Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Experience on call centers

I have created some short videos (less than 5 mins) on my experience in calling the call centers of a few large organisations.

They can be viewed here:
http://www.easysearch.sg/videos/

I hope that the large organisations can understand the frustration and difficulty of their customers in navigating through their automated system, and in listening to irrelevant messages. They should simplify the system to make it easier for their customer to talk to a customer service officer. They should also provide an option in the website for the customer to submit a form and for the call center staff to call back with the answer.

I was quite surprised that the calls were answered quickly for SIA, DBS and Starhub. The customer service officers were helpful and competent.  Well done.

Tan Kin Lian

Take early action

An edited version of this letter was publised in the Straits Times on 19 May.

Editor, Forum page
In his letter “Do your checks before investing in land abroad”, Dr. Tan Tee Khoon gave a good description of the mode of operation of land banking schemes. He said “Potential investors may be misled about the prospects of obtaining planning permission or redevelopment”.

While investors should follow the advice of Dr. Tan in doing their checks before making such investments, there is also a need for the authority to play its part.

When the seller knowingly misrepresents a product that is sold to the public, it can be considered as “cheating”. When the cheating involves a large sum of money and many victims, it is necessary for the authority to investigate the complaints and gather evidence to charge the perpetuators in court.

It is better to take early action, before more victims fall into the trap. It is difficult for the public to be savvy in detecting misrepresentations in statements that are published in documents or advertisements.

We read about similar cases in other countries where action is taken by the authority to close down the operation of companies that are suspected of engaging in fraudulent activities. There is also adequate media publicity to warn the public about these operations.

I hope that our authority in Singapore take the appropriate action to prevent more people from being caught in these schemes.

Tan Kin Lian

Calling SIA Call Center

I called the SIA Call Center to enquire about my Krisflyer points. The experience with the call center was quite satisfactory. The waiting time was short. The automated messages was still frustrating, but not as bad as other large organisations.

However, the experience with the Krisflyer website was quite bad. Read this report.

Tan Kin Lian

Calling DBS Credit Card

I called the DBS call center to enquire about my credit card points. I find the automation system to be quite troublesome. I also get many irrelevant messages. It is quite frustrating.

After pressing the wrong option on 3 attempts, I was directed to a customer service officer. The waiting time was rather short - which was quite surprising.

Watch this video about my experience.

The CSO is helpful and provides good service. The automation system is what caused the trouble. (This comment applies to the automation system used by most large organisations, not just DBS). The system used by DBS to verify the customer is quite frustrating and should be changed.

Tan Kin Lian

Give better value to consumers

Some people, presumably insurance agents, dislike my postings on the bad practices of life insurance companies (i.e. cut in bonus, high charges, low yields, rejection of claims) and continue to make personal attacks against me in their anonymous postings.

It is better for these people to realise that the life insurance companies should change its bad practices and treat consumers fairly. This would be beneficial for the long term growth of the industry. Any business can thrive only when it offers value to its customers.

I also hope that my postings will prompt the insurance companies to change its products to offer a better return to its policyholders. Lately, I saw from some benefit illustrations that the distribution cost and effect of deduction has been reduced, i.e. give better value to consumers. Although they are still high, it is a step in the right direction.  More can be done.

REQUEST. Please do not use this posting as another opportunity to "bash" the insurance agents or products.


Tan Kin Lian

Congential conditions

Hi Mr. Tan,
My student was found to have a hole in the heart in an ECG program initiated by his secondary school. He subsequently underwent heart surgery. He has been active in sports all along so the condition was never detected before.
He has been insured medically since birth. However, the insurance company has refused to pay a single cent towards the medical costs citing congenital cause.
Even the medishield claims [with the same company] were also rejected. Have all the premiums paid by his parents been just money down the drain?
I would like to know if there is any recourse for his parents to relieve them at least a little of the medical expenses.



REPLY
Generally, health insurance policies exclude congenital conditions. The rationale is that people who knows that they have congenital condition are more likely to buy insurance, so the exclusion is to prevent what is called adverse selection.
In some countries, the government insists that congenital conditions must be covered. I think that this is one provision in the new health plan that has recently been passed in US Congress. Unfortunately, we do not have such a requirement by the regulators in Singapore. In my view, the Ministry of health should have insisted that all convenital conditions are covered under Medishiled and private Shield plans - but this was unfortunately not the case.
Although the health plan does not cover congenital conditions, it does cover all of the other illness that are not connected with the congenital conditions, such as infection, injury and others. The premium is used to cover these other conditions.

REPLY
Hi Mr. Tan
Thank you for your kind reply to my query. However, it seems that I can't really do anything to help my student.

I do agree with you that the MOH should look into making congenital cases covered by shield plans. I am sure my student isn't the only case which was not detected at birth and only surfaced much later in life.
However, I'm still upset that the insurance company didn't even bother to give a token sum to help the parents defray costs.

REPLY
Please ask the student to write to the insurance company to request for an ex-gratia payment to cover part of the bill, considering the premiums that have been paid over the years, for which there was (presumably) no claim. If the insurance company reject the request, ask the student to write to the Minister for Health, as the Medishield scheme comes under his Ministry.

Fraud Alert

Read this article. Be careful about investing in new schemes created to cheat the public.

Cut in policyholder's bonus

Read the letter.

My comment.
This criticism is not confined to one insurer. Many insurers have cut their bonus during a difficult time but are rather slow in restoring their bonus when the market recovered. This is unfair to policyholders, especially those whose policies have matured while the bonus are still not restored.

I agree with the call to MAS to investigate if the insurers have been fair in their treatment of the policyholders.

To avoid this type of unfair treatment, the public should invest in a low cost investment fund, which is transparent and give a better yield, over the long term. This is explained in my book, Practical Guide on Financial Planning.

Life insurance companies

This article explains that life insurance company works for shareholders and not for customers.

My comment
In the past, most life insurance companies are mutual companies (including cooperatives) that work for the interest of customers. In recent years, most of these companies have become de-mutualised or have started to think about maximising profits. It is dangerous to entrust your long term savings to these companies, especially if they have the discretion to pay a lower rate of bonus to customers.

It is better to invest in a low cost investment fund, which is within your control. This is explained in my book on financial planning.

Intelligence Quiz online

Try the updated version of the Intelligence Quiz online.

You can also play it on the smart phone by browsing the internet using this link projects.easyapps.sg/eiq. There is a bug when you click on "Answer" but this will be corrected soon.

You can learn the technique to play this puzzle from my book available here.

Give your views of this online game in this survey.

Tip for solving Intelligence Quiz.
1. Look for clues that indicate a fixed house, e.g. first house, second house, last house.
2. Look for clues that is related to an item that has already been identified.
3. Look for clues that exactly fit into the empty slots.
4. By following these steps, you can solve the Intelligence Quiz.

Portal on scams

Hi TKL,


Many Singaporeans I know, are always in the pursuit of material wealth and at times being complacement, only to realise later that they are victims of scams. How nice if we could have a similar portal like this, all under one roof:


http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/tag/InvestmentSeminarsRealEstateScams


LN

Starhub Call Center

I called Starhub at their call center to enquire about Open Net, the new national broadband. Here is my experience.

I am quite surprised that the call is answered quick quickly (after going through 3 minutes of navigating through their system) and the staff is quite knowledgeable. So, apart from the automated messages (which is quite frustrating and time wasting), the service is quite good. In the past, I have to wait a long time to be answered by a person, but on this occasion, it was quite fast.

Many large organisations require customers to suffer the hassle of navigating through their automated system, so this is not unique to Starhub.