The operator turns to Teleperformance, Infosys and Accenture to speed up fixes for customers and IT woes
Children playing football learn early on that “when in doubt, kick it out” and Belgian operator Telenet has adopted this philosophy after what can only be described as an annus horribilis on the customer service front. The operator is entering into agreements with Teleperformance for its customer service department and with Infosys and Accenture for its IT department.
The move follows Belgium’s Telecommunications Ombudsman’s Office recording a 65% increase in the number of disputes in 2023 after five years of decline in the number of complaints submitted. Telenet registered the highest number of complaints in 2023 – the first time since the Ombudsman was set up more than 30 year ago that Proximus was not the most complained about operator.
At the time in March, the Ombudsman said the mediation in thousands of complaints showed that the introduction of a new IT platform by Telenet was generally the cause of numerous persistent problems that “have often had major consequences for customers.”
Ironically, the announcement was made a day after thousands of Telenet users across Belgium were unable to make calls or use mobile internet from 07:00 until around 12:15 on 3 December. The outage followed planned maintenance works which took place on Monday evening, which didn’t go as planned.
Customer outsource
Telenet has entered into an agreement with Teleperformance – in addition to its existing partner WEngage – and will transfer 200 call centre employees to this global operator. Telenet assuaged employees but suggesting that a partnership with Teleperformance will offer them “more growth opportunities and career development prospects”. The transfer will happen on 1 May 2025.
The operator reckons it needs to focus on a digital customer service for routine questions to process the more than 26,000 daily contacts with consumers and self-employed individuals more efficiently and to provide customers with a tailored service. By doing this the operator hopes it will give call centre staff more time to handle and resolve more complex customer inquiries. To this end, Telenet said it is developing “an in-house expertise centre over time that will act as the central hub for specific support for customers with complicated service questions”.
IT outsourcing
Telenet said it will also continue to simplify the way it works with IT partners and reduce the number of suppliers for software delivery activities. This means, going forward, it will only work with Infosys and Accenture as core partners for software development. Infosys oversees the lion’s share of software activities, including development and IT application and infrastructure operations. Accenture will manage the overall software development within the “Digital & Data domain”.
Telenet believes this delineation of responsibilities facilitates “rapid adjustment to evolving technologies” and provides “access to top talent when needed” – which comes across as a slight backhander to its own IT department. As part of this new set-up 79 employees will be transferred from Telenet to Infosys and Accenture. This transfer is also scheduled for 1 May 2025.
During Q3, Telenet delivered growth in postpaid mobile net adds of 800 despite what it said was an intensely competitive market environment. Its broadband base contracted by 4,000 during the quarter.