Contact Centre Knowledge Enhancement tour to South Korea

Thanks HKCCA for organizing this informative and fruitful knowledge enhancement tour to South Korea on 13-16 June 2012.  Just within a few days, we have been able to visit 5 large scale contact centres of the government of South Korea and major big corporations.  We have also got an update on the latest technology development from a technology supplier which has successfully built up many contact centres in South Korea.

In the DasamCenter of the SeoulCity Civil Call Center, we were deeply impressed by how the city government has endeavored to serve all needs of the Seoulcitizens with an efficient and effective contact centre. As a foreigner not able to speak local languages, we were well assured that any problems we have encountered in visiting the city will be easily resolved by calling “120”. 

In the SamsungFire CallCenter, we have learnt how difficult it is in recruiting and retaining contact centre service agents in South Koreaalthough they are willing to offerbetter working environment and more competitive remuneration packages.

We have also got a warm welcome by the Woori Bank Customer Satisfaction Center.  We were able to walk through different floors of the centre to learn about how successful they are in supporting various business lines of the bank.   

We highly appreciate the open atmosphere of SK Telecom Call Center in which each agent can freely view the call handling performance of any colleague through an online real time system.  Openness can really promote learning and cooperation instead of just competition. 

Last but not least, the technical support professionals of the Samsung Life Insurance Call Center demonstrated to us on how to manage many contact centres virtually as one in serving all customers over the country.  Most of these contact centres have won major awards in South Korea recognizing their success.

Generally speaking, the contact centre agents in Seoul are very courteous and gentle.  They use a lot of gestures and facial expression, just like having face-to-face conversations with the customers.  The whole environment is quite even though the traffic is busy.  Maybe that’s the culture! 

We all look forward to the next knowledge enhancement tour to ……..

Sindy Yau

Bank of China (Hong Kong)