|
Firstly, let me say thank you to all members
for the service given in the lead up to and during the festive
period. Your support was very well received from many clients
and call centre staff. Whichever 3 drivers are lucky enough to
win a car, it will not be without having put in much hard work!
Just what is Concierge?
There is a lot of incorrect information going around at the
moment regarding the workings of the Concierge system that
really does need to be either squashed or clarified.
There are only five of our top account clients who order their
vehicles through the Concierge platform - which first of all
means that all other account customers receive our normal
service. The Concierge platform is programmed to send a trip to
a licensed taxi radio circuit or licensed car company. What is
very important for everyone to understand is that Dial-a-Cab do
not select or have any contractual agreements with any licensed
taxi or car vendors who participate in accepting work through
the Concierge Platform. It is the account client who decides
whom they wish to use as a supplier and all we demand is for
their dispatching system to be flexible enough for us to be able
to send them trips directly from our system.
With one call centre taking all the bookings, it allows the client
to receive maximum security of their account and ensure every
booking request - whether it be for a taxi or car - has the
correct reference information attached to it. Having all this
information together with pickup addresses and destinations
permits them to have excellent management information for their
total transport requirements.
An area that concerns most of our drivers is what happens to a trip
once it as been sent to a taxi circuit and a car vendor?
While Concierge is designed to dispatch work in the same way
whether it be a taxi or car, when either ComCab or ourselves are
offered a trip, we both accept it automatically and dispatch it
to our fleets. The car vendor has the trip sent to a
controller’s screen who views the trip and makes the decision
whether they can cover the trip or not. If not, that controller
can reject it and Concierge will then offer it to the next car
company in rotation. Should all car vendors refuse a trip, it is
then highlighted to the Dial-a-Cab team to contact the client,
advise of the situation and offer them an alternative vehicle -
which would be a taxi.
It does not work the same for |
Another Dial-a-Cab Call Centre update from
Keith Cain…
CALL CENTRE CHAT |
us. If
Dial-a-Cab cannot cover a
Concierge account trip, it is scrubbed and not offered to a car
company or anyone else. I hasten to add that if any of our
account clients who are not using the
Concierge facility have their trips scrubbed, there is no
facility within our call centre for those trips to be offered to
any other company whether it is taxi or car.
Therefore, the rumours about the Call Centre giving away our work
to car companies are not true.
Staff training
I have reported that the move to our new premises will give us
the capacity of doubling the size of our call centre should we
need it in the future and I am currently working with our senior
staff to implement new operating procedures. The required
changes are being developed now to ensure we offer improved
customer service to both client and you, the driver. Training is
very much a major player within
EC5 and signals…
We still have a couple of outstanding issues at present and the
reason for mentioning them is to let you all know that they have
not been forgotten. The first is the EC5 rank. I’ve said this
before but what seemed like a relatively simple operation to put
in has caused a lot of problems to get right. The programming
changes of EC5 have proved just how complex our dispatch system
really is and will take a little longer to implement.
Resolving the signal problems fully is still ongoing. However, I
must add that while some of you think nothing has been done, I
assure you we have made great strides with the signals to the
extent that the volumes of work between September and December
would never have been processed without the modifications.
We have needed to temporarily slow down on the work of improving
these two problems because of the move to our new premises.
Plans for moving our phone lines and communications |
controllers, as you can guess, must be top priority at the
present
time. As soon as we have settled into the new building, then all
outstanding problems will be placed as top priority and dealt
with immediately. I am aware of the frustration caused to
drivers and I ask you to please bear with us during this period
of the move.
our Society. The recent appointment of our new assistant
trainer, Christine Conn, has already enabled us to implement a
new style of recruitment that will see prospective CSR
candidates having to undertake a three-stage interview process.
First there will be a telephone interview, the second stage will be
to attend a half-day assessment session with the final part
being an interview with our HR manager and myself. This type of
selection is widely used in many organisations with call centres
and I am confident that we will be able to select the right
calibre of individual. Initially, the recruitment currently
being carried out is to bring our complement back to the levels
we had before Christmas. Unfortunately, Supervisors have been
forced to issue disciplinary action against four individuals
because of the seriousness of their conduct while in the work
place. Having complied with employment law procedures, each has
had their employment terminated.
Euston Station "shouts"
Having recently had a meeting with the account client, it
appears we need to sharpen our act slightly with regard to the
destinations and mileages and this is a reminder to all drivers
who accept a Euston Station trip from the ES1 rank.
When dropping off your passenger, you must contact a controller to
supply them with all your destinations and the total mileage
travelled. Controllers have been instructed to update the trip
and then verify with you the cost of the journey. The importance
of doing this, even if you are out of range, is to ensure the
invoice details match the passenger trip authorisation docket
issued by the station. The vast majority of drivers who work the
account follow this procedure but we have to ensure that all
drivers do it for every "shout." Your cooperation will assist us
in getting it correct, saving administrative work and drivers
being called the following day by staff – and as is often the
case – having to wake them up.
Keith Cain
Driver Operations / Call Centre Manager |
