Dubai's du claims 90% customer satisfaction

Telco du on Wednesday said that 90 percent of customer requests were handled satisfactorily in Q4 2011. In its first Quarterly Reporting System report, du said its contact centre received 3,638,800 calls, with 3,370,455 answered to customers' satisfaction. The report also said that 86 percent of calls by mystery callers were also dealt with properly. "The Customer Service Report is a first of its kind report initiated by any telecom service provider in the UAE that lends itself to demonstrate improvements and transparency in the area of customer service," said Farid Faraidooni, chief commercial officer, du. "At du, we are committed to constantly streamline our systems and processes to improve and evolve customer service experiences." The report also said that du achieved 72 percent first call resolution for consumer fixed and mobile services. It said 85 percent of calls were answered in 20 seconds with the average wait time reduced to 13 seconds. du said last month that its full year profit declined 16 percent as royalties to the government increased. The Dubai-based firm, also known as Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Co, said net income declined to AED1.01bn ($275m) from AED1.31bn a year earlier. That profit figure was affected by a one-off AED268m charge relating to a change in estimate for 2009 royalty payments. Du, the UAE's second telecoms operator, could finally equal rival Etisalat for mobile phone market share by the end of 2012, analysts at Frost & Sullivan have said. Jonas Zelba, research analyst, Information and Communication Technologies Practice, predicted Du would continue to to cut into Etisalat's dominance this year. The operator, which currently has a 46 percent of the UAE mobile market, said five million people use its services.