Customer service Tiresome protocol on customer service
On countless occasion, I encountered the "terrible service" provided by call centers operated by Starhub and DBS Bank. I use their service often, and each time their service is quite bad. 

I want to explain that their agents (or customer officer) does their best, but it is the protocol that is badly designed. 

Here is my regular experience. 

Each time that I contact Starhub or DBS, I have to go through a painful experience in navigating through the automated messages from their call centers.

They give me several irrelevant messages that takes a few minutes of my time. Sometimes I made mistakes in giving the answers, and have to go through the troublesome protocol again.

I have heard some messages a few hundred times, such as: We wish to inform you that this call is being monitored for training and quality purpose.

I know that they are not sincere, and they just add this message because it is probably required by some government regulation.

I also have to wait 10 to 20 minutes before an agent becomes available.

At that time, I would be quite tired and frustrated.

This is followed through by a four level verification purpose - I have to give my name, partial NRIC, address, postcode and some other data.

I have to pass through this tiresome verification even though my enquiry is not related to any confidential matter on my account. For example, I could be asking for information on how to operate their service.

And to make matters worse, I often have to call their call center a few times to solve a problem or just to re-establish a contact that had broken off inadvertently. 

Each time, it is a painful exercise.

I suspect that Starhub and DBS Bank follow a protocol that is probably recommended for the large government related companies in Singapore. This protocol is certainly quite inconsiderate to the customers.

I have given feedback to these organizations on many occasions in the past. They do not bother to change their protocols.

I have experienced other call centers that are more considerate and helpful to their customers. The good processes are by Dell Computers (where I buy my PCs) and Oppo (where I buy my mobile phones).

When I contact Dell Computers (which provide the service from Penang, Malaysia), they only ask me one question to verify that I am the right person. They do not need four items of personal data for verification.

Tan Kin Lian

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