The Hindu Business Line : Bharti Airtel rejigs customer services

New Delhi, May 23 In a bid to cater to its booming subscriber base, Bharti Airtel is undertaking a makeover of its customer services processes including organisational restructuring and deploying better technologies.

To start with, the company has merged its IT and customer services division under a single head in a bid to synergise the company’s key functions such as customer relationship management and billing. Airtel has over 65 million subscribers with 2 million new subscribers being added every month.

Speaking to Business Line, Dr Jai Menon, Director, Customer Service and Information Technology, Bharti Airtel said, “We are undertaking a transformation in our customer services across all our product portfolio, across various divisions and in all the circles where we are present. This transformation will be at three levels — cultural, organisational and technological.”

Restructuring

Dr Menon said that a Customer Service Management Board has been set up within the organisation to oversee the restructuring. As part of the cultural change, Airtel is undertaking a massive customer pulse programme that will constantly monitor the satisfaction levels of the customer. Dr Menon said that investments were being made in IT systems and processes to enable the transformation.

To make customer experience better, Airtel is planning to bring in more interactive voice-based engines that will allow customers to pick and choose what they want on a self-service mode. Dr Menon said that Airtel has collapsed all its various IT systems under one Airtel system, which means the company will be operating under the same platform across the country irrespective of the type of service. The training module for customer care executives across the country has been centralised to give customers seamless service.

Dr Menon said that the new model is also being shared with all its outsourcing partners who handle customer care for the telecom operator. Airtel has outsourced its customer care needs to seven companies including IBM Daksh and Firstsource. “We are training our partners as well to raise the bar of customer service based on our transformation philosophy. Though we have outsourced the customer care, we are making sure that the processes are outcome-oriented than effort-oriented,” Dr Menon said.

For rural subscribers, Airtel is looking to improve the experience by offering them customised solutions. It had recently partnered with IFFCO to offer applications such as crop prices, weather updates and voice-based interface.

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