Section 25 in Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services Standards of Quality of Service and Consumer Protection (Addressable Systems) Regulations, 2017
25. Customer care centre.
(1)Every distributor of television channels shall, before providing broadcasting services related to television to its subscribers, establish a customer care centre, for addressing their service requests and redressal of complaints and the distributor shall ensure that such centre:(a)has a toll free "customer care number" having sufficient number of lines or connections and human resources to efficiently service the subscriber base of the distributor,(b)is accessible, at least, between 08:00 hrs and 22:00 hrs on all days of the week,(c)provides the services in the regional language of the service area in addition to Hindi and English,(d)has an Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) with provision for complaint registration and(e)has a web based complaint management system.(2)It shall be permissible for the distributor of television channels to engage any agency for establishing and operating "customer care centre" as referred to in sub-regulation (1):Provided that the responsibility for compliance of the provisions of these regulations shall rest with the distributor.(3)Every distributor of television channels shall ensure that the Interactive Voice Response System is operated in the following manner,-(a)the first level of the Interactive Voice Response System provides for language selection;(b)the second level of the Interactive Voice Response System provides for options relating to the broad categories of complaints and service requests;(c)the third level of the Interactive Voice Response System provides for a sub-menu under service and complaint requests, separately;Provided that the sub-menu in the third level shall also contain an option enabling the customer to speak to a customer care executive.(4)Every distributor of television channels shall ensure that:(i)response time for calls made on toll free "customer care number" by the subscriber, answered voice to voice, meets the following performance criteria-(a)Eighty percent of calls to be answered (voice to voice) by a customer care executive (other than by electronic means) within sixty seconds;(b)Ninety per cent of calls to be answered (voice to voice) by a customer care executive (other than by electronic means) within ninety seconds.(ii)response time to the subscriber for calls made on "customer care number" by the subscriber, answered electronically meets the following performance criteria;(a)Eighty percent of calls to be answered within twenty seconds electronically;(b)Ninety percent of calls to be answered within forty seconds electronically;Explanation. - For the purpose of calculating percentage of calls as referred to in sub-regulation (4), the total number of calls made during a month shall be taken into account.(5)The distributor of television channels or its linked local cable operator, as the case may be, shall publicise the toll free number and the address of the web based complaint management system to its subscribers through customer care programming service and website:Provided that, in addition to the above, it shall be permissible for the distributor of television channels to use other means of publicity such as Short Message Service (SMS), television scrolls, and printing the information on the bills and receipts.
