Contact Centre for Starhub in Singapore

Contact centre is a blooming and fast-growing industry entailing billions of dollars, catering to the needs of companies in the terms of operations and service integration. The Starhub contact centre in Singapore has been observed to have the potential to cater to the service and process improvement needs of the company. In this respect, it has to be noted that the Starhub contact centre is ingrained with advantages that can be considered as highly beneficial for Starhub. Primarily, the Starhub contact centre is infused with the characteristics of being integrated in an effective manner. In this respect, it can be said that the centre has enhanced the multitasking operational abilities of Starhub because Starhub contact centre is a means by which the company manages all its client contacts through a multitude of media, including online live chat, email, fax, letter, telephone, and face-to-face interaction (Republic Polytechnic, n.d.).

One of the most important characteristics of the Starhub contact centre is its design efficacy. In this respect, it has to be noted that the interior of Starhub contact centre is efficiently designed to integrate comfortability in terms of working in a bright environment which is well lighten, having efficaciously designed spaces that neither overlap nor create hindrances in fast paced yet relaxed working for the employees (Republic Polytechnic, n.d.). These have helped Starhub contact centre to improve on its operational metrics recently (Republic Polytechnic, n.d.). Another characteristic of Starhub contact centre is its effective use of ergonomics that has ensured the wellbeing of Starhub contact centre’s employees, through making it possible for them to use and interact with machines like computers in a systematic way sitting in the right posture (Republic Polytechnic, n.d.). Moreover, Starhub’s Singapore contact centre is also ingrained with effective physical factors as the centre has continued to effectively integrate the softphone system, entailing a virtual phone system which does not take physical space and allows the employees to enhance their skill in using such innovative technologies like MS Teams, Zoom, etc. (Republic Polytechnic, n.d.).

Competitive Advantages in Having a Contact Centre for Starhub

Over few years, improvements in the functioning of Starhub contact centre in Singapore, has brought about myriads of benefits for Starhub. An improved and well-functioning contact centre has not only helped Starhub in enhancing its profitability, but has also enhanced its customer reach and customer relationship management. It has to be taken into account that having the contact centre has made it possible for Starhub to combine a variety of roles and integrate them in one place for providing an all-encompassing solution to the clients and customer contacts for managing and retaining customers in the long run (Republic Polytechnic, n.d.). Moreover, the contact centre has improved the operational efficacies and process efficiencies of Starhub through enabling the company in terms of using emerging technologies like VoIP, AI, speech and voice recognition, etc., to enhance customer experience and satisfaction. Besides, the contact centre has paved the way for Starhub to effectively perform system integration for obtaining new customer base and efficiently serve the existing customer base by enhancing its existing CRM systems (Stevie Awards, 2021). Moreover, the contact centre has been proved to be beneficial for Starhub because it has improved the CRM system’s turn-around time, improving staff productivity, which in turn has made it possible for Starhub to provide greater customer choice (Republic Polytechnic, n.d.). All such aspects have minimized the opportunity costs for Starhub. Furthermore, it has been observed that the contact centre with all its innovative technologies, including the use of softphone, has helped Starhub to increase the service-handing competencies of the employees and the self-service capacity of the customers, thereby, strengthening customer relationship and the abilities of the employees to improve customer response and resolve customer’s issues (Republic Polytechnic, n.d.).

The Benefits and Strategic Advantages of a Contact Centre

There are certain specific benefits and strategic advantages of having a contact centre and such are being enjoyed by Starhub. In this regard, it has to be noted that the contact centre has enhanced the customer relationship management processes and approaches of Starhub by making the company more capable of enriching customer experience through providing self-service and real-time problem resolution opportunities. This has not only benefitted the company in terms of customer retention but also in terms of obtaining newer customer base. Moreover, from the strategic point of view, the Starhub contact centre has helped Starhub in ushering an effective and visible social transformation, demonstrating the company’s greater urge to become more socially responsible. In this respect, it has to be noted that the contact centre has helped Starhub to deeply connect with partners and customers, securing the competitive advantage that has helped the company to position itself effectively in the telecommunication market of Singapore (Salesforce, 2022).

Contact Centre Technologies

Certain specific technologies have been adopted by the Starhub contact centre that has propelled competitiveness, competency, and process and operational efficacies in Starhub. In this respect, three specific contact centre technologies deserve special mention. Starhub contact centre has adopted and integrated the technology of interactive voice response (IVR) to enhance its customer experience in a through and explicit manner. In this regard, it has to be taken into account that IVR has helped Starhub contact centre in embarking on intelligence call routing, improving customer problem resolution and interaction, providing support to the employees in busy hours, improving customer need meeting, measuring customer satisfaction, and improving employee morale by freeing them from redundant tasks (Legacy Post, 2021). Starhub contact centre also uses computer telephony integration (CTI) system (through the use of softphone) to improve its operations. Through effectively implementing and using the CTI system, Starhub contact centre has improved the customer call handling in a way that makes customer engagement and response easier because the system makes it possible for employees to have detailed information of the customer beforehand prior to resolving customer queries effectively (Sinha, 2015). Moreover, the system helps the employees to integrate call logs and called data into a unified dashboard, thereby increasing departmental collaboration, which in turn, reduces operational costs effectively (Sinha, 2015).

Furthermore, use of CTI system improves employee productivity, resulting in enhanced customer experience. Besides, Starhub contact centre is also equipped with a voice recording unit (VRU) system, which has also enhanced the centre’s customer handling and management operations effectively (Starhub, 2022). The VRU system helps the Starhub contact centre to improve the quality of call interaction to ensure customer satisfaction through using a voice recorder system that boosts customer confidentiality and information security (Mitel, 2021). Moreover, the VRU system ensures employee etiquette as well as influences the customers to maintain their professional approach through making both the parties aware of the fact that the call is being recorded, eventually resulting in improved employee productivity (Mitel, 2021). Besides, the integration and use of the aforesaid technologies has made it possible for Starhub contact centre to retain customers and encourage them to come back to it whenever they need query resolution in an effective manner. In this respect it has to be noted that the automated telephony system that the contact centre uses while resolving customers’ queries, reduces customers’ waiting time by intelligently gathering information and routing the calls to the appropriate agent within fewer time, thereby increasing customer satisfaction and retention in a through and effective manner. Moreover, a robust system that protects caller confidentiality always motivates the customers to frequently interact with the contact centre, making it possible for the Starhub contact centre to act as a source of customer retention and CRM enhancement in an effective manner.

Staff Sourcing Strategies

The staff sourcing strategy of Starhub is quite in alignment with the principles of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability. The company has always maintained a responsible sourcing approach for ensuring safe working conditions, entailing respect for workers right, and workers’ health and wellbeing apart from ensuring that its staff operations are environmentally conscious. The staff sourcing strategy of Starhub, especially in the context of operating its contact centre, is ingrained with the policy of upholding highest level of honesty and integrity through sharing common values that ensure customer confidentiality, enhanced customer experience, and enhanced employee working experience in a thorough and effective manner. Starhub contact centre has continued to implement the strategy of staff outsourcing to countries like Malaysia, making it easier for the company to concentrate more on its core businesses (Wong, 2017). In this context, it has to be noted that Starhub outsources its staff to different countries to manage their customers effectively. In this respect, it has been observed that the outsourced companies, on behalf of Starhub, looks after the company’s customer acquisition, manage customer care, provide technical support to customers, and sometimes embark on debt collection programs, supporting the business of Starhub effectively and efficiently. It is recommended that Starhub contact centre, apart from outsourcing its staffing, can partner with more established contact centres to provide more efficient services to the customers. In this respect, another option is there for Starhub in the form of co-sourcing its staffing. Starhub can keep on continuing hiring a consultant or contractor to obtain external resource that becomes an integral part of the Starhub team, making the improvement processes more leveraged and vigorous (HR Outsourcing, 2012).

Staff and Coaching

Considering the nature of work at Starhub contact centre, it is assumable that the employees may go through stress depicting some symptoms, including lack of concentration, irregularity in terms of attendance, absenteeism, loss of productivity and conflict (Better Health Channel, 2021). The three potential causes of stress in staff include long working hours, heavy workload, and monotonous job role (Better Health Channel, 2021). Discouragement among employees, their irritable mood, and their pessimistic approach and outlook in terms of performing their job roles and in terms of interacting with the customers can be considered major symptoms of work-related stress caused by long working hours, heavy workload, and monotonous work patterns, which are quite prevalent in the work environment of majority of contact centres (Better Health Channel, 2021). Hence, there is a need of employing specific coaching methods to help the employees at Starhub contact centre in alleviating their levels of stress. In this respect, it has to be noted that the coaching approach should be tailored to support the process of value creation among the staff through prioritising their opportunities for career advancement and skill improvement (Republic Polytechnic, n.d.). Moreover, the coaching approach should be ingrained with the effort for enhancing staff performance against customer expectations, thereby ensuring continuous improvement in staff performance, increasing the chances for staff to experience self-esteem and self-actualization.

Future Proofing

The process of future proofing the efficiency of Starhub contact centre can be effective implemented through employing three specific methods that are ingrained with some specific benefits. The process of future proofing must be well planned and implemented to prepare the workplace and the staff for anticipated changes in the future and to cope with the challenges posed by such changes. In this respect, considering the chances of workforce expansion, Starhub contact centre should arrange for partitions rather than erecting walls so that if expansion of certain spaces is needed then demolition of walls would not be needed (saving the company money) (Republic Polytechnic, n.d.). Moreover, a versatile and durable furniture system should be implemented to save the company from recurrent expenditure for replacing damaged furniture (Republic Polytechnic, n.d.). Also, reusable and removable item should be specified so that in the long run the process of recycling and restoring can be effectively performed (Republic Polytechnic, n.d.).