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Emilie Coene

Dounia et Silke, employées chez iKanbi

Portraits of Dounia and Silke, employees at our contact centre in Berchem

Portraits of Dounia and Silke, employees at our contact centre in Berchem 1920 1483 Emilie Coene

iKanbi Group opened our new site in Berchem in January 2023; it’s a contact centre which specialises in supporting and managing remote customer relationships. A multi-cultural hub which is home to plenty of talented professionals, our new site in Berchem is close to both Antwerp and BrusselsPublic transport and major roads are also close by; this is a major advantage.

iKanbi’s contact centre in Berchem boasts secure spaces across a single floor, totalling 1.250 m².

Our spaces are also designed to ensure the well-being of all our employees:

  • Relaxation areas
  • Ergonomic training rooms
  • Ergonomic furniture
  • A cafeteria
  • A coffee corner
  • A gym

And to tell you all about it, we’ve spoken with a couple of people who have contributed to iKanbi Berchem’s success.

Read on to find out what Dounia and Silke, 2 iKanbi employees from Antwerp, have to say.

Dounia et Silke, employées chez iKanbi

What is your role and what do you like most about your job?

Dounia: ” As a coach, I guide and support our agents to ensure that every customer interaction with our customer service is a positive experience. I’m proud to have contributed to this positive impact on our customers. I love the endless possibilities it offers and the unique situations it creates. It also gives me the opportunity to grow as a person and to develop my skills.”

Silke: ” I’m proud to have joined iKanbi six months ago as Customer Advisor! I help our customers deal with different situations and challenges. Every day, I’m surprised by our customers’ unique questions and stories. Being able to help them gives me a sense of satisfaction and I enjoy talking with them. I can put my talkative nature to good use in my job!”

Do you prefer working at home or in the office?

Dounia: “Although I’m more productive when working from home, I’m happy to be a part of the inspiring and stimulating work environment at the office. It’s the ideal place in which to build on my relationships with my team and to take advantage in-person coaching and mentoring.”

Silke: ” Although I like the convenience of working from home, I prefer to work in the office. I feel at home there and I like seeing my colleagues in person.”

How would you describe the atmosphere in the Berchem office?

Dounia: ” The Berchem office is an energising oasis! The young and dynamic atmosphere creates an inspiring and rewarding working environment in which I have the freedom to express my creativity and share my opinions. The motto “hard work pays off” motivates me to do my best every day.”

Silke: ” When you enter the office, you’re greeted by the dynamic energy of our fantastic colleagues. It’s a great place to work and grow and I really feel at home among all these amazing people.”

Do you have an inspiring story to share with us?

Dounia: ” As a coach, I have experienced countless inspiring events which have made me who I am today. From activities with colleagues to spontaneous brainstorming sessions, I’ve learned that there’s always an opportunity to embark on adventures and to have fun at work. It’s difficult to choose just one story; every day is an experience in itself. I’ve created so many good memories with my supervisor and the other agents which really motivate me!”

Silke: “Recently I received a call from a customer who called to say that he was really grateful to one of our colleagues. He appreciated what she’d done and asked me to thank her with a special message. This heart-warming moment gave me such a boost and showed me that we really do make a difference for our customers.”

>>> Do you want to join Dounia and Silke? Discover our job offers <<<

The iKanbi Group is proud to announce the opening of a new contact centre in Tangier, Morocco

The iKanbi Group is proud to announce the opening of a new contact centre in Tangier, Morocco 1920 1483 Emilie Coene

The iKanbi Group is proud to announce the opening of a new contact centre in Tangier, Morocco

Located at 25 Avenue Youssef Ibn Tachfine in Tangier, this will be the group’s sixth contact centre, in addition to those in Loncin, Berchem, Tirana, Maastricht and Casablanca. This new contact centre aims to provide specialist assistance and help desk services by phone, email and chat. read more

Nomination to the Trends Gazelles 2023

Nomination to the Trends Gazelles 2023 1585 1920 Emilie Coene

This year again, we are proud to announce that iKanbi Belgium has been nominated for the Trends Gazelles 2023.

But what are the Trends Gazelles?

For 22 years now, the Trends-Tendances and Trends editorial teams have been selecting 50 to 250 Trends Gazelles in each province.

These growing companies are not only a source of energy for our economy but also a real inspiration for entrepreneurs.
The Trends Gazelle title is recognised in the business world because of its national reputation and regional recognition.

The selection of Trends Gazelles is based on growth figures:

  • Growth in added value over the last 5 accounting years
  • Growth in personnel
  • Growth in cash flow

Source: https://trendsgazelles.be/#top

A very nice recognition for iKanbi

As you can see, this nomination is a real recognition for all our teams who give 100% to continue to develop our company more than 30 years after its creation and continue to satisfy our customers in the management of their customer service!

iKanbi took a very respectable ninth place in the Trends Gazelles ranking in the Province of Liège.

Thank you to each and every one of our employees without whom this long adventure would not be possible.

An iKanbi internal application, developed by and for iKanbi employees!

An iKanbi internal application, developed by and for iKanbi employees! 600 371 Emilie Coene

This week, iKanbi launched its own request, incident and support service management platform. 

This internal ticketing application is designed to manage and track the requests sent by iKanbi’s staff to the company’s HR, IT, Facilities and BI (Management) departments.

You may well be wondering why we developed our own application. Isn’t there a plethora of existing and easy-to-use software on the market?

iKanbi decided to develop its own application for several reasons.

Firstly, we needed a tool to centralise requests, instead of using the various internal communication channels (email, chat, telephone, etc.)

Centralising requests via a single channel

 

Secondly, we wanted to simplify the process by providing preliminary analysis of the types of requests and making it possible to manage these requests. This simplification has included structuring the HR, IT, Facilities and BI interfaces and integrating predefined and undefined fields in the forms. This makes it easier to allocate requests and manage their monitoring in the background.

Lastly, we wanted to give iKanbi’s employees more autonomy when creating and tracking their requests. Most of the created tickets don’t require managerial approval; they can therefore be managed personally by iKanbi’s employees.

After an in-depth market study, it became clear that no software reflected the reality of the working lives of iKanbi’s staff. In addition to acquiring a licence per user, significant modifications and adaptations would have been required to reflect this reality; this would inevitably have led to major additional costs. Consequently, the decision to create an iKanbi product for iKanbi’s employees, based on their actual needs, seemed to be the obvious choice.

Working alongside a “multi-department” project team, the Web Development team took up the challenge. In-depth analysis of the various requests received by the HR, IT and Facilities departments made it possible to categorise and implement a system to manage and monitor the flow of requests.

This application is the result of several months of work and the synergies between the different teams and the Web Development team.

Needless to say, improving services both for external and internal customers is a key part of our culture at iKanbi. This tool has been designed as part of a continuous improvement process, thanks to the statistics it can collect. Whether they focus on the types of requests, the types of answers, the processing time, the recurrence of certain incidents or other information, these statistics objectify trends and provide insights. For example, the processing of some requests could be automated in the future. Similarly, a notification system on the home interface has been created: it provides a warning when an incident impacts several employees. This avoids redundancy in the reporting of this incident.

It’s a well designed application which is just waiting to be used!

“Within challenge always lies opportunity!”

“Within challenge always lies opportunity!” 800 374 Emilie Coene

Electricity and gas suppliers have been overwhelmed by consumer questions about rising energy prices. iKanbi, which supports the Customer Service department of one of the biggest Belgian energy suppliers, was also affected by this problem.

The challenge of ever-increasing consumer questions and demands led to iKanbi’s lines becoming overloaded and an increase in waiting times. For example, demand was 23% higher than initially forecast! This unprecedented situation prompted a rethink which resulted in a reorganised call process, involving changes to the IVR, and a reorganised training programme for new Energy Customer Advisers at iKanbi.

Why change, you might ask? After all, we simply need to hire and train new advisers quickly, right? In fact, it’s not that simple!

Our new Customer Advisers needed to complete an 8-day training course to understand how to respond to different situations (questions about an invoice, moving house, a meter reading, etc.) and to learn about the various processes and tools. Only at the end of this period were newcomers ready to take their first calls. A support line and individual coaching and workshops provided our new Customer Advisers with additional assistance.

However, given the unprecedented increase in call volumes, a training course lasting (almost) two weeks made it impossible to respond to the urgency of the situation. Other avenues needed to be explored.

Initially, iKanbi’s technology made it possible to modify the standard IVR. Consumers were presented with a menu in the IVR, prompting them to choose the “price increase” option. At the same time, iKanbi’s HR department recruited extensively, providing new employees with training which focused exclusively on these issues. The results were immediately clear: 11% of the calls were handled by Customer Advisers with 4 days of training. iKanbi’s responsiveness has ensured that our energy supplier client’s services are now more accessible.

Subsequently, iKanbi’s teams reconsidered the training process for new employees. Why not divide the training course into interchangeable modules, based on the department’s needs, thereby enabling Customer Advisers to take calls after each module? Instead of completing an 8-day training course before taking their first calls, new employees now attend a 2- or 3-day training course, depending on the module. They then begin to put their theoretical knowledge into practice. Once this first module is completed, new employees can continue with the second module, start taking calls and so on…

iKanbi’s decision to encourage this gradual skills acquisition has had an impact in several different ways. iKanbi’s Customer Advisers are more confident when responding to customers’ questions, because they gradually become operational. Their mental load is reduced. For our client, this solution ensures that major crises in the future will be better managed. The integration of new employees who are trained in response to operational requirements ensures the efficient and rapid handling of unexpected additional call volumes.  Training new employees by prioritising modules plays an essential role in forecast management. Lastly, reduced waiting times and high-quality responses increase the satisfaction rate of our client’s end customers. This is reflected in the way in which these customers have expressed their gratitude to Customer Advisers during their calls.

As Stefania, Customer Success Manager in the Energy sector for iKanbi, puts it so well: “there’s an opportunity in every difficulty”. By identifying and seizing this opportunity to improve customer satisfaction, iKanbi’s teams have proven their intelligence and expert knowledge.

iKanbi wishes you all the best for 2022!

iKanbi wishes you all the best for 2022! 1280 720 Emilie Coene

Certificate CovidSafe : iKanbi helps citizens

Certificate CovidSafe : iKanbi helps citizens 648 432 Emilie Coene

The Walloon Minister of Health, Chrisitie Morreale, was in our office this Friday, June 18!

Accompanied by Walloon MP Diana Nikolic and Mayor of Ans, Gregory Philippin, Chrisitie Morreale came to see the effectiveness of the work carried out by our employees in the context of the management of calls related to the CovidSafe European Certificate. Open since Wednesday, this line specially dedicated to CovidSafe Certificate already records an average of 11000 calls per day.

To discover in the medias…

Le soir: https://www.lesoir.be/379114/article/2021-06-18/onze-mille-appels-par-jour-pour-le-certificat-europeen-covidsafe

L’Avenir: https://www.lavenir.net/cnt/dmf20210618_01590169/22-000-appels-en-3-jours-immersion-dans-le-call-center-pour-obtenir-votre-certificat-de-vaccination-pour-voyager

RTL: https://www.rtl.be/info/belgique/societe/le-call-center-wallon-recoit-des-milliers-d-appels-sur-le-certificat-europeen-1307135.aspx

RTBF: https://www.rtbf.be/info/regions/detail_en-wallonie-une-nouvelle-ligne-telephonique-dediee-au-certificat-sanitaire?id=10786665

Sudinfo: https://www.sudinfo.be/id400610/article/2021-06-18/coronavirus-11000-appels-par-jour-pour-le-certificat-europeen-covidsafe

Discover our solutions for the health sector