Flair Boosts its Innovative Payment Card Scheme

Tag: IP Card

Flair differentiates itself on customer service excellence throughworld-class contact centre Altitude Software, a leading global independent contact centersolutions vendor, today announced that Flair has powered its salesand marketing operations with the Altitude uCI suite to handle thefast-paced growth of Flairs in-store payment card programme inKuwait, soon to be launched in other GCC countries such as the UAE.

"Customer service excellence is a key distinguishing factor forFlair, and our desire to cultivate the highest level of customersatisfaction for our cardholders is paramount," said ColinHarrison, Flair Chief Marketing Officer. Flair is a registeredbrand fully owned and backed by The International Investor, aleading Kuwaiti Islamic financial services house, established in1992, and quoted on the Kuwait Stock Exchange.

Flair is the first and only Sharia compliant multi-merchant storecard in the Middle East. Recently launched, the card is alreadyavailable through a fast-growing number of retail stores in Kuwaitsuch as LG, Fono, ZED Motorz and At Home. Flair is unique in thatit allows its customers to pay for individual purchases in a waythat suits their budget  keeping them in control. For instance,lower value items like mobile phones can be paid for in a singlepayment or over 3 months, and higher value items like TVs can bepaid back over 12-24 months or more.

As Flair is based on Islamic financing principles, it purchases thegoods and acquires the services from the dealer or retailer wherethe Flair card is accepted. Flair then sells these to the customeron easy and affordable monthly payment terms through a sale oninstalment contract. The transaction amount and term is completelytransparent and known to customers at the time of purchase."Another advantage of the card is that the store itself recogniseseach Flair cardholder as a valued and loyal customer, someone whowill be offered benefits, promotions and developments such asspecial offers, new line previews and discounts through SMSalerts," remarked Colin Harrison.

Introducing such a unique in-store card programme would meanreceiving hundreds of interactions per day from customers eager toapply and to learn more about the card advantages and conditions.This is why a specialized multilingual team of experienced contactcentre agents was selected to ensure that Flair Sales calls aredealt with quickly and efficiently. Contact centre operations forFlair are specifically managed by Procco Financial Services, a TIIfully owned and dedicated processing business of Shari'atransactions based in Bahrain and regulated by the Central Bank ofBahrain.

The contact centre system enables Flair agents to advise newcustomers of approval within 15 minutes.

The Flair contact centre has been designed for rapid accountopening, shortening the time taken to approve a new customer andimproving the professionalism of customer service agents. Real-timeintegration with Altitudes contact centre application coupled withFlairs existing systems means all information kept on customers iswithin one system  store name, prices, credit terms and paymenthistory are all within easy reach. Above all, the contact centresystem enables Flair agents to advise new customers of approvalwithin 15 minutes, letting them make their first store purchaseimmediately. It's a simple application process that you cannormally complete in store, browse around, perhaps go for a coffeeand soon leave with the purchases you want, added Colin Harrison.
Core modules within the IP-enabled Altitude uCI solution have beendeployed to support Flairs customer service operations, includingAltitude Voice, a voice management application that providesintelligent handling of inbound and outbound calls and seamlesslysynchronizes relevant data with each call through CTI (ComputerTelephony Integration). Altitudes CTI functionality automaticallytransfers any information about the customers use of the IVRdirectly into Flair agent desktops, removing the need for them tore-identify the caller. The system also enables Flair to route,queue, and track inbound interactions intelligently and moreefficiently. For instance, inbound calls, faxes or emails aredirected to an appropriate Flair agent with the right language,necessary skills and knowledge to assist and resolve customerqueries.

Another key requirement of Flair was to manage and monitor inreal-time the contact centre. The Altitude uSupervisor modulespecifically enables Flairs managers to quickly create andconfigure campaigns, agent skill profiles, alarms, schedules aswell as dial rules. This unified reporting and management modulesupports Flairs ability to respond to immediate needs, and tocontinuously improve the effectiveness of its customer serviceoperations. "Altitude is universally recognized as a leadingindependent contact centre solutions provider. In addition toproviding a full suite of integrated contact centre capabilities,Altitude also offers us a strong, local support presence in theGCC," stated Colin Harrison.

The Altitude uCI (Unified Customer Interaction") suite has a tenyear plus track record of outstanding results in contact centresworldwide, having won over 25 Industry Awards for Innovation andPerformance in the last few years. The solution provides businesseswith a wealth of advanced contact centre features, includingunified desktops, routing, reporting, dialing, voice portal,management and open integration via Web services. The Altitude uCIsuite architecture is unique to the industry with a single languageand editor to all media interactions simultaneously and inreal-time on IP-PBXs and/or traditional PBXs.

"Organizations worldwide have come to trust Altitude Software tohelp enhance service levels, boost contact centre performance, andbetter manage customer interactions," pointed out Riadh Boukhris,Altitude Software Middle East and North Africa President. "Byrunning the Altitude IP contact centre software suite, Flair isable to more effectively align itself with customer needs, enhanceits Sharia compliant multi-merchant store card activity and,ultimately, maximize bottom line performance."