Tamkeen Chief Executive Mahmood Hashem Al-Kooheji and the executive team, Board members, as well as a number of officials and media representatives, also attended the opening.
The opening of the Customer Service Centre comes as part of Tamkeen’s efforts to enhance channels of direct communication with beneficiaries and improve services, especially in light of the large number of support programmes that Tamkeen offers and the increasing interest in these programmes from Bahrainis and enterprises in Bahrain.
From 2012 to end of Q1 2013, Tamkeen’s Customer Engagement and Support team processed nearly 120,000 contacts through the available channels, including around 8,800 walk-in visits to the customer service centre in Bait Al Tijjar (BCCI) and more than 106,000 calls received by Tamkeen’s call centre. The increase made it necessary to establish a dedicated customer service centre at a strategic location to accommodate and better serve the customers.
Shaikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa toured the new facility premises, which included briefings on the progress of Tamkeen’s Human Capital Development and Private Sector Support programmes currently open and planned for the second half of the year as per the 2013 operational plan. Shaikh Mohammed was also briefed on the various activities conducted under Tamkeen Community Engagement programme.
“The Customer Service Centre is a significant milestone that is in line with Tamkeen’s efforts to provide consistent services to businesses and citizens in Bahrain. As a strong partner of the private sector, Tamkeen works to support the national economic strategy by investing in initiatives that boost the national economy with a focus on achieving long-term sustainable results. This includes plans by Tamkeen’s Customer Engagement and Support department to establish similar centres across the country’s five governorates,” Commenting on the opening of the centre, Shaikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa said.
“The new Customer Service Centre will be providing a significant improvement in the services offered to those who wish to benefit from Tamkeen programmes. The fully-equipped centre will serve as a one-stop-shop where all customer needs will be met, and make the entire process smoother and easier for everyone,” Tamkeen’s Chief Executive Mahmood Hashem Al-Kooheji said.
The new facility has been fully equipped and designed to ensure the provision of high quality services. The extensively trained staff will be available to handle all customer needs, including programme information, registration processes, eligibility criteria, and the required documentation, as well as guiding customers to the programmes that best serve their interest and objectives. In addition, some of Tamkeen’s strategic partners will also have service agents on hand at the new centre.
Moreover, Customers can also now submit applications for Tamkeen’s enterprise development programmes and attend the relevant orientation sessions at the new centre.
Regular working hours at Tamkeen’s new customer service centre will be from 8.00 am to 4:00 pm. During Ramadan, the working hours will be over two shifts; from 8:30 AM to 2:30 PM, and from 8:30 PM to 10:30 PM.
The Community Engagement initiatives conducted by the Customer Engagement and Support team to promote Tamkeen’s support programmes was a key reason behind the increase in the number of contacts. From 2012 to end of Q1 2013, the team made nearly 200 visits to social and professional organisations from the public and private sector across Bahrain which was attended by more than 7,000 people. The team also attended more than 830 business meetings with private and public sector organisations over that span.
The Customer Engagement and Support department consists of four main units, which are Customer Services, Community Engagement, Enterprise Engagement, Service Quality and Development.
More than 77,000 Bahrainis and Bahraini enterprises have benefited from Tamkeen programmes to date, with the figure expected to rise to 150,000 in the near future.