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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. 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: [email protected] 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 [email protected])). Copyright ? 2008 M2 Communications Ltd. |