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In response to recent news reports and interest about the Government's hotline service, the Efficiency Unit today (October 5) invited reporters to the Integrated Call Centre (ICC) and demonstrated that the centre's operating performance is among the industry's best.
The ICC, commonly known as the "1823 Citizen's Easy Link", had been set up to provide a "one-stop shop" for the public to access properly trained personnel able to provide accurate and consistent answers, to a range of enquiries and complaints round-the-clock.
The results of a monthly customer satisfaction survey show that the callers have found the service provided by the ICC to be most satisfactory.
A spokesman for the Efficiency Unit said that out of a five-point scale, with 5 being the best, the average scores in both 2004 and 2005 are 4.2. The number of callers in the survey conducted each month is around 8,000.
Conducted since July 2003, the survey of the hotline system aims to gauge views of callers regarding the service provided. Callers have been invited to score the service on a scale of five to zero on a number of points, including waiting time, operators' politeness, operators' ability to understand enquiries, operators' ability to express themselves, information supplied and the overall performance.
Since its inception, the ICC has taken over the enquiry hotline services of 13 government departments and organisations (see Annex). The spokesman said: "The ICC has handled more than 5 million calls from the public on different government services from October 2002 - when it formally came into operation - to August this year."
As to the result of a survey carried out by a political party on the customer satisfaction level, the spokesman disputed that survey's findings. The ICC makes detailed records of all calls handled, providing data for an objective analysis of the call centre performance and for evaluating the standard of service that it provides.
The number of calls handled has increased from 20,000 to 30,000 a month at the time of inception to over 200,000 a month recently. "This demonstrates rapid growth in call volume and a high degree of acceptance by the public," the spokesman added.
According to the call statistics, on average, 70% of calls can be answered within 12 seconds. "We believe this is a standard not matched by many centres in the industry. For those calls not answered within 12 seconds, the average waiting time is 17-44 seconds before a caller will be connected to one of our customer service operators," he said.
"Our data shows that in 2004 and so far in 2005, the percentage of callers giving up on their calls remains at a very low level of between 2.9% to 6.5%. This is still more than we would like, even though a small number when taking into account the total number of around 200,000 calls that we receive each month," he added.
"We are not complacent about our service quality and we are working to improve our service. We welcome any suggestions that will help us to improve the service further."
Annex:
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13 Government departments/organisations served by Integrated Call Centre (ICC)
(as at end September 2005)
1. Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department
2. Architectural Services Department
3. Buildings Department
4. Civil Engineering and Development Department
5. Electrical and Mechanical Services Department
6. Food and Environmental Hygiene Department
7. Hong Kong Post
8. Highways Department
9. Labour Department
10. Leisure and Cultural Services Department
11. Marine Department
12. Rating and Valuation Department
13. Transport Department
Ends/Wednesday, October 5, 2005
Issued at HKT 19:17
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