Posted on 12/07/2009 2:47:15 AM PST by Cronos
Mumbai: Two weeks ago, AGL Resources Inc., an Atlanta, US-based natural gas distribution company, decided to shift its call centre operations from India to the US. The centre was operated by India’s third largest information technology (IT) services company, Wipro Ltd.
Along with similar instances of Delta Airlines Inc., United Airlines Inc. and Chrysler Group Llc reported earlier in the year, this could raise a flag for Indian business process outsourcing (BPO) firms which earned nearly $15 billion (Rs69,450 crore today) from such back-office work in the year to March
AGL said that were no consumer satisfaction issues. “Wipro employees have provided excellent service to our customers, but we believe our company’s best long-term strategy for the future is to provide jobs here.”
Interestingly, industry body Nasscom’s report, Perspectives 2020, identifies the US Midwest, which includes states such as Michigan, as a viable alternative to Indian companies as it offers a “low-cost, high-quality talent pool”.
This, according to Nasscom, is particularly true for “interaction-intensive” and “culturally sensitive” services, both of which apply to call centre operations.
(Excerpt) Read more at livemint.com ...
“No consumer satisfaction issues” do they expect us to believe that happy face sh*t?
More likely, it is response to the Jobs agenda pushed by our Obamao! This has a backroom politics odor to it!
Exactly.....
Glad to hear it. I hate getting India on the line when I call a call center. Often they are barely understandable and even if they are you know they haven’t a real clue about what you are talking about.
I have had mixed experiences with call centers, be they foreign or American. That being said, it is less work on my part to describe the problem to an American and my confidence level is typically higher. I also respect the Company a bit because they are willing to pay extra to put their customers at ease.
Ha, exactly. When I’m talking to an Indian call center about a problem, it’s obvious they’re just going through a book and a checklist. It doesn’t take much for a problem to get “escalated” to the next level, which means two or three transfers, probably getting disconnected, and me having to call back and repeat the whole process.
The real issue with overseas call centers is the total lack of understanding of our culture. Language skills can be improved, but it is difficult to teach our culture.
I sold a telephone system. A complete system with phones, pbx, and all. The pbx was defective. When I called the manufacturer’s technical support and explained that my client was not happy the person on the other end could not understand that. They kept saying “well if the pbx is defective just tell the customer that” - could not get it through to them that the client blames ME for their defective piece of crap.
Similarly I had set up an auto payment thing on a credit card. I know I did because I faxed my signature. That went fine for months until I bought something else and the “autopay” didn’t meet the minimum payment. Again I was dealing with India - and the person could not get it through their head that I was demanding that their terms be met (the terms were that they would automatically pay at least the minimum payment). The difference was only $2 - but they charged my a $35 late fee - had to eventually insist on an american who understood, reversed the late fees and all. That was after about an hour on the phone.
So it’s not so much language as it is culture.
I remember reading that it was still cheeper to have a foreign call center take multiple calls on the same issue than have ONE us based call center solve the problem with one call.
Of course they never figured in the customer agrivation causing a loss of customers.
Oh darn, I’ll miss talking to Kevin and Missy with the unintelligble accents and complete inability to solve any of the problems I had.
The biggest problem I have found with Indian call centers is the inflection and slang of American english. It makes for a frustrating conversation sometimes.
Obamao! This has a backroom politics odor to it!
GREAT! Now we will be switching from “too proper” English from India to ebonics. This should really help with Tech Service! Shonuf mofo, yo be wantin whut?
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