More than any time in global history, the demand for reliable and accessible customer service is critical in driving brand loyalty and consumer relationships. The State of the Connected Customer survey by Salesforce revealed a staggering 80 per cent of consumers link loyalty to a brand with the quality of its customer service while 88 per cent believe good customer service makes them more likely to purchase again.

With the transition to Telecel Ghana now complete, the telecommunications firm is bent on delivering a delightful customer experience that puts the customer at the core of its operations. Telecel Ghana has introduced a series of enhancements over the last few months to ensure its customers access superior customer service.

As Telecel Ghana marks its annual CARE month in October, in sync with the international Customer Service Week celebration, on the theme – Going Above & Beyond: Connecting through CARE, the telco is celebrating its customers, recognising the contributions of frontline employees and sharing improvements to their customer experience delivery.

From increasing the number of customer service call agents to making accessibility upgrades to the Telecel Play app, the telco is adapting to the evolving needs of its diverse customers across its mobile, fixed, business, broadband and Telecel Cash segments.

“We believe in giving our customers value and the power to be in control of their connectivity needs," said Ing. Patricia Obo-Nai, Chief Executive of Telecel Ghana.  "We are investing in both human resource and self-service tools that will ensure support is readily available anytime for more flexibility, convenience and satisfaction.”

Multi-channel support

Presently, customers enjoy multi-channel customer service where they can effortlessly switch between the Telecel helpline–100, Corporate Website, Telecel Play App, WhatsApp, e-mail, and social media platforms to seek assistance from the support team.  This flexibility allows customers to choose their preferred medium of communication for their enquiries to be addressed efficiently and consistently, regardless of the channel used.

New customer experience centre

As the telco’s subscriber base continues to grow, the load of customer support equally ramps up. In their bid to respond to more customer service request and enquiries, Telecel has opened a customer experience centre in Ga East with a 25 per cent increase in the number of trained call agents handling mobile, fixed, broadband and Telecel Cash complaints in real time.

Abigail, a customer support agent who responds to calls from Telecel mobile users at the new experience centre, said she receives an average of 90 calls daily. She types out the summary of each interaction on the platform during or after each call for reference and resolution tracking.

“We are readily available to answer questions, troubleshoot issues, and provide personalised support,” said Abigail, as a trainee next to her observes her work as part of the recruit training.

With the goal of increasing its customer support team to about 250 at both the Ga East and Accra High Street experience centres, Telecel is dedicated to resolving enquiries more promptly to increase reliability and strengthen customer relationships.

More community shops

Recognising the importance of customer touchpoints, Telecel Ghana has been rapidly expanding its network of community shops across the country. Having established over 400 community shops in vantage locations nationwide, the telco has made it easier for customers to interact with Telecel staff directly and reduce geographical barriers for in-person assistance.

Mercy Dawn Akude, General Manager for Commercial Operations, said that increasing the footprint of community shops is helping Telecel to bring its services closer to customers than ever before and to retain them. “We want to consistently connect with customers and our community shops does that by providing the convenience of easily walking in to access any of our products and services.”

Telecel Play App

The user interface of the Telecel Play App has received a significant boost with an enhanced design which makes it easier for users to navigate the app. The functionalities of Telecel Play have gone a notch above with game-changing features that enable customers to manage their multiple accounts & services effortlessly across all service types – Mobile (Prepaid, Postpaid, Hybrid, Tertiary) as well as Fixed Broadband, complete cash transactions with ease and receive priority support for complaints.

The upgrades also include integration of AI chatbot, TERi for self-help service, paying bills, completing transactions for merchant accounts, accessibility support for Deaf community, including highly discounted bundles available to only them and simplified journeys for airtime and data top-ups among others. Customers’ contacts are integrated in the Telecel Play App which makes it easier to send cash without dialling the receiver’s number from scratch, reducing the incidence of errors that has dominated mobile money complaints.

Upgraded CRM system

Telecel Ghana has upgraded its central Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to consolidate all customer complaints on one platform. The CRM system, which was developed by the in-house digital technology team, allows the telco to record, monitor and analyse all complaints via the unilateral platform and enables it to gauge the trend of complaints and how quickly they are resolved.

Meet TERi

With the transition to Telecel, the telco has rebranded its AI chatbot from TOBi to TERi. TERi is the digital savvy customer’s first point of call for enquiries, troubleshooting issues, and providing personalised responses and is available 24/7 to users.

Through TERi, Telecel Ghana is leveraging the power of AI to manage customer enquiries in real time and empowering customers to self-service. TERi quickly guides customers to request Telecel Cash reversals, buy mobile data bundles, change their broadband plans, manage transactions, pay bills, etc.

TERi has the additional capability to connect to a human agent at the request of the user for complex enquiries.

Super Care

Ensuring customer service is accessible and welcoming to everyone, regardless of language or ability is of prime importance to the telco. At the Ga East customer experience centre, an agent uses sign language to communicate with a customer via WhatsApp video call. The customer signs and smiles after their request was completed.

Telecel’s Super Care initiative has evolved from a basic customer service line into a robust digital support system equipped with sign language-trained agents. With the integration of Super Care features into the Telecel Play app, the Deaf community can access seamless support with video-call capabilities for sign-language assistance. They also have special bundles that can only be accessed by them.

Firing on all cylinders

Additionally, Telecel Ghana has expanded its resolution team on the ground with new field engineers added to the workforce with the requisite resources and vehicles to improve the turnaround time for reported faults in fixed and broadband service delivery.

Currently, customer service interaction is delivered in at least five local languages to make customers feel comfortable interacting in their native tongue, which leads to more authentic and open communication.

Telecel Ghana’s customer-centric approach extends beyond convenience. It’s about firing on all cylinders to deliver a superior customer experience that builds loyalty and satisfaction for each user. More importantly, it is redefining what it means to put customers first in today’s ever-changing digital world.