The Telephone Consultancy Service Provided by Social Support Centre United Arab Emirates - Report Example

Rashed Alketbi An Evaluation of the Telephone Consultancy Service Provided by Social Support Centre United Arab Emirates Introduction It is clear that the UAE is working to address social issues and that changes are gradually taking place. A new climate of debate and discussion is emerging (Abirafeh, p.57). Telephone consultancy services offered by UAE social service centres are a big relief for those who face social problems in UAE. This paper is written as a methodology for the intended sample survey operations which is going to conduct in June, 2010 in order to evaluate the Telephone Consultancy Service provided by social support centre in United Arab Emirates Methodology A telephonic survey is used as the main methodology or data collection method for this research. One of the important differences between UAE and other western countries like US or UK is that UAE people answer their phone calls because there are no annoying calls from commercial companies like in U.S. or UK. In US and UK people are facing the headache of annoying direct marketing calls and when they see a strange number, they will not usually attend the telephone calls. In fact American Congress passed the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) in 1991 in response to consumer concerns about the growing number of unsolicited telephone calls to their homes (Unwanted telephone marketing calls). But in UAE, there are no such worries. UAE people normally attend their telephone calls even if they don’t have any idea about the source of the incoming all. This generous attitude of UAE public will help me immensely in collecting data through telephone also. Those who fail to come in front of the curtain may definitely respond positively from behind the curtain. UAE people are more understanding community. They know very well that the telephone consultancy services are for their well being and they won’t refuse to participate in surveys because they need that service and they want it to be better because they will be the first one who will benefit from it in solving their social problems.   Respondents for this study will be from the data base of social support centre in UAE. In other words, all the respondents asked to participate in this study are clients of the centre who have social problems and using the consultancy service. I will use the most recent database in order to get idea about the current social problems in UAE. UAE social support centre has allotted a secret ID to all of their service seekers for future use. I will use this ID to confirm the identity of the respondents. It is quiet possible that some of the family members of the actual respondent may attend my call and may cheat me. In order to avoid that, I can ask the respondents to reveal their ID provided by the social service centre when they first visited the service centre. I have planned to collect responses from at least 100 people to measure the client’s opinions about the consultancy service and the ways to improve it further. All the people like to keep their privacy. It is quiet possible that persons with privacy concerns may deny the interview, but they may speak out if we conduct a telephonic survey which ensures their privacy. For example, persons from aristocratic family backgrounds may not reveal their problems publicly because of privacy concerns whereas they may reveal it probably in a telephonic survey or a questionnaire. Thus the telephonic survey will help me in reaching to more specific communities of the society and to study their problems more deeply. It is difficult to anticipate that people behave same way always. A person who was reluctant to attend a phone call for conducting a survey like this in the morning may ready for it in the evening. In the morning that person might have other busy schedules whereas in the evening he might be free. So timing of the telephone call is so important in getting proper response from the subjects. I have planned to start my survey in June 2010 and I will use the social support centre data base to get the information and the numbers of the clients who have used our Telephone consultancy Service before 6 months. This will enable me to access the more recent data and the current social problems existing in United Arab Emirates. There are people who may hesitate a bit to answer the survey questions initially; some people may answer readily even at the first call whereas some others may need two or three calls for getting proper response. A third segment of people may not respond positively even if we tried immensely. So I have a plan to make a list of 200 people to whom, I should call and conduct the survey. I have decided to use the evening time for conducting the survey as the people might be free in the evening time. I have decided to analyze the responses of the respondents in three different manners; I will mark the names of the people who responded positively in green color; those who are little hesitant in answering my questions would be market orange color in order to all him again later; I will mark red color for those who adamantly say No to take part in the survey. Thus I can analyze the responses of the subjects. I can include more names if the red marks are too big till I get green signal of at least 100 to 150 people. Thus I would be able to conduct the survey among at least 100 people. It is impossible to get correct picture about a social problem if the questions used in the survey are merely a Yes or No questions. I will formulate questions for the survey not based on Yes or No answers but based on answers like strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, strongly agree like that. Such answers will give more objectivity to the answers. It is a fact that there are people who have opinions in between the positive and negative sides. The answers like Yes or No will account only the two aspects of a problem; the positive or the negative. But answers like strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, strongly agree will account for all the dimensions of a problem. It is quiet possible that some people may take the survey as a joke and may give misleading or false answers. Moreover, some people may have some kind of bias and prejudices about social problems and may not give their correct opinions. But such redundancy might be negligible considering the size of the survey respondents. I will make use of the positive and constructive responses of 100 to 150 respondents in studying the social problem. It is impossible to get accurate data about the people’s views about the operations of telephone consultancy services through a telephone survey alone. I have planned to interview at least some of the respondents directly, if they allow me to do so. Such direct interviews will give me more comprehensive ideas about their problems and the effectiveness of UAE social support centre in giving proper counselling to the service seekers. It is impossible to eradicate the social problems through telephonic advices alone. It is important to make the public aware of the cause and consequences of the social problems and the education of the public on above matters may serve better. Works Cited 1. Abirafeh, Lina. “Dubai: a City of Hope?”. 14 April 2010. 2. “Unwanted Telephone Marketing Calls”. 14 April 2010. Survey Questions This survey is conducted by the Telephone Consultancy Service in United Arab Emirates. This survey is intended for those who face some kind of social problems. The participation of this survey is voluntary and the identity and privacy of the respondents would be kept as a secret. The answers of this survey will be used to study the social problems in UAE and will not be transferred to any other organization or people. Thank you in advance for your cooperation and response to this survey. 1. Stress in my life sometimes seems to be overwhelming. A. Strongly Disagree B. Disagree C. Neutral D. Agree E. Strongly Agree 2. I feel that I can solve my problems with the help of my family and friends and do not need the assistance of telephone consultancy service. A. Strongly Disagree B. Disagree C. Neutral D. Agree E. Strongly Agree 3. I believe that telephone consultancy service could prevent the spreading of crime A. Strongly Disagree B. Disagree C. Neutral D. Agree E. Strongly Agree 4. I think telephone consultancy services in UAE adequately address social problems in UAE. A. Strongly Disagree B. Disagree C. Neutral D. Agree E. Strongly Agree 5. I have faith in the abilities of the individuals of the call centre in solving my problems. A. Strongly Disagree B. Disagree C. Neutral D. Agree E. Strongly Agree 6. I believe that the call centre can provide me assistance 24 hours/day and 7 days/week A. Strongly Disagree B. Disagree C. Neutral D. Agree E. Strongly Agree 7. I have earlier called a telephone call centre with a problem and their services were great A. Strongly Disagree B. Disagree C. Neutral D. Agree E. Strongly Agree 8. I have earlier called a telephone call centre with a problem and their services were poor A. Strongly Disagree B. Disagree C. Neutral D. Agree E. Strongly Agree 9. The confidentiality of a call centre is appealing to me. A. Strongly Disagree B. Disagree C. Neutral D. Agree E. Strongly Agree 10. I would suggest call centre assistance to a friend with a problem. A. Strongly Disagree B. Disagree C. Neutral D. Agree E. Strongly Agree 11. Call centres are good for the UAE in solving social problems A. Strongly Disagree B. Disagree C. Neutral D. Agree E. Strongly Agree 12. Telephone consultancy services in UAE have the scope for improvement A. Strongly Disagree B. Disagree C. Neutral D. Agree E. Strongly Agree Read More