I am developing a customer service portal for big organisations to put up their general enquiry form. This allows their customers to provide brief details of their queries and for the customer service officer to call the customer with the answer. This will reduce the waiting time at the call center during peak hours. It will also improve customer service. More details of this portal can be found here.
This portal can be used by many organisations. The customer will find it easy to contact many organisations at the same portal and be familiar with one standard interface.
Tan Kin Lian
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
SMS Response
If you wish to receive responses by SMS to a promotion, contest, event, registration or other activity, you can try this service. It is low cost and easy to set up. It can be used by a business or an individual.
Calling NTUC Income
Here is my experience in calling NTUC Income during a busy period. There was no pressing of button and irrelevant messages, so there is no hassle for the customer. I am told that I have to wait 3 minutes for my call to be attended. This is better than being put on hold for an unspecified period. They also provide an option for the call center to call back the customer, which is a good feature.
I decided not to wait and to call back later, when the call center is free.
I decided not to wait and to call back later, when the call center is free.
Easysearch Portal
There are several applications on this portal of general interest to the public. Try it.
http://www.easysearch.sg/Apps.aspx
http://www.easysearch.sg/Apps.aspx
Outsourcing
Many jobs in the private and public sector has been outsourced during the past decade. In the past, these organisations employ clearners, security guards and technicians and paid fair wages relative to the other "core workers" in their organisations. The workers are protected by the collective bargaining of wages in the organisations.
After outsourcing, these organisations were able to reduce their operating cost. The contractors who won the jobs were able to employ foreign workers or re-emply the retrenched workers at lower wages or to work for longer hours. This is a key contributor for the stagnation of wages in Singapore during the past decade.
The customers do not benefit much from the reduction in cost. Most of the benefits accrue to the shareholders and top managers of these organisations. This accounts for the widening gap between the high and low income earners.
While wages remain stagnant, the cost of living continues to increase. This makes life very difficult for many Singaporeans.
I hope that our top leaders will realise that this is a bad trend and that outsourcing is a source of this problem. To correct this situation, there should be a minimum wage for all workers and that the public sector should set an example by insisting on an expected standard of service and be willing to pay fair fees for outsourced work.
Tan Kin Lian
After outsourcing, these organisations were able to reduce their operating cost. The contractors who won the jobs were able to employ foreign workers or re-emply the retrenched workers at lower wages or to work for longer hours. This is a key contributor for the stagnation of wages in Singapore during the past decade.
The customers do not benefit much from the reduction in cost. Most of the benefits accrue to the shareholders and top managers of these organisations. This accounts for the widening gap between the high and low income earners.
While wages remain stagnant, the cost of living continues to increase. This makes life very difficult for many Singaporeans.
I hope that our top leaders will realise that this is a bad trend and that outsourcing is a source of this problem. To correct this situation, there should be a minimum wage for all workers and that the public sector should set an example by insisting on an expected standard of service and be willing to pay fair fees for outsourced work.
Tan Kin Lian
Restructuring of company
I know of a manager who recently lost his job (after 11 years) due to a change in top management. The new management wanted to resctructure the company (which is an excuse for bringing in his buddies) and asked him to leave. He was offered only 3 months of salary for 11 years of service. The retrenched manager had no option, but to accept this poor package. His termination was not due to poor performance, as he had received a good testimonial from the previous CEO (who has since retired) for his 11 years of service.
This is a need for better protection of workers (including managers) in Singapore from unfair employment practice. The law should provide a fair rate of retrenchment benefit for termination due to reasons other than poor performance.
Tan Kin Lian
This is a need for better protection of workers (including managers) in Singapore from unfair employment practice. The law should provide a fair rate of retrenchment benefit for termination due to reasons other than poor performance.
Tan Kin Lian
SIA Krisflyer website
I spent more than 1 hour to reset the PIN for my Krisflyer account. I called the call center more than 5 times and got the assistance of the staff who was helpful and patient.
However, the website behaved erratically and baffled me and the staff. The problem with the website was worsened by the "security measures" introduced to "protect the interest of the customer". Actually, these measures were not necessary and made the website difficult to use. It also made it difficult to change the PIN. Some of these measures are:
a) freeze the login for 24 hours after 3 wrong entry of the PIN
b) verify the date of birth and IC (when the server record was wrong)
c) require the new PIN to be activated within 1 hour of being sent.
d) the website showed different information to me and to the staff who was assisting me.
The staff sent me a total of 4 new PINs to login after the earlier PINs did not work.
This video shows about 5 minutes of the 1 hour episode.
However, the website behaved erratically and baffled me and the staff. The problem with the website was worsened by the "security measures" introduced to "protect the interest of the customer". Actually, these measures were not necessary and made the website difficult to use. It also made it difficult to change the PIN. Some of these measures are:
a) freeze the login for 24 hours after 3 wrong entry of the PIN
b) verify the date of birth and IC (when the server record was wrong)
c) require the new PIN to be activated within 1 hour of being sent.
d) the website showed different information to me and to the staff who was assisting me.
The staff sent me a total of 4 new PINs to login after the earlier PINs did not work.
This video shows about 5 minutes of the 1 hour episode.
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