Citizens unhappy with call centres
Citizens have come out heavily against the allegedly poor performance of call centres and hotline services at government hospitals and primary health centres.
They say calls from the public have been ignored and those in charge of the service are not aware of its importance and don't know how to deal with customers, a local Arabic daily reported yesterday.
According to Abdul Rahman Al Ghaithani, the problem exists not only in health centres but also other government facilities.
However, it is more serious when it comes to healthcare facilities because they are supposed to be different since they deal with patients.
"Because of their ignorance, people are forced to visit health centres all the time, wasting time and efforts. This also leads to unnecessary rush in those facilities. Call centre employees should be trained and educated on how to deal with customers," Al Ghaithani said, adding he didn't want to generalise the issue.
" Call centres reflect the image of the institution, whether good or bad," he said.
Abdulla Al Hargan said the attitude of call centre employees depends more on their temperament than training or education.
"They don't understand the importance of their job. Their performance should be monitored through CCTV cameras. They should have accountability. If they cannot answer a question instantly, they can ask the caller to wait," said Al Hargan.
Minaikhir Al Marri believes the hotline and call centre services are given to receptionists as an additional job. They would be busy attending calls and may not be well informed about hospital services.
Saad Al Badr said many people who don't want to go to hospital on many occasions are forced to do that due to the poor performance of call centres.
"Sometimes people call to enquire about some required documents but they don't get answers," said Al Badr.
According to Dr Hassan Al Abdallah, a dermatologist, the inefficiency of call centres could cause financial losses to private facilities and loss of trust in government facilities. Call centre staff need awareness about their job rather than training.
Dr Saif Al Hajri, Chairman, Centre for Environment Friends, said this is an annoying situation he had experienced many times.
"Some people think that this is a minor issue because they don't understand how much time and effort they can save by answering queries promptly," said Al Hajri.
Dr Batool Khalifa, a sociologist at Qatar University, said call centre and hotline staff should be held accountable for performance. They should be available round-the-clock, not just during official working hours.
Consumer rights, customs, hukoomi are 'good'.
Qpost is absolutely horrid. They hang up if they cannot understand English. They take speaking to them in English as an insult. With all these 40-50 year old locals running the show at Qatar general post, expect better customer service at a bus stop in Cuba.
This country has majority of Expat & the government should at least put an educated person with English knowledge in every government office reception or call center agent.
It is normal practice by every company here or government institution that whenever you call they will ask you to visit their office.
i would like to bring to the notice of the authorities about the lack of attention given to the patients who come to hospitals by the nurses.They give more preference to qataris than to people from other nationalities.this is a serious issue and needs to be rectified.please do the needful
Simple solution: Performance based wages. Customer gets sms after the call rating their experience. If say the call center representative does not hit 95.5% at end of a working month, then he gets paid less.
Many times it happens me, Helath center they never respond your quires over the phone, they simply ask us to visit directly to ask the details, and it is really waste of time and rush more crowd over the counter - this is very serious issue to be rectified for the development of the nation,
Goaboy , It is due to slack supervision , but can be corrected as I said above.
Zam, When they play with their job we must inform the higher management , get the name of the person & make a complaint , it works well , never leave the matter untill it's resolved. ...............
Cutting a phone call is against the civil manners ...........
They take advantage of being INVISIBLE to us .......................... ....................
this country need a complete overhaul of call center staff
I called health center once, they told me to go directly HC 'cause they don't take appointment online, is it true??? until now i haven't visit HC, what about those who don't have car and busy to their work, like me... :)
Wow... it is nice to hear at least they answer the call..., Once a hotline answered my call and I asked a question.... they said some something in Arabic and cut the line...that's all.. again... no answer at all...
please Oreedoo 111 put first in the list of poor-poor-poor & worst-worst-worst- performance, and this 111 is so called "CUSTOMER CARE CENTER"
This type of issue comes up when the staff don't understand the importance of their job.
NATIONALITY DISCRIMINATION COMES INTO ACTION WHEN REQUESTING FOR AN APPOINTMENT
ALSO MOWSALAT CALL CENTER IS WORST NEVER ANSWER ANSWER.WHAT SERVICE ARE THEY PROVIDING.
COMMUTERS ARE NOT TRAVELLING FREE