XN000022-1997-04-19 — Page 17

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Queuing system to improve hotline service

The Labour Department has recently introduced a queuing system for its General Enquiry Telephone Service (GETS) to further improve the service for the public.

The service provides a 24-hour hotline 2717 1771 for general enquiries on various topics of labour legislation and work of the Labour Department through an interactive voice processing system.

Members of the public can obtain relevant information from a selection of pre- recorded messages or by fax transmission. This computerised answering system is supplemented by staff operators during office hours.

"The newly introduced queuing system enables six callers to queue for the operator service when all operators are occupied," Senior Labour Officer (Labour Inspection), Mr Chan Kwok-kuen, said today (Saturday).

A preliminary survey on the new system was conducted in early April. The results showed that 69 per cent of the callers in the queue could be connected to operators within three minutes and 96 per cent within six minutes.

"A total of 94 per cent of the callers surveyed are in favour of the queuing system while 80 per cent of them are satisfied with this new facility," Mr Chan said.

The GETS is a highly popular service. More than 1.7 million enquiries were handled in 1996. In some busy hours, some callers may need to wait longer in the

queue.

If the maximum waiting time of 10 minutes is exceeded, callers will be asked to call later.

Mr Chan encouraged the public to call between noon and 3 pm on Mondays to Fridays when the operators were less busy.

"Operator service is also available during lunch hours on these days," he added.