The Day All Arabs Are Gone – Part 1

Who will treat in hospital emergencies, deliver packages, answer the phone or teleprospect on telephone platforms? The answers to this question and projects by Ramzy Bedia, the editorial staff of En-Contact and Tagadamedia.

A film project, whose title is already known (“The day when all the Arabs will be gone”), carried by Ramzy Bedia, the actor who made us howl with laughter in Halal State Policewould be in the making but it turns out to be as difficult to mount as a telemarketing campaign without good files or predictive software such as Vocalcom, Diabolocom or Manifone. At the same time, La Certification Relation Client France (the Red Label for telephone sets) wants to establish the idea that customer service produced only in France deserves a distinctive mark. The Macif believes in it like other companies such as Edenred, Maif, EDF etc. All that is nice but in reality, how to respond early or on Sunday, who manages to recruit telemarketers, in Amiens, Marseille or Angers? Who to ensure the missions of the first line?

The editorial staff of En-Contact has decided to create, for 2023, a new discussion section in the magazine, with an eloquent title (The day when all the Arabs will be gone) animated by all those who want to put forward arguments and support their words. Jews, Arabs, Catholics and toothless are admitted and hoped for. The moderator and exclusive partner of the section is Jonathan and his own David, Eric (the co-founders of Tagadamedia). There was Eric and Ramzy in the cinema. In the world of leads, there are David and Jonathan. 2 other players in customer service and experience and BPO are co-financing the studies and data collection that will illustrate the section: Comdata-Konecta and Manifone.

A preview of the two subjects that will be covered in the next two issues.

The infernal Eiffel Tower (Is the customer, visitor and resident experience unforgettable when you go up to the Eiffel Tower wherever you live in the neighborhood?).

Arab on the town (what would happen in France in the cleaning, security, call center or hospital sectors if only French people who had been there for a long time were recruited and employed). Elected French customer service, does that make sense?

The day when all the Arabs will be gone.

In a fascinating interview, granted to Télérama (number 3809), Ramzy Bedia responds to this dystopia: “I don’t understand why we don’t leave the Arabs alone. They are lawyers, journalists… In the hospitals, there are only Arab doctors! All those of my generation are integrated. It’s not just those little guys in hoods who sell weed and we’re shown on repeat on television. If North Africans left France, it would collapse.”

You had a film* in preparation on this subject? “Yes: the day when all the Arabs will be gone. A comedy to see if the problems of housing, unemployment, relocation and electricity prices remain if we leave.” Later in the interview, Ramzy is difficult to ride.

The day when all call centers will be in France.

Launched in June 2021, the new Customer Relations France certification, carried by the Afrc and the Pro France association, would like to establish the idea that having customer services mainly installed in France would be synonymous with quality. What should we think ? We may be or try to be a specialist, we lose our Latin a bit: between the Elected Customer Service of the Year, the NF 345 standards, the Social Responsibility Labels, the National Customer Relations Mission, more than Twenty standards, labels and certifications have emerged since 2004 in France, the date of the first plan launched by a government and aimed at developing the customer relationship sector in France. Jean-Louis Borloo, then Minister of Labor and Social Cohesion, had initiated a global reflection on the best way(s) of combining the development of call centers in France, the quality of customer service carried out remotely, tools and training that could help there. The subject is well known to the signatory of these lines who was at the time the adviser “hired” by Jean-Louis Borloo to help with the reflection. See the mission letter of the time.
A few months ago, Cédric O, Secretary of State for the digital transition, received in Bercy the first 11 companies which managed to obtain this French customer relationship certificate, which only Bureau Veritas and Afnor can contribute to obtaining: among these happy guests at the Ministry: Butagaz, Macif, Maif, Leocare, Edf, Edenred, O2, Homeserve etc..

What must be done to obtain this certification?

A priori, it is advisable to have its customer service executed and produced remotely by employees, 100% of whom must be located in France, with a French employment contract; to be certified by the 2 service providers approved for this purpose. Certification is granted for 4 years. The recent press release from Macif, which was among the first French companies to obtain this certification, states: “the location of all of its customer services throughout France illustrates Macif’s desire to offer the best quality of service to its members in a logic of geographical proximity and multi-channel accessibility”. Is it synonymous with quality, and if we want to claim it or believe it, is it scientifically based? Unfortunately no.

For more than twenty years, and in many countries and sectors of activity, the items that contribute to the perceived quality of a remote customer experience have been the subject of multiple and serious studies, which converge: the speed of in contact, personalization, the ability to process and respond to demand in one go (what specialists call the once and done) and in omnichannel mode form the basis of quality in terms of customer service. Whether your customer relations center is located in Tataouine, Manila or Freyming-Merlebach, provided that the question of the accent of call center agents is mastered there and that the tools for answering callers properly are available and activated, the perceived quality is not correlated to the country from which you are being answered. A few examples, knowing that the list could justify two or three pages: At 3 o’clock in the morning, if you wish to cancel your reservation on Booking, it is probably from China that a French-speaking call-center agent will answer you. You will not be sensitive to the fact that it is located very far away but to the fact that the cancellation is taken into account. At 5:30 this morning, however, I tried to contact Accor customer service to complete a complex hotel reservation. Yet billed at 18 euro cents per minute, the service does not work…before 8 o’clock in the morning. I would have almost understood this billing if it was insured from the territory, but it is not even the case. It was partially outsourced, at least, to a service provider in Sofia years ago. The money, at AccorHotels, is probably invested elsewhere than in CRM and support centers.

To follow on In-Contact: The Day All Arabs Are Gone – Part 2

Photo of one: Engie advertising – credit © DR