Proposal to Include Telecommunications Operators’ Call Centres in Regulator's Quality of Service Standards

The following question stood in the name of Mr Murali Pillai –

To ask the Minister for Communications and Information whether the Quality of Service standards imposed by IMDA on its regulated telecommunications operators may be expanded to cover the management of these operators' call centres which are contracted to deal with and resolve subscribers' requests for assistance and complaints.

Mr Speaker, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) focuses its regulatory efforts on key telecommunication services for the development of Singapore's digital economy. So, IMDA sets minimum Quality of Service (QoS) standards for the performance of these key telecommunication services, such as fixed line telephone, mobile, Internet access and fibre connection services. IMDA regularly verifies service providers' compliance with these QoS standards and takes enforcement action in the event of breaches.

IMDA does not impose regulatory requirements on customer service and call centre experiences. Instead, market competition is used to elicit improvements as service providers compete by providing better customer service.

IMDA tracks consumer satisfaction through the Consumer Awareness and Satisfaction Survey (CASS) and provides this feedback to the service providers so that they can make improvements. CASS 2018 showed that consumers are generally satisfied with their telecommunication service providers, and consumer satisfaction has improved in several areas, including the hotline waiting time, time taken to resolve complaints, and competency of service providers’ customer service officers.