The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) marked the international World Consumer Rights Day today by launching its official Twitter account - @CRAqatar - in an initiative to provide an additional communications channel for consumers to address their pending grievances against service providers.
CRA also announced plans to conduct regular audits about the status of customer complaints being handled, and to launch a brand new satisfaction survey for business consumers. Quality of Service has always been a key area of focus for CRA, and an industry consultation is slated to be launched in the coming few days to ensure that the stakeholders are engaged to make this document more comprehensive and forward-looking.
While registering complaints or concerns about service providers, consumers will now be able to tweet directly to CRA’s Consumer Affairs Department. This will enhance the current channels which include the 24/7 telecom hotline - 103, email, fax, website, and CRA’s mobile app – Arsel.
“As we have seen with the consistent usage of Arsel, social media seems to be the preferred communication channel for consumers. By creating a dedicated Twitter account, consumers will hopefully find it even more convenient to contact us to help resolve their pending complaints,” said Mrs. Amel Salem Al-Hanawi, Consumer Affairs Manager.
“Consumer protection is not just an annual event. For us, it is at the heart of everything that we do and every day is dedicated to the consumers. We are compiling the results of the recent consumer satisfaction survey and will be sharing the results in the next few weeks. We are grateful to all of you who helped us with the required feedback. In fact, soon we will launch a satisfaction survey targeted at the business consumers. Together, the findings of these two surveys will help us adjust our strategies accordingly,” she added.
Investigating unresolved complaints against service providers is a key consumer protection initiative by the Consumer Affairs department. On average, the Complaints Section receives about 100 complaints every month against both service providers. Ranging from disconnections, billing, network coverage and other issues, each complaint is investigated and a mutually acceptable resolution is obtained, working with the concerned service provider. The Consumer Affairs department now plans to share the results of the unresolved complaints with the public.
“Service providers are usually cooperative in resolving pending complaints however, to make the process transparent to the rest of the telecom consumers and industry stakeholders, we plan to publish the trends of complaints received on the CRA website annually,” said Al-Hanawi, “This will, we expect, provide an additional and much needed momentum for all of us to show this matter the importance that CRA places on it.”
The CRA booth at Landmark Mall featured several awareness-raising activities for consumers, and activities for the kids. The young visitors to the booth were enthralled by the star attraction – an 8-foot robot – while their parents were eagerly discussing their concerns – and even compliments – related to their service providers.
The team also conducted several awareness sessions and brief workshops at the booth to make consumers more aware about their rights & obligations, as well as to provide tips on interesting topics such as how to reduce roaming charges.
Consumer Affairs is now finalizing new updates to Arsel, launched during the World Consumer Rights Day last year, to make the app more user-friendly and provide a new experience to the users. Arsel will soon have its own website too.