In Focus: ARCO Recruitment Co

Q: Can you tell us a bit about your company and the service that you provide?

Alaqeel: Arco was founded in 2013 as a Human Resources Solution Entity in response to the increasing demand for skilled professionals in the Saudi market as companies were struggling to adhere to the new Saudi labor codes. Since then Arco has developed a wide range of innovative workforce services to support different operational and HR challenges. We have built a partnership with public and private sectors to stream Executives, Medical Professionals, Engineers, Technicians, Industrial professionals, and many more.

Q: How do you handle requests of customers from areas where there are no ARCO branches?

Alaqeel: We connect with our customers through various communication channels, customer service hotlines, blogs, live chat, mobile apps, FAQs and social media platforms. Customers can submit their requests or inquiries via our blog platform, send a call back request, where one of our customer service agents will get in touch with them within 24 hours. Arco has developed a full scale online service system.

Q: In your opinion, how important is staff training and how often should it be provided?

Alaqeel: We believe that training is a core aspect of employee development. Therefore, we are committed to develop and nurture a well-trained team that understands and embraces their skills to meet the objectives and the overall company’s strategy and culture. It is only by providing optimum working skill and learning opportunities we can orchestrate the expectation of our guests in all their aspects. To be able to adapt continuously to a changing world requires rigorous learning which is implemented at regular intervals at Arco.

Q: What kind of training programs do you provide to your staff and what are key skills that you focus on?

Alaqeel: Our training program is divided into two main categories; General training programs, which are a compiled set of orientation, onboard and online compliance programs that is provided to all new comers, who are expected to complete it within their first joining year. Technical training programs are based on the specific employee competences and development plan. Each training class or course supports the progression of the employee through their development plan, whether through workshops, consultations, simulation managerial or supervisory software, HSSE, or PST.

All training programs are reviewed regularly to adapt to the department and employees’ needs to make sure the team is empowered and capable of delivering Arco level of service.

Q: What kind of technology and smart services have you deployed in order to provide a better customer experience?

Alaqeel: There is no denial in the changing trends of customer service. We are on the top of a revolution in how customer interactions are handled, performed, and tracked. Mobile apps and live chat are on top of the list for the methods that we use to connect with our clients. Most of the people use their mobiles to search for and find information, which is why our clients find it easy to use our mobile app to access general info, prices, booking forms, search features, user accounts, messengers, news feeds and many more. We have also recently launched a customer loyalty program which was found to be very effective in building up our customer database. We are currently looking at the different newly introduced Customer Relationship Management software and artificial Intelligence tools that might be of great value to improve the overall customer experience.

Q: What are your feedback mechanisms to assess customer satisfaction with your services?

Alaqeel: In Arco we have a Service Quality Department, which is responsible for maintaining high quality service for all our customers. The department is in charge of conducting customer evaluation surveys periodically through our mobile apps or automated guest surveys (NPS, CSAT, CES). Another great source of customer feedback is customer complaints database, these complaints are analyzed and reported to the relevant department to ensure that issues are resolved before they reoccur. The Service Quality Department monitors and measures constantly all feedback received from various resources vs our standard target rate for each service aspect to set and review operational standards.

Q: What are your customer complaint processes?

Alaqeel: Once the customer raises a complaint from any digital channel or directly complains to one of our team members, an alert is raised through our CCS to the concerned department that should be resolved and closed within 24 hours. Based on the complaint nature if the issue was not closed within the timeframe it will accelerate to higher management for immediate action. Once the case is closed a guest confirmation of satisfaction is requested and documented.

Q: What services and features do you plan to introduce in the coming years to further enhance customer experience?

Alaqeel: Many services are still in our pipeline creating Digital Branches, the digital platform that will enable our guests to finalize the contract process online from end to end, deploy Artificial Intelligence for handling customer inquiry and services, introduce service per-hourly paid rate.

Hospitality Division, Hotelier Academy and Butler school, a revolutionary concept that will enrich the understanding of Customer Service, it is the silk route destination for every hotel, restaurant, catering and event company as well as families.

Our talents through their diversity from Butlers, Waiters, Housekeepers, Culinary and Engineering teams will create a unique performance lever for Hospitality core values.

About Othman Alaqeel

Othman Alaqeel is currently working as Customer Service and Marketing Director-ARCO Recruitment Co. He is a CX consultant with an experience of more than 10 years in the same field.