'Call centre quality in India low'

Economic Times of India ^ | January 2, 2003

[sarcasm]

LONDON: There is a growing sense of ennui among British customers dealing with Indian call centre workers over poor diction, according to a recent survey.

The quality of Indian call centre workers is said to be declining rapidly as poorly qualified and trained staff is being deployed to meet demand from Western companies, says the survey

British customers have reported that staff at Indian call centres , despite "cultural training", do not always appreciate the nuances of life in British society, and have also experienced difficulty in understanding some staff.

The survey also reveals that more and more customers are upset at being forced to talk to operators and call-centre staff half way round the world.

The survey said that nearly 60 per cent of the public said they did not want call centres to be based abroad.

Even more strikingly, nine out of 10 customers of financial institutions said they would consider changing companies if their organisation moved calls offshore.

A spokeswoman for Transversal, which produces technology for call centres, said: "In some Indian call centres we are seeing attrition rates in the region of 30 per cent -- similar rates to those in the UK, but they seem to be hitting those attrition rates earlier on in their development."

Mike Allen, of call-centre research specialist Mitial, said: "The customer attitude to this is absolutely clear - they don't want it to happen - and it is being ignored."

The Evening Standard reported that nearly 160,000 Indians work in call centres and Deloitte expects another two million jobs will be created in the subcontinent within five years.

Allen said: "We have seen the recruitment of the really high quality Asian staff tailing off. They are now recruiting poorer quality applicants - which means they will offer a poorer service.

"Our research indicates that there definitely is a diction problem with Indian call centre staff."

[sarcasm]

ping

[Fledermaus]

It's not the fault of India...no one can understand a dang thing a Brit is saying! ;-)

[Iris7]

"Our research indicates that there definitely is a diction problem with Indian call centre staff."

Another profound feat of intellect, on the lines of "Our research indicates so far that the sun rises in the east."

[vikingchick]

I recall a movie I saw about Ghandi (sp?) where he put all the working class British weavers out of work by boycotting them because India was so darn oppressed.

Hey, baby, it's payback time. Boycott!

[travelinman_53]

It’s time we told companies how we feel, see my letter to AMEX below.


August 16, 2003


American Express
777 American Express Way
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33337
Attn: Barry Arnold

RE: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Dear Mr. Arnold:

The purpose of the letter is my request to cancel my American Express card, referenced above. Since obtaining the card, I have had nothing but trouble when trying to use it out of the country. On any given day, sometimes the card was accepted, sometimes it was not. Calls to your customer service department were simply a waste of time; I’ve yet to speak to a native English speaker. In fact, when I called today to get the address, I was told that American Express does NOT have a street address.

Please cancel the account and notify all credit reporting agencies that the account was cancelled at the customer’s request.

You call yourself American Express. I am an American. I support the US. You call yourself American Express, but the only people that ever answer the phone are in some damned call center in Mumbai. If I wanted to do business with Indian Express, I would.

Sincerely,


XXXXXXXXXXXX

[JosephW]

You have to remember the qualified ones will get H1 visas and the unqualified ones remain. The really lucky ones will be saying, "Would you like a Slushy with you Hot Dog Mr. Simpson"

[sarcasm]

Last year I spent over a half hour trying to get an AT&T bill corrected. The "customer service" representative couldn't speak comprehensible English. I no longer use AT&T.

[HAL9000]

mark for later

[CatoRenasci]

I had better luck with AT&T, but Dell was nearly impossible. The Indian call center was truly a Kafkaeque blend of impossible to understand "english" and bureaucratic mindlessness. I've had the same problem with Indians at the bank I'm no longer using: a mindless adherence to rules either for their own sake or for the power they permit the flunkey to wield, and an aquaintance with the English language that may have been real and may have been good, but sure wasn't real good.

[Cronos]

where he put all the working class British weavers out of work by boycotting them because India was so darn oppressed

Well, that was payback too, as the Brits had banned Indian textiles while givign their own blokes free hand to sell in India, kind of like the oppressive taxes that lead to our own glorious revolution.

[JustAnAmerican]

Cancelled mine about 8 months ago. In fact I wrote them a letter (Scathing I might add), and enclosed my cross-shredded AMX card. Within a week we also removed all AMX machines and now refuse to even except AMX cards. Why, some might ask, did we/I do that?

In all the calls we made to get problems corrected, we never once had an customer support rep. that spoke good english. Staying online for 30+ minutes to get a problem fixed only to find out the problem had in fact been made worse or not fixed at all, was enough. If they can't hire Americans then they don't need this Americans business. Indianexpress should be their new name.

And I won't even bother going into detail about Dell, lets just say the average customer has to spend a minimum of 1-3 hours online for any problem.

[gitmo]

Dell is moving their support back to the states, for that very reason.

[Non-Sequitur]

Dell is moving their support back to the states, for that very reason.

But only for dealing with business customers. Retail customers will still be sent to India. When it comes to service the big customers get the better quality while the rest of us get what we get.

[jimtorr]

My company (a Fortune 100 corporation) refuses to deal with Dell directly, We use CSC for computer support. CSC has its own problems, but at least the call center is in USA.

Corparate HQ recently bought Veridian (over $1 billion cash), and we're hoping to move customer support to the former Veridian.

[Desdemona]

In my job, I get calls from Indian call centers all the time. It is EXTREMELY frustrating. Just the delay makes it a problem. They've been trained to be aggressive, too. When at work, you don't always have an answer, the person they need to speak with is at lunch, whatever.

I honestly think the only way to remedy this is massive consumer backlash.

[Captain Rhino]

I hate to be the odd man out on this string but I had good service from Microsoft and Norton call support centers in India when a power problem corrupted some start up files in my computer. They were knowledgeable, patient, and understandable. Above all, during the two hours or so it took to wrangle the system back into shape, they conveyed the sense that they were going to work with me in a step-by-step manner until the problem was thoroughly understood and resolved to my satisfaction. (And it was.)

Yes, the English is accented but not to the point of incomprehension.

[varon]

and have also experienced difficulty in understanding some staff.

I know the feeling. Whenever I have to call the AAA road service call center located in DeToilet, I have to deal with Ebonic speakers.........

[j_tull]

I work at CSC supporting a large builder of airplane engines. Our internal trouble calls are routed to Malaysia.

[Kewlhand`tek]

ooooo ennui, i had to break out dictionary.com out on that one