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| HDB’s
Virtual Call Centre |
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Previously, whenever
Housing and Development Board (HDB) residents had
enquiries on the housing services pertaining to
their flats or estates, they would dial the number
of the respective branch
office. Each of the 23 branch offices had separate telephone systems consisting
of analog or digital phones and telephone operators. All calls were recorded
in writing.
New, improved system
Since 2001, HDB has looked into ways to improve the telephone systems. From April
to May 2003, it introduced the Virtual Call Centre (VCC) at the branch offices.
With this system, callers need to dial only one toll-free number to enquire on
all branch office services. As all the Customer Service Officers (CSOs) are pooled
together to answer calls to one single number, incoming calls are automatically
channelled to the next available CSO.
The VCC is supported by an extensive Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System
that enables calls to be captured electronically. This way, when a resident calls
again, he does not need to repeat information such as personal particulars and
case history, which are already captured in the system.
The VCC incorporates an interactive voice response system that is available 24
hours a day, seven days a week. CSOs serve customers from 8 am – 5 pm on
weekdays, and 8 am – 1 pm on Saturdays. At present, the voice recording
is in English and Mandarin. It will be available in all four languages in the
near future.
Many benefits
The implementation of VCC was a move in the right direction. Now HDB only needs
to pool 50 staff to man the call centre daily to answer about 120,000 incoming
calls per month. In the past, about 65 staff were deployed islandwide to handle
the same number of telephone enquiries at the 23 branch offices.
With the VCC, incoming calls are sent intelligently to the next available CSO
to attend to the customers’ enquiries, and that translates to better workload
balancing and better staff utilisation. HDB also achieved other benefits such
as lower abandoned call rate, capturing of call history via the CRM System, language
skill groups, one single contact point and many more.
As the Branch Office Service Line is linked to HDB HomeLINK, a 24-hour automated
telephone enquiry service, HDB residents can still call the Branch Office Service
Line after office hours for information on mortgage loans and the scheduled billing
date for upgrading costs. |
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By
HDB
Next: Premier
awards for OE
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| Related
Articles |
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For
any enquiries on the housing services
pertaining
to residents’ flats or estates,
please call:
1800-866 3030 |
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