BMTC call centre deluged with calls

BENGALURU: From barely 300 calls per day three years ago, the customer care centre of Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) now receives an average of 1,500 calls per day from public seeking to know about various services and to register complaints.

In January alone, the centre received 20,658 calls, out of which 805 were complaints about drivers, conductors, rash driving, tendering change, unclean buses and many more, said a senior officer from BMTC.

The officer revealed that the customer care has around 22 employees, who work in two shifts. They also handle the transport provider’s social media and their prompt reply to queries and has been appreciated, he added.

BMTC Managing Director V. Ponnuraj told Deccan Chronicle, “Once the complaint has been registered with the call centre or with any senior officer in BMTC, we ensure that action is taken and the complainant is informed about this. But now we are planning to introduce a system where the complainant is kept informed about every step we take pertaining to the complaint and the officer handling it, just to ensure transparency.”

“We will start implementing the process at the earliest,” Ponnuraj added.

The managing director also mentioned that they will soon start taking feedback, reviews and suggestions about measures to be taken for improvement in BMTC through its official mobile phone app.

Another officer mentioned that three years ago the call centre used to receive around 300 calls, but now the numbers have increased showing that there is a rise in usage and awareness among the public.

“Around 49 per cent of calls received are about bus routes, 13 per cent seeking information about bus stands, to introduce new routes, to increase and requesting bus stops, 13 per cent about bus pass, 5 per cent about BMTC job notifications and recruitments, around 20 per cent of others including complaints and reporting lost items,” he added.

“Apart from these, over 250 complaints and queries are received on social media platforms and mobile phone app every week. Our priority is to ensure that every call is attended and every query or grievance is attended and also to make sure that the public is satisfied,” the officer said.