At the beginning of March this year we have not suspected what is going to happen in our country, as well as all over the world. The global spreading of Coronavirus has shaken many businesses and profoundly changed the way in which we work and perform our job. The companies had to adapt to a new situation in the shortest possible term and enable their employees to continue undisturbed work from their homes. One of the biggest challenges of big companies was how to enable the agents from their contact centers to continue to work, both because of the complexity of the systems and because of the importance of making contact with the customers. Telenor Srbija is the company, which has shown outstanding readiness and ability to adapt in an unprecedented situation and completely respond to all difficult challenges.
Telenor Srbija, as a part of PPF Group, since 2006, when it came to the Serbian market, has become the biggest mobile operator in the country, with more than 3 million satisfied customers from all spheres of private and business sector.
Due to the global health situation because of the appearance of COVID-19 virus, the biggest concern was safety and health of employees, customers, and partners. The employees started to work from home immediately after the appearance of COVID-19 virus. In the extraordinary situation of the appearance of COVID-19 virus, Telenor network has shown stability and its operation was monitored 24 hours a day. Each day the volume of voice and internet traffic achieved the new maximum and therefore, big funds and resources were invested in spreading the capacities so the Telenor network could be accessible and functional at any moment for the private and business customers, but also for medical workers, emergency services, Ministries and other.
These data testify the importance of Telenor staying with its customers. Having recognized the need, Telenor, with the help of Algotech company, has managed to replace the operation of the Contact Center to a remote location, that is to the homes of its agents in the shortest possible term. Algotech has enabled that more than 200 agents of Telenor’s Contact Center continue to work and provide an undisturbed communication with its customers.
Željko Erdeljan, Service Quality, Credit Scoring and Collection Manager from Telenor Srbija company has confirmed in conversation with us that the continuation of operation of the Contact Center was the priority.
How important was to Telenor company to provide work at home for the Contact Center agents?
Taking care of the customer and a brilliant customer’s experience are very important values in our business. In situations like this, it is particularly important to be available for the customers, to provide the continuity of services and at the same time provide the maximum protection for our employees. The decisive role for the realization of this was that we were able to provide work at home for the entire customer service.
Did you record an increased number of calls to the Contact Center in the period of March and April 2020?
Yes, we have noticed the increased number of calls to the Contact Center. Considering the situation of limited mobility and shortened working hours of our outlets, it was expected that besides online channels, the customers will prefer calling the Contact Center. With great effort we have managed to be ready to respond to the calls and keep the quality of service and customers did not feel the difference of change of the mode of operation. The stability of our network and call response system has provided us the additional security during this change.
What was the biggest challenge for you and your agents when you switched the work of the Contact Center from the remote location?
We had ready plans for the continuation of business operations, the defined procedures of acting in emergency situations as well as testing of various scenarios before we moved to work at home. All this helped us to be ready to face the situation but the dynamics of change to work at home were faster than we have expected. The biggest challenge was logistics i.e. to provide that all employees have a completely ready system for work at home, as well as the computers and additional equipment in the only a couple of days.