20 sign up for low-frills call-centre service
(Top) Rajneesh Srivastava, systems analyst at Modasys Technology. (Above) Students using mobile phones. Pictures: BT/Zamri Zainal, file
Al-Haadi Abu Bakar
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
Saturday, August 13, 2011
ASKROBIN, a call-centre SMS service for small businesses, has signed up 20 businesses to test what is dubbed as the most affordable call-centre solution for small and medium enterprises in Brunei.
After months of research and development, the business-to-customer solution had its trial launch yesterday.
In an interview with The Brunei Times, Rajneesh Srivastava, systems analyst at Modasys Technology, said the new service is an inexpensive alternative for businesses that do not have a call centre.
"We believe that any businesses big or small can benefit from this service. AskRobin will help to promote their businesses and serve their customers with the right information every time," he said.
Rajneesh said with AskRobin, even the smallest home-based businesses can have a no-frills call-centre service.
"Businesses need only to register and provide their details, latest offers and products," he added.
He said businesses can choose from three different plans that are being offered to match their needs. Listing with AskRobin Service plan can cost as low as $6.50 per month.
Other than the basic listing, there is also an option for an SMS Call Centre designed for big businesses that already offer customer service or telephone support, such as banks and telcos.
"For many huge companies, setting up a call centre can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, whereas the AskRobin service 'Enterprise Plan' costs only $830 a month, with training provided to the staff to operate the web-based SMS call-centre system," he said.
He said that although AskRobin is not designed to replace the companies' existing call-centres anytime soon, it extends the companies' customer reach.
AskRobin enables consumers to plan and perform tasks via SMS for any kind of service, from movie ticket bookings to flight schedules to dinner reservations.
"The public can just text their questions to AskRobin's unique number 39993 and will receive an appropriate response that matches their queries," said Rajneesh.
"We offer much more than ordinary printed directories. When using AskRobin, customers talk to real people. It's this human to human interaction that allows us to recommend the exact product or service that's right for that customer," he added.
The SMS call centre is open 24 hours and customers can ask as many questions in one SMS with 160 character limitation.
A 20 cents charge will be incurred for each SMS sent out by the customer.
As part of its trial launch, AskRobin will be testing its service by promoting restaurants in Brunei throughout the Ramadhan season, providing information on the latest promotions offered by restaurants signed up under the service.
"We have approached more than 50 restaurants nationwide specifically for this Ramadhan launch. So far, 14 restaurants have already registered in our system, along with other lifestyle businesses," he said.
Among the restaurants are KFC, Cheezbox, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Mamih, Gripps Cafe, Secret Recipe, Dairy Queen, Cottage Grill, Rasamas, Au Lait Cafe and Pizza Hut, among others.
Currently, the call-centre service is only available to B-Mobile subscribers, but Modasys is also working to make it available to DST subscribers.
"We are still in the midst of negotiations with DST to be on board. We want this service available for all Bruneians and DST has the entire mobile phone market penetration nationwide," said Rajneesh.
Modasys Technology is a mobile media and content services provider most notable for its popular CoolTones brand, a ring back tone service for B-Mobile customers.
Earlier this year, the iCentre incubatee received over $100,000 worth of funding from the Brunei Economic Development Board under the Local Enterprise Applications & Products grant scheme. The funding was used by the firm primarily to develop the AskRobin system.
The company was also awarded a product development grant from the Info-communications Technology Industry Brunei Darussalam to fund the pilot project.The Brunei Times
