Smart Link and McDonald’s Arabia announce strategic partnership

Press release

Published December 13th, 2011 - 11:36 GMT

Smart Link Contact Centers, a member of Al Khaleej Training and Education Group, today announced the launch of McDonalds Arabia’s new McDelivery Service call center and honoured top performing McDelivery call center customer service representatives. H.H Prince Mishal Bin Khaled Al Saud, President of Riyadh International Catering Corporation (RICC), McDonald’s franchise rights owner and operator in central, eastern, and northern provinces of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia inaugurated the new McDelivery call center along with Eng. Safwan Al Khatib, the Managing Director of Smart Link.

According to the partnership, Smart Link will exclusively operate and manage all of RICC’s McDelivery call center services, covering all RICC McDonald’s branches in respective provinces in KSA. This decision was taken following a highly successful operational phase, which covered RICC McDonald’s branches in KSA eastern province. During the event, the senior management of RICC and Smart Link held discussions on operational achievements and future goals of the McDelivery call center.

Built, operated and fully managed by Smart Link, the new facility, which was inaugurated by H.H Prince Mishal bin Khaled Al Saud, includes multi-channel contact center system supported by powerful automatic call distribution, smart queuing, monitoring, performance reporting and CRM applications. These tools, in addition to Smart Link’s extensive hands on experience and performance standards, will enable the company to operate such projects effectively providing unprecedented levels of service quality. This will be further empowered by the company’s distinctive professionally trained and highly skilled manpower.

His Highness also honoured top performing McDelivery customer service representatives and expressed his great pride of exceptional performance and service level presented to McDonald’s customers Kingdom-wide. H.H Prince Mishal bin Khaled Al Saud encouraged staff members to constantly develop and improve performance through dedication and commitment to self-empowerment of each member of the call center team, career wise and on a personal level.

The fruitful collaboration efforts and strategic partnership between RICC and Smart Link, were also commended by H.H Prince Mishal bin Khaled Al Saud. He also referred to the outstanding results of the first operation phase, besides the company’s in-depth experience and rigorous quest to excellence, factors on which, RICC decided to partner with Smart Link exclusively.

Eng. Safwan Al Khatib expressed his pleasure on this partnership and was proud of the RICC’s confidence in Smart Link’s capabilities and operational advancement. He confirmed Smart Link’s commitment to constantly improve performance by adhering to world class quality standards and best practice in order to maintain exceptional relationship between McDonald’s Arabia and its customers, which will reflect positively and directly on the RICC and Smart Link partnership.

Background Information

Smart Link

Our vision is to be the leaders in providing World-class Service Quality, to become the choice of all who Request the best and accept no less than the Best, to lead the quest of raising awareness towards High Quality Customer Care and service, showing both clients and their customers that Great Customer Service is in fact the essence of Investment in its purest form.

Company Profile

McDonald’s

In 1917, 15-year-old Ray Kroc lied about his age to join the Red Cross as an ambulance driver, but the war ended before he completed his training. He then worked as a piano player, a paper cup salesman and a Multimixer salesman.

In 1954, he visited a restaurant in San Bernardino, California that had purchased several Multimixers. There he found a small but successful restaurant run by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald, and was stunned by the effectiveness of their operation. They produced a limited menu, concentrating on just a few items – burgers, fries and beverages – which allowed them to focus on quality and quick service.

They were looking for a new franchising agent and Kroc saw an opportunity. In 1955, he founded McDonald’s System, Inc., a predecessor of the McDonald’s Corporation, and six years later bought the exclusive rights to the McDonald’s name and operating system. By 1958, McDonald’s had sold its 100 millionth hamburger