The little things

Fan Min is well known for his attention to details, a trait he has crystallized into a motto for his employees as the key to first-class service.

"As an online travel service company, quality lies at the heart of our business model." Fan's message to his employees is clear and straight.

From the first contact with customers, operators at Ctrip's call center are trained to deliver top-flight service as the invisible advertisers for the company, Fan says.

Visitors to Ctrip's seven-story office building in Shanghai are sure to be impressed by the largest call center in Asia with more than 4,000 employees. Contrary to the general impression of a call room in which incessant noises and cramped space drive away any urge for conversation, Ctrip's call center is full of energetic, sweet-natured operators, mostly in their 20s, all speaking softly to customers over the phones. Rather than a soulless room of cramped, gray cubicles, the call center is meticulously decorated to contribute to a cozy ambience, where the voices sound even very melodious.

These young people have undergone three months' of hard training in which they are taught how to address customers' needs within three minutes. According to Fan, Ctrip even requires that incoming phone calls should be answered within 20 seconds.

And in another mark to Fan's obsession with details are the small, individual mirrors within every cubicle to make sure the operator is really smiling while talking on the phone.

For Fan, these details are what contribute to a client's first impression of Ctrip's service.

Fan likes traveling himself. But every time when he makes his trip plans, it is more about inspecting Ctrip's service quality rather than a vacation. Even on normal days, he listens to recorded phone calls monitoring them for glitches and ways to improve customer relations. It's all enabled Fan and other company leaders to directly address employees about how they can improve their performances.

"Good service also means that we have to keep our promises," Fan says. "If an operator makes a false quote on a flight or hotel prices, we must live up to our promises and compensate for their error."

(China Daily 09/01/2008 page12)