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February 25, 2005
Telephone experiences - real, sad and hilarious
I don't usually read the Malay Mail, but this came in my mailbox today, and related to an article ran by them on February 23, 2005.
It is a bit lengthy, but real entertaining. It would be hilarious, if it would be just a joke. But apparently, it happened.
The Malay Mail called 15 different goverment and private companies:
"Of the 15, eight were found to be less than satisfactory, namely, the Immigration Department, Inland Revenue Board (IRB), Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), Petaling Jaya Municipal Council (MPPJ), Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital in Klang, National Registration Department (at Maju Junction), Public Bank Bhd headquarters in Jalan Ampang, and Telekom Malaysia."
The Malay Mail conducted a follow-up the next day and wanted to talk to the respective bosses to find out the reasons of the unsatisfactory behaviour from the day earlier.
"Unfortunately, most of the bosses were not in and their subordinates had no authority to comment on the matter.
Here is a sample of what they said when asked on how to improve telephone etiquette.
RAHIMAH ABDULLAH, Inland Revenue Board (IRB) public relations assistant director:
"When a complaint is lodged against a staff, we would call the staff
up to enquire on the problems faced.
"We have courses on counter service and communications at our Akademi
Percukaian Malaysia in Bangi, Selangor."
Following the call made by Chief Secretary Tan Sri Samsudin Osman on the matter, Rahimah said they will look into the need to increase the frequency of courses for their staff.
When The Malay Mail called the IRB on Monday to inquire about certain types of deductibles under the new Self-Assessment System (SAS), we were told to attend their workshops.
The operator who answered our call earlier also failed to inform us to which department our call was being transferred to.
SULAIMAN AHMAD, Immigration Department's Foreign Maids division deputy director:
"We only have one operator who does multi-tasking. We have asked for more staff to handle the ever-growing workload."
He said the operator handles at least 400 to 500 calls a day. Besides that, she has to attend to paperwork and walk-in queries.
"We do send our people, including the telephonist, for training at our Pusat Akademi Imigresen in Port Dickson. The training is conducted yearly," said Sulaiman.
During our short call on Monday to ask about foreign maids, the officer at the division was in a hurry to end the call.
She asked us to come directly to the office to take the forms.
A City Hall (DBKL) public relations department officer:
"We can't simply give you a statement as we need to refer to the Datuk Bandar." She said the mayor would be away at a meeting the whole afternoon. When informed that we had spoken to her in the morning, the staff said:
"It is not easy to see the Datuk Bandar. You will have to be patient if you want a statement."
On Monday's test call, the City Hall staff at the Urban Services Department could not provide adequate
information. She said she has been working there for only two months.
Public Bank Bhd, headquarters in Jalan Ampang: Our call was referred to its director of corporate communication Shameem Abdul Jalil.
However, Shameem was not in. We passed the message to her secretary, explaining what was highlighted in the papers and the follow-up we were doing.
After lunch, we called her office again, only to be told that Shameem had informed the deputy director for property division, Sim Goay Chye, to respond. He was supposed to call us back.
When we called for the third time, Sim's secretary said: "Mr Sim is in a meeting but we have passed your contact number to him."
Asked when we will be getting a response, the secretary said: "Are we supposed to give you a statement?"
When we called the bank on Monday, we wanted to know more about safe
deposit boxes.
While the operator was polite, she failed to inform us to which section we were being referred to.
Only on our fourth attempt did we manage to get a direct number to the safe deposit division.
However, until 5pm, the line was engaged.
ZAINUN ZAKARIA, MPPJ public relations officer:
"I have informed the telephone operators about the importance of giving correct information to callers. If they cannot handle a call, we advise them to forward it to the Public Relations Department."
She said the council has 24 lines which are often very busy with "all sorts of calls from the public".
On Monday, we were told by an operator to contact the council's Landscape Department at a given number but it was either engaged or we were diverted to a fax machine.
Later, we called the main line again but could not get a connection (from 11.39am to 12.03pm).
JAINISAH MOHD NOOR, National Registration Department (NRD) public relations officer:
"There are only two lines at the NRD office in Maju Junction. We are in the midst of improving our services. We are looking into employing more staff and opening up more telephone lines soon."
On Monday, we tried reaching the NRD from morning until closing time but the lines were busy.
TENGKU AMPUAN RAHIMAH HOSPITAL in Klang:
A senior officer said at times there is only one operator to handle calls.
"We must also take into consideration that the operators prioritise calls on level of urgency," said the officer who declined to be named.
"Although we acknowledge that there are weaknesses in the system, we are glad to receive feedback on this service matter."
On Monday, we were abruptly asked to refer to the National Blood Bank for matters regarding blood donation.
T. YOGESWARI, group corporate communications manager of Telekom Malaysia:
"Let me read The Malay Mail and I will get back to you at the soonest."
However, until Press time, we received no response from them.
On Monday, we requested for three different numbers from the telephonist and asked that the numbers be given to us manually.
However, we were automatically transferred to the machine.
The same thing happened on our second and third attempts."
Man, man, man, man, man
Posted by Andreas at February 25, 2005 03:22 PM
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