future.'

The rewards of good customer service are many.

'It makes the customers happy so they stay with the service provider longer, buy more and recommend it to others,' Mr Chan said. 'Cascade puts lots of resources into training our frontline staff to be professional, helpful and caring to customers. They are always prepared to proactively solve any customer problems. Most of our account service managers are Certified Customer Service Professionals (CCSP), and we are planning to get certified to the Customer Service Quality Standard (CSQS) by 2006.'

International certification is seen as evidence of a company's ability to provide what PCCW terms 'world-class customer service'.

'In order to strengthen our competitive advantage in customer services, international certification of customer service is our business goal,' Mr Chan said.

Cascade won the CRE Awards in three corporate categories: the grand award in Customer Relationship Excellence (Outstanding Achievement), Integrated Support Team and Innovative Technology.

'We are honoured to receive all three awards,' Mr Chan said. 'Through the competition, we learnt from international companies about customer service practices and experience, and we learnt to motivate staff and enhance our image.'

Mr Chan attributed the company's success to effectively developing a service-oriented mindset among its staff.

'We trained our staff to listen to what the customer needs, and think from the customer's point of view,' he said. 'We assigned a dedicated account service manager to serve individual customer accounts for handling different service requests.'