Tafaseel BPO

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work as the strategic communications and media specialist at the Higher College of Technology (HCT). I’m also the call center manager for the outsourcing area.

We’re a prominent higher education institute in the UAE. We’re basically owned by the federal government of the UAE. We have about 16 campuses all across the country in almost all the Emirates for men and women. We’re a big organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tafaseel BPO?

A massive number of students try to reach us for admissions and other things. The setup that we had before was an in-house calling system with an in-house call manager. They’d distribute the calls to our front desk offices at each campus.

We weren’t able to get the service quality and customer service experience that we needed. We were getting all the call manager data but weren’t sure about the quality of the calls because we weren’t recording nor following up.

Our organization wanted to outsource these efforts to a company that provides a good customer experience including live chat, chatbot, and voice services. We wanted to outsource onshore to a partner that could handle the call load we had while also meeting our requirements on the quality set by the federal government.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tafaseel BPO provides us with call center services and within that, we have bilingual agents who answer the calls on behalf of HCT. They also provide us with live chat support through Pure Chat Software. Additionally, they handle everything else that comes with the software including call reporting, quality monitoring, recordings, QA, meeting our KPIs, and more.

What is the team composition?

We’re going to have 10 agents but we currently have seven. We also have a supervisor, a QA manager, and a floor manager. Including management, there are 10–15 people.

How did you come to work with Tafaseel BPO?

As a federal government entity, we have a very strict and sophisticated procurement procedure. We have to follow certain federal laws including floating an RFP into the market. It has to stay in the market for a certain amount of time and go through open bidding. The process includes submissions, back and forth question-and-answer sessions, requirements, clarifications, and so on. That process eventually leads to a technical committee selecting the best viable supplier in terms of the experience thus far. It’s also based on their proposition and what else they have to offer in terms of their innovation and outside-of-the-box thinking.

Tafaseel BPO had a very good proposition and what I remember is that they were competing with one of the biggest companies in the region that’s a federally owned telecom provider. They scored the best out of all of our considerations. This was quite a surprise for us as the committee members. I was chairing the committee. There was a strong presentation with the proposition that they provided for us.

How much have you invested in them?

We invest around $400,000 a year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them around August 2019, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

In our case, the impact was very visible. We didn’t have quality monitoring before and then we included something new so there was a massive impact on service immediately. Everything has been on the up since they’ve joined.

It was very rare for a government organization to get an outsourced company to represent them because call centers are basically representing the organization. They’re the face and voice of the organization. There is a massive interest in the education of the youth here.

We wanted to be very particular in terms of the services Tafaseel BPO provides, and we wanted to pick the best service provider for that. There was no compromise that we could afford and thankfully, Tafaseel BPO was one of the better choices that we made in terms of procurement. We’ve had a very good working relationship thus far. There hasn’t been much to complain about.

How did Tafaseel BPO perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re a very high-functioning organization, meaning we have specific departments. We have a typical corporate structure of the centers and then we have the academics. Our corporate side is very high-functioning in terms of project management and project management plans as well as the entirety of the smart KPIs and making sure the SLAs are as per the international benchmarking and so on. It’s been a very smooth experience with Tafaseel BPO in a way that we had high expectations and they met them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s a niche, and we like the fact that Tafaseel BPO is a family-owned business. One of their team members was a former student as well. Tafaseel BPO understands the culture very well because they’re a local company. Although their competitors were also local, they had an extra advantage and the flare of youth. There was no better option than them at that time. They proved to be the best option, and we’re glad we chose them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’ve already made some improvements. They moved their facility recently and that was the only qualm I initially had as I’d have preferred a much bigger facility. I’d also suggest that they diversify now into offering other services than voice alone.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Everyone understands their own business the best so they would know what fits their needs. With Tafaseel BPO, I can confidently say they’ll provide a personalized and customized experience. for you. They’re not a huge organization that’s stringent to strict policies nor are they a very small organization that’s incapable of managing the workload. Tafaseel BPO is a very ambitious and youthful organization from our experience, and they’ve mostly been meeting their commitments.