Johannesburg, 07 Feb 2007
Durban-based iTalk Cellular is using Intelleca's VoiceGenie interactive voice response (IVR) system to improve customer service at its 0861 085 085 call centre.
The system reduces the time to resolve frequent queries and alleviates the workload of call centre operators.
"Our competitive-edge," says iTalk Cellular CEO Prasanth Seevnarayan, "comes from focusing all group energies on one single target: delivering customer service excellence to everyone, from entry-level users to our largest corporate clients."
MTN owns 41% of iTalk Cellular's shares. The cellular company has nearly 100 national outlets and in excess of 100 000 customers. For two consecutive years, the company has received commendations from Impumelelo magazine for being among the Top 300 black empowered companies in South Africa.
Value-added reseller, Theta Infrastructure Solutions (TI Solutions), working in collaboration with Intelleca, deployed the VoiceGenie system at iTalk Cellular. TI Solutions has supplied iTalk Cellular since 2000.
"iTalk had many calls for similar reasons, such as account queries," says Mohammed Gaffoor, customer service engineer, TI Solutions. "IVR is perfect for handling those situations and frees up call centre agents: iTalk employs 40 agents."
The IVR system allows callers to use an ordinary telephone to interact with a computer through speech or dialled instructions. Customers can request billing records or the balance of free minutes, and the system informs customers when they are eligible for contract renewals.
Each response by the caller triggers another recorded message until the transaction is completed. It is coupled to an auto-attendant that routes calls to the appropriate destination, based on user-defined steps and responses to prompts.
"The system handles an average of 1 000 calls per day," says Darryl Marcus, business development manager, Intelleca, "and gives iTalk Cellular customers 24-hour access to common queries. The system will even SMS certain information to customers if they request it."
Jared Frost, head of operations at iTalk Cellular, says: "The number of customer complaints has subsided, people's problems and queries are resolved far quicker and we can deal with most customers in a single call on our inbound and outbound call centre."
New customers are routed to call centre operators, while existing customers are given a number of options to choose an automated response from.
"Customer feedback has been positive," says Frost. "They have said they find it easier and quicker to get the information they're looking for and the turnaround times are far quicker now than before."
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