Mustek invests R1m in call centre to enhance customer service
As a JSE-listed company with over 8 000 dealers and many corporate customers in SA, Mustek's call centre rapidly became 'a representative' of the entire business. With Mustek's high degree of focus on customer service - the company receives over 400 customer support calls per day - Mustek needed a call centre system that would allow it to improve service levels substantially, as well as provide valuable management information.
Grintek Telecom, local Gold partner for Nortel Networks, assisted Mustek to implement an improved call centre at its head office in Midrand. The company selected Nortel Networks Meridian1 Option11C Symposium Call Centre solution.
"As a call centre manager, it has become increasingly important for me to be able to identify problems early so they can be corrected and increase the efficiency of Mustek's customer interaction," says Ivan Barnard, call centre manager at Mustek.
The Mustek call centre receives local and international support calls from its reseller base and corporate customers; on-site support calls; calls from Mustek's helpdesk; as well as from technical support technicians out in the field.
"Our existing call centre was not good enough," exclaims Barnard. "We needed to be able to pull call statistics, look at call flows as well as identify weaknesses on the customer support side.
"We push all our staff to provide the best service, product and support, and therefore expect the same from our call centre system. We needed an implementation partner that was the best in the country. We selected Grintek Telecom because we believed them to be the best - they were highly responsive and had exceptional call centre expertise."
Says Barnard: "In the past each of our call centre consultants had three phones on their desk, some of which would all ring at the same time, you can imagine the chaos."
Nortel Networks new M3905 digital phones are easy to use. The large display offers both internal and external Caller ID information and displays prompts that guide users through each feature. Each type of call - whether it is corporate support, helpdesk, an on-site support call, or one of our own technician's in the field - has its own number to call. We can now automatically prioritise calls for a more streamlined process.
Barnard adds that with Nortel Networks Meridian1 Option11c Symposium management reporting capabilities, he gets an in-depth analysis of the call centre's operational efficiency, traffic, and revenue-generating capabilities. He now has the reassurance that the call centre is positively handling all customer interactions. In addition, Barnard says if he requires more staff he can back his request with statistics taken from the call centre system.
Mustek's call abandon rate since using the new system is good, it currently has less than a 5% abandon rate. According to Grintek Telecom, in the average call centre environment, the industry standard abandon rate is around 15% to 20%.
"Our management reacted positively to the call centre from a ROI perspective. Customers who used to wait up to 15 minutes for their support call to be attended to, now only had to wait an average of a minute. Overall it has improved our level of service tremendously," says Barnard.
Mustek's total call centre investment with furniture, training, phones, PC equipment and the call centre software was R1 million.
Says Jim Whelan, who is one of the account managers responsible for new business development at Grintek Telecom: "Mustek had recently invested substantially in their existing PABX system, and to change the PABX was not in their best interest. We recommended that Mustek retain its existing PABX unit and integrate Nortel Networks Meridian1 Option11C Symposium call centre solution into it."
Grintek Telecom placed a pilot unit on site to demonstrate that the two systems could provide all the functionality and transparency the company needed. Grintek Telecom supplied the proof of concept, and Mustek provided the PC and peripheral equipment.
"Because Mustek has a culture of providing personalised levels of support to their customers, they didn't need a highly sophisticated system with features such as IVR," says Whelan. "Although the Nortel Networks system can be upgraded to include these.
"Mustek does not treat their clients as numbers, and wanted to maintain personal contact, and deal with problems as they occur," he says. Mustek has its own "home-grown" software support console which keeps customer records, and logs and tracks incoming customer queries. Each client receives a unique customer number, and no call can be closed until it is completed.
In future phases of the project, if Mustek wanted to integrate its client system with the call centre system, it would be possible, as the Nortel Networks Meridian1 system allows for this type of functionality. He adds that the Nortel Networks system can be upgraded with Web portal capabilities if required in the future.
The Nortel Networks system allows for call centre supervisors to listen to any of Mustek's consultants who are having difficulty on a call, thereby assisting with queries and providing first hand training.
"As a manager, I am able to keep an eye out and know what is happening, and I can assist agents to solve problems far easier," says Barnard.
Mustek claims that it is the only local PC brand with a call centre facility. Mustek makes and distributes the highly acclaimed local brand, Mecer.
Whelan adds that even though Mustek was sceptical about integration between the call centre system and its existing PABX, Grintek Telecom was confident about the Nortel Networks system: "Nortel Networks are leaders in research and development to ensure their systems are backward and forward compatible. The strength of Nortel Networks call centre systems are that they can interface with other systems out there," he says.
"In the future, Mustek will be implementing Nortel Networks CallPilot software, an add on application to the Meridian1 Option 11c Symposium, which integrates voice, fax and email functions in one package, allowing Mustek to have the competitive advantage of unified messaging," he concludes.
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Grintek Telecom is a 100% South African-owned company that offers business solutions across the entire spectrum of the telecommunications industry. Conceived in 1993, rapid growth has seen the company quickly take its place as a major player. This growth is further highlighted by the presence of Grintek's nationwide support infrastructure, from its central support centre in Centurion to its full regional support offices in Cape Town, Durban and Windhoek.
This market-driven approach has led Grintek Telecom to build three powerful business divisions. The Corporate division, which brings integrated telecommunication solutions to the South African corporate market. The Telecom division formed to address the telecommunication needs of network operators and the Sat e-Commerce division, Grintek Telecom's most recently established division formed to expand the service provisioning role for e-commerce and m-commerce business offerings. To learn more, visit www.grintek.com.
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