EPFO addresses subscriber grievances with new multilingual call center
The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is looking to enhance subscriber experience by launching an around-the-clock multilingual call center. This move comes as the retirement body had faced criticism on social media over delays in resolving issues and high rejection rates of settlement claims.
The new call center will function continuously, all days of the week. It aims to offer an integrated platform for subscribers to register complaints or seek solutions through various channels like phone, email, social media and more. EPFO wants to streamline grievance redressal and automate common processes to speed up issue resolution.
As per the tender, the call center will be equipped to handle 23 Indian languages to facilitate subscribers across the country. It intends to replace the existing grievance portal with advanced software for lodging, tracking and addressing requests in a timely manner. The automated solution will generate auto replies to different mediums and enable two-way communication via calls/chat for quering updates.
To ensure quality services, bidders must have set up at least two call centers of 500 seats each within the past three years. Once operational, the multichannel contact center will consolidate all current helplines into a single port of call for EPFO’s vast member base of nearly 7 crore. This unified approach aims to simplify the process for subscribers and improve their satisfaction levels through prompt responses.
The move comes at a time when rejection rates for final settlement claims have significantly risen in recent years. While automating verification has sped up approvals, it has also contributed to the spike in rejections. EPFO hopes its new member-friendly interface will help address complaints efficiently and reduce such instances going forward.
