Telecom 3 Companies to Temporarily Close Daegu Customer Centers Until End of March

by Ku Chaeeun

Published 16 Mar.2020 13:09(KST)

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] The three major telecommunications companies have decided to temporarily close their customer centers in the Daegu region. This decision was made in response to the recommendation of the Daegu city health authorities and to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). The temporary closure of the customer centers is expected to be in effect until the end of March.

According to the telecommunications industry on the 16th, SK Telecom decided to temporarily suspend operations at two customer centers in the Daegu area from this day until the end of March. SK Telecom operates two customer centers in Daegu. A total of about 460 employees work at Daegu 1 and 2 customer centers, of which approximately 360 are customer service representatives.

SK Telecom is already implementing work-from-home arrangements for about 170 customer service representatives, which is about 50% of the counseling staff. Various measures are being taken to minimize customer inconvenience. In particular, by distributing customer inquiry calls, they can be handled by customer centers in other regions, so no customer inconvenience is expected.

KT will also join the temporary closure of the Daegu customer centers from this day until the end of March. About 570 employees work at KT’s Daegu customer centers. The consultations handled by the Daegu customer centers will be transferred to other centers to minimize customer inconvenience.

KT is transitioning consultations to AI-based services such as artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots and providing advanced services. KT has integrated the Artificial Intelligence Contact Center (AICC) solution into its customer centers. The gap caused by reduced counseling staff is being addressed by utilizing AI customer centers. KT plans to develop a voice virtual consultation (voicebot) within this year to provide simple consultation services 24/7, 365 days a year.

LG Uplus will also close its Daegu customer centers and implement work-from-home from this day until the end of March. About 400 employees work at LG Uplus. Employees at LG Uplus’s Daegu customer centers will complete pre-scheduled tasks by the morning of this day and start working from home sequentially from the afternoon.

An LG Uplus official said, "In addition to connecting to counselors, various 'digital consultation' services such as chatbots, customer center apps, and ARS are being operated. Since there is no waiting or connection time, these are useful, and if connecting to a counselor is not smooth, using these services allows for faster processing of tasks."