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Swiss International Airlines: Mindpearl centralises call efforts for
Swiss
(M2 PressWIRE Via Acquire Media NewsEdge)
RDATE:10102008
Alike prominent international role players in the aviation industry,
Swiss International Airlines, formerly known as Swissair, has an
extensive office network across the globe. Each of its offices not only
acted as a sales office but included call centre services, back-office
and ticketing. Growing customer demands, and diverse time zones
resulted in clients not reaching sales representatives as they needed
them. Added to the mix was the telephony and technological challenges,
to allow Swiss offices to be linked across borders and the continuous
complexity of markets. Each of the Swiss offices worked independently
within their own geographical zone. Clients who bought a ticket in
their local market needed to be able to connect with the same office
from abroad or at least with someone who talked their native language
to change dates or routes quickly and efficiently. Such a solution
would greatly improve both customer satisfaction and cost efficiencies.
Although the solution to centralise all sales efforts, customer queries
and ticketing in one place seemed simple, it didn't look practical to
place an enormous global company in one location. The answer to this
challenge was a virtual global provider of customer service that could
operate on a multi lingual, "follow-the-sun" basis, 24 hours a day, 7
days a week throughout the year. Mindpearl, with a global customer care
network, was the solution. With operations in all 6 continents, Swiss
clientele could be serviced in more than 20 languages, in their native
tongue and with immediacy.
The dramatic reduction in call-waiting time resulted in an increase in
sales and significantly reduced costs for Swiss International Airlines.
Mindpearls' service solution across geographical time zones, allows for
regular and real-time reports via the Internet, Email or SMS. The
immediacy of results-reporting made reacting on outcomes effortless and
controllable. This has been a true win-win situation for all involved.
Entering the gaming fraternity
Known for its reputable feats in the aviation industry, Mindpearl has
tackled non-aviation clientele such as PokerNetwork, part of the
privately owned Ongame Group based in Sweden. In 2004 its staff
contingency reached more than 180 and revenues soared to approximately
20 million USD. Rated the fifth largest network of online poker it had
at that stage more than 3.8 million registered players.
PokerNetwork's continuous success stems from the quality of products,
services, games and software provided to its partners. This includes:
multi-platform online poker system; advanced integrated back-end
system; secure electronic payment services; brand building skins &
games; slick enjoyable and easy to use games; world leader in Java
based games (non-download) and industry standard for customer services.
After extensive research into international off-shore contact centres
servicing the European and US markets, PokerNetwork found Cape Town to
be a real growth location for the industry - mainly fuelled by
investment from UK based business. English is spoken by more than 75%
of Cape Town's inhabitants. Availability of other European languages
made this location even more luring with the language capacity
including French, German and Dutch. With the help of Calling the Cape,
a government-funded agency dedicated to call centre development,
PokerNetwork started scouting for the right partner to broaden its
services. PokerNetworks' one non-negotiable criterion involved company
culture and it became apparent that Mindpearl fitted the bill perfectly.
The key challenges and issues PokerNetwork were facing at the time were
harmonising call centre expansion with the incredible growth in the
Network, while maintaining the superb standards of product knowledge,
service level and brand loyalty. First class customer service is
critical for the success of online business. Games with cutting edge
graphics and state-of-the-art gameplay can be provided but if it is not
backed up with what the player perceives as the only real human element
of your product , in this case customer support, you'll quickly lose
the players' trust.
When opting to outsource, many investors see the reduction in costs as
the number one priority. PokerNetwork realized that the potential for
brand damage could be catastrophic if the agent quality was not treated
equal to or higher than cost. From experience it has become clear that
a call centre is as strong as its call agents - it all comes down to
the human element, no matter how smart the software of telecoms is.
With ever expanding markets, another challenge was the recruitment of
agents with the language capacity required across the globe.
PokerNetwork was convinced that the surest way to manage the constant
growth and change was to investigate the possibility of outsourcing to
an off-shore service provider.
The real advantages of selecting Mindpearl was the high degree of
cultural proximity to the UK/US matched with the calibre and great
customer empathy shown by their agents and management. The quality of
accent they provide set them apart and their low rates of attrition
were another indicator of sound working practices and environment.
A close partnership was forged between training teams which, along with
first class training facilities & resources, enabled PokerNetwork to
rapidly educate their agents to the required skill set. The online
gaming industry expects customer service that is informal and relaxed,
but still respectful, informative, and professional. This was a
deviation from the standard for Mindpearl who were more familiar with
the formal style of service required for airlines. Mindpearl quickly
adapted to their client's needs, changing their soft skills training to
reflect this.
Mindpearl's expertise in the airline industry has provided PokerNetwork
with interesting new concepts for additional support services and
collaborative customer relationship management. It is always valuable
to have an outside agency provide feedback on the way you conduct
business as it lifts any blinkers that have potentially blinded you
from new ideas. It is the old cliche of looking outside of the box, but
is something, especially in a rapidly growing company, that can be
passed by in the rush to expand. To PokerNetworks' advantage it has
remained an essential working practice in the company culture that has
helped to affirm the position as the premium brand.
A key question for investors considering outsourcing call centre
services is the real benefit apart from the cost. The benefit to the
client in this case is Mindpearl's ability to manage growth, coupled
with close communication, willingness to comply with the clients' needs
and control. One of the client's requests was to locate a staff member
of PokerNetwork on-site at Mindpearl Cape Town at an advisory level and
for this person to be directly involved in the Q&A process. A major
fear for many investors is the loss of control and this request
resolved the issue.
Apart from internal issues, PokerNetwork saw its industry expanding to
other markets with Europe and Asia highlighted as the next big
developments. Mindpearl put their client to rest with their global
positioning, currently being Cape Town, Brisbane and Barcelona and the
multi-language offering which includes more than 20 languages.
Again one of the fears facing an investor is delays to escalated
contact ultimate resolution due to time zone delays between the
office-hour departments of supplier and customer. With the time zone
similarity between Cape Town and Central Europe Mindpearl assured that
response to escalated issues is in real time. This also provided the
client with the ability to hold meetings and training via
tele-conference facilities saving on costly and time consuming site
visits.
PokerNetwork feels that since they've brought Mindpearl onboard, not
only has their service levels been maintained but actually increased.
New players are pleased by the agent enthusiasm, whilst existing
customers are happy that knowledge levels are still exemplary.
Satisfaction levels are measured through online surveys and Pokah; the
world's largest online poker forum, hosted by PokerRoom.com.
Mindpearl is seen as PokerNetwork's mouth and ears and this helps to
constantly redefine the boundaries at all levels. This strategic
partnership gives PokerNetwork the reassurance that player rapport is
sustained.
Advanced service levels for Frequent Flyer members
Qualiflyer Loyalty Limited (QLL) outsourced its frequent flyer
programme to Mindpearl from April 1999 to December 2002.The Qualiflyer
Loyalty Company was formed to market, promote and administer the
Qualiflyer frequent flyer programme. This programme was, at that time,
a joint frequent flyer programme for 11 airlines. These were Swissair,
Sabena, TAP Air Portugal, AOM French airlines, Air Littoral, Air
Liberte, Volare, Austrian Airlines, Lauda, Tyrolean and Crossair.
The handling of the call centres was outsourced to Mindpearl in April
1999 and by January 2003 the airlines either no longer existed, had
joined an alternative alliance or had decided to operate their own
Frequent flyer programme, hence the ending of the contract. Three of
the airlines that chose to have their own programme remain as customers
today, however the contracts are directly with the airline and not with
the loyalty company.
Prior to Mindpearl opening its first location in London, frequent
flyers called the airlines directly and each airline had their own call
centre or groups of employees handling callers requesting assistance
pertaining to the Qualiflyer Frequent Programme. When Mindpearl started
collating existing call volumes, administration volumes and electronic
volumes the statistics were scarce or non-existent in 90% of cases. The
consolidation of these offices required closing over 300
units/departments and absorbing the workload into initially only its
London centre.
The client advised Mindpearl to expect an annual volume of 500,000
events with the breakdown of language requirements. Call volumes were
received from a total of 26 countries with a language capacity of 15
different languages. The actual volumes were 280% over plan with
Mindpearl handling 1.4 million events in the first 12 months.
The reason for the explosion in call volumes is the poor service
standards provided to members of the programme previously. 20 minute
hold times were the norm with letters and faxes receiving a 6-week
turn-around time. This resulted in one member having to communication
multiple times. If no one answered the phone, an Email was sent,
followed by a fax and a letter.
Results showed that if calls were answered in a timely manner a
significant reduction in all other forms of communication were seen.
The contract was handled in a way to allow the use of temporary
employees for the first 5 months. These employees focused on the
backlog of letters, faxes and Emails and determining which
communication was truly outstanding to allow for full-time employees to
concentrate on their primary tasks.
One important factor learnt by both Mindpearl and QLL was that
providing a poor level of service (as was done prior to Mindpearl
handling the account) did not save money. Qualiflyer Members will
communicate on such a personnel matter as their miles and will not call
another provider. Should they not receive the assistance they need, any
form of communication required to ensure they get the most out of their
miles will be used.
It was found that previous attitudes reasoned that these tickets were
free of charge and should therefore not receive the same level of
service as direct sales phone lines. In truth, by not answering calls
the overall costs were increased due to staff having to handle up to 5
pieces of communication on the same matter from the same member. This
proved to be far more costly than answering the query on the first
contact.
The entire procedure was taken one step further since it was found that
in 30% of the cases, callers calling the frequent flyer line also
needed some assistance on the direct sales side. Members often only
have enough miles for one ticket and need to purchase the other. The
program also allowed for companion awards and upgrade awards and this
required transferring the caller between the relevant departments. This
had not previously been recognised since direct sales and frequent
flyer departments always were held in separate budgets with different
reporting lines. Mindpearl proposed this to a combination of QLL and
the respective airlines that if they cross-trained the employees they
would be able to provide a cost savings overall since the airline was
paying for their frequent flyer calls indirectly via QLL.
After 2 years of operating Mindpearl was able to see a 25% decrease in
overall costs to the airline since there was a 30% decline in calls
volumes on a combined level.
CONTACT: For Mindpearl by Affinity Strategic Communication
Tel: +27 21 914 2818
Tel: +27 21 914 2821
e-mail: marlene@strategicpr.co.za
WWW: http://www.strategiccommunication.co.za
Mindpearl
WWW: http://www.mindpearl.com
((M2 Communications Ltd disclaims all liability for information
provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties.
Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at
http://www.presswire.net on the world wide web. Inquiries to
info@m2.com)).
Copyright ? 2008 M2 Communications Ltd.
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