Flair boosts its innovative payment card scheme in the Middle East with Altitude Software

"Customer service excellence is a key distinguishing factor for Flair and our desire to cultivate the highest level of customer satisfaction for our cardholders is paramount," said Colin Harrison, Flair Chief Marketing Officer. Flair is a registered brand fully owned and backed by The International Investor, a leading Kuwaiti Islamic financial services house, established in 1992 and quoted on the Kuwait Stock Exchange.

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

As Flair is based on Islamic financing principles, it purchases the goods and acquires the services from the dealer or retailer where the Flair card is accepted. Flair then sells these to the customer on easy and affordable monthly payment terms through a sale on instalment contract. The transaction amount and term is completely transparent and known to customers at the time of purchase.

"Another advantage of the card is that the store itself recognises each Flair cardholder as a valued and loyal customer, someone who will be offered benefits, promotions and developments such as special offers, new line previews and discounts through SMS alerts," remarked Colin Harrison.

Introducing such a unique in-store card programme would mean receiving hundreds of interactions per day from customers eager to apply and to learn more about the card advantages and conditions. This is why a specialized multilingual team of experienced contact centre agents was selected to ensure that Flair Sales calls are dealt with quickly and efficiently. Contact centre operations for Flair are specifically managed by Procco Financial Services, a TII fully owned and dedicated processing business of Shari'a transactions based in Bahrain and regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain.

The contact centre system enables Flair agents to advise new customers of approval within 15 minutes. The Flair contact centre has been designed for rapid account opening, shortening the time taken to approve a new customer and improving the professionalism of customer service agents.

Real-time integration with Altitude's contact centre application coupled with Flair's existing systems means all information kept on customers is within one system - store name, prices, credit terms and payment history are all within easy reach. Above all, the contact centre system enables Flair agents to advise new customers of approval within 15 minutes, letting them make their first store purchase immediately.

'It's a simple application process that you can normally complete in store, browse around, perhaps go for a coffee and soon leave with the purchases you want,' added Colin Harrison.

Core modules within the IP-enabled Altitude uCI solution have been deployed to support Flair's customer service operations, including Altitude Voice, a voice management application that provides intelligent handling of inbound and outbound calls and seamlessly synchronizes relevant data with each call through CTI (Computer Telephony Integration).

Altitude's CTI functionality automatically transfers any information about the customer's use of the IVR directly into Flair agent desktops, removing the need for them to re-identify the caller. The system also enables Flair to route, queue, and track inbound interactions intelligently and more efficiently. For instance, inbound calls, faxes or emails are directed to an appropriate Flair agent with the right language, necessary skills and knowledge to assist and resolve customer queries.

Another key requirement of Flair was to manage and monitor in real-time the contact centre. The Altitude uSupervisor module specifically enables Flair's managers to quickly create and configure campaigns, agent skill profiles, alarms, schedules as well as dial rules.

This unified reporting and management module supports Flair's ability to respond to immediate needs, and to continuously improve the effectiveness of its customer service operations. "Altitude is universally recognized as a leading independent contact centre solutions provider. In addition to providing a full suite of integrated contact centre capabilities, Altitude also offers us a strong, local support presence in the GCC," stated Colin Harrison.

The Altitude uCI (Unified Customer Interaction™) suite has a ten year plus track record of outstanding results in contact centres worldwide, having won over 25 Industry Awards for Innovation and Performance in the last few years. The solution provides businesses with a wealth of advanced contact centre features, including unified desktops, routing, reporting, dialing, voice portal, management and open integration via Web services. The Altitude uCI suite architecture is unique to the industry with a single language and editor to all media interactions simultaneously and in real-time on IP-PBXs and/or traditional PBXs.

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