ALKHOBAR, 10 October 2006 — Call centers, also known as customer contact centers, are a common means of providing customer service in our connected world. Throughout the Kingdom, more and more organizations such as Saudi Telecom, Saudi Arabian Airlines and the local banks are implementing call centers. This has generally resulted in an improvement in customer service and happier customers as a result. Once in a while though, something goes badly wrong with a company’s customer contact center operations and instead of enhancing that organization’s reputation the call center creates a negative brand image.
Last month, British Airways (BA) sent out an e-mail to all members in the Middle East of its “Executive Club” frequent flyer program. The e-mail informed everyone that in the future, for all Executive Club enquiries, members would have to either call 0044 (207) 136-7770 or manage through the BA.com website. Previously, Executive Club members had been able to telephone to Dubai for any issues with BA, but that number had been shut down. It turned out that BA had decided to consolidate its customer contact center operations.
There were immediate complaints about the new call center setup. As I myself am an Executive Club member, I was able to easily investigate the situation. It was much worse than expected. Calls to the UK number had high latency, with even the initial greeting message cutting out several times and the call was usually dropped within a few seconds. It took more than a dozen tries to reach an agent at the Executive Club Call Center and even then the latency problem made conversation difficult. Eventually, the agent requested information be sent by fax and she read out a fax number. The call got cut off before that number could be confirmed.
After trying several times to fax the information, it was apparent that the number was incorrect. Turning to the BA website and scrolling down the list of Executive Club contacts worldwide, lo and behold Under Executive Club India, there was the fax number 00912225188352. Due to the constant latency in the connection, one number had been lost as the agent read the fax number out at the end of the phone call to BA’s customer contact center.
This made the whole call center contact situation more painful. A telephone call to a UK number from Saudi Arabia costs SR2.60 per minute. If BA had let Middle East Executive Club members call to India where the call center is actually located, the telephone call would cost SR2. This is of course more than the cost of calls in the past to the Executive Club in Dubai (SR1.3 per minute), but better than calling to the UK.
As of yet, despite a request, BA has not explained the problems in regards to their customer contact center operations. So, it remains a mystery why in such a cutthroat business as the airline industry, BA would want to antagonize Middle East Executive Club members who are supposed to be frequent flyers and thus, highly-valued customers. The sad truth is that BA could have offered high-quality service through a global call center, if they’d paid attention to the details of setting up and running such an operation.
“The technology behind call center operations is mature. It is available and in use. We have customers who are implementing a strategy of consolidation to serve their Middle East-based customers out of Dubai and out of Egypt, where call centers have been and are being built for outsourced operations,” said Roger El Tawil, channel and marketing director, Avaya MENA. “The Dubai and Egypt call center operations have been very successful and there has been tremendous growth in their business. Pakistan is another market that is taking on this outsourcing opportunity.”
Avaya is a global provider of business communications applications, systems and services and El Tawil has worked extensively with companies in the region who are setting up customer contact centers. He had no idea why BA decided to choose to have all Middle Eastern Executive Club members contact the organization through an international toll number.
“Companies have to make these decisions based on their customer service strategy. But it definitely is possible to make available either regional or local telephone numbers through which calls could then be transferred to another geography,” El Tawil said. “Some countries do have regulatory challenges when it comes to allowing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Countries, such as Egypt, Pakistan and Jordan, are strongly supporting initiatives to develop VoIP and that will support the growth of call centers in those nations.”
El Tawil was not against BA consolidating its Executive Club call center operations, and advised that it could have been a very positive move if the consolidation had been well planned and implemented. Consolidation of call center operations can be good for both a company and its customers. Companies are trying to drive costs down and call center consolidation allows a company to build a single infrastructure. While some companies will choose to create physical call centers on the outskirts of cities where real estate costs are lower, other companies now use technology to route calls to agents who work from home.
Centralized call center operations also allow the development of information subspecialists, who are then made available to the entire customer pool. This increases the sophistication of services available through the call center. For example, banks can have specialists in financing or investing available to answer questions through their customer contact center. It’s a value proposition for both the company and its customers.
“Customer service is important for brand image and customer retention. Customers want to be served in a manner at least equivalent to the level of product or service being purchased,” remarked El Tawil. “For example, customers who purchase a premium product, then expect premium after-sales service. When the after-sales service expectation is not met, there can be negative consequences for the company. Customer service today is a differentiator and keeps companies ahead.”
Globally, there is enormous investment in call centers and customer relationship management applications. The reason for this is that companies want to bring service to their customers that is unique and personalized. Then the customer will feel important and be pleased. In a centralized customer contact center, when a customer calls in, all the relevant information about that customer, including the customer’s history with the company, will be available to any agent there. Companies can also improve the customer relationship and their bottom line through the call center by targeting certain customers for suitable programs and marketing promotions.
“Technology, operations and management of a call center will have ongoing requirements and ongoing changes and revisions,” said El Tawil “Audits of call center quality are also recommended. Companies are becoming very competitive so they need to regularly introduce new products and new services as differentiators. Call centers must also evolve to continue meeting customer expectations.”
BA should be aware that meeting customer expectations is a function of its Executive Club Customer Contact Center for Executive Club members in the Middle East. Consequently, by establishing a call center that delivers rather limited, disappointing service, this must mean that the airline would like to be perceived in the Middle East as a “budget carrier” rather than a full service travel provider.
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