"It's not about customer service"

...my ass. As much as my company or BT wants to pretend otherwise, users would rather speak to someone that natively speaks the same language, has a similar accent, etc. That's not to denigrate anyone... I'm sure users in India would rather work with an Indian desk than, say, Chinese, for example.

The real story here is that wage inflation in India, and wage stagnation in many industrialized countries like the US and UK mean the savings in many areas are no longer as significant as they were. Add to that, with call centers starting to go virtual (at least in areas where work from home employees have an appropriate connection - which rules out many non-industrialized countries) incremental on-shoring will be the new trend for any company that has any reasonable bottom line for quality of service.

Of course, by the end of it all I could see my company running call centers out of Somalia. They think this role is a commodity, and for many call center functions it is... just not so much with customer service IMO

training quality

I've never understood why, when they put so much effort into getting foreign call staff to understand the nation they are dealing with, it is that call centre staff can never catch on when I am hinting that they ought to beggar off and leave me alone.

Offshoring/Outsourcing

I've been trying for years to find a decent outsourcing company in India, the irony is nine times out of ten they charge more than a local company, some even charge more than I do! Those that are cheaper, invariably offer a poor service.

The idea of a cheap, efficient workforce in India (or even China) is a myth and I think that UK companies are now realising this.

As for customer service being the same the world over, rubbish! I'd love to see a study on how long a customer spends on the phone to a UK based call centre compared to an offshore one, but then again, maybe that is the idea.

translation

"BT will continue to focus on meeting our customer needs with a balanced resourcing policy."

"Because of the crappy state of the British economy, it's now actually cheaper to run call centers there than it is in India".

No need to thank me.

Low cost centres

As India propsers, the currency will do well, standards of living will rise and they will appear expensive compared to lower cost economies (I'm assuming Africa = South Africa).

National Rail Enquiries outsourced their call centres to India - but soon discovered local knowledge was required and I believe there is a mixed operation in place between the UK and India.

On the other hand, I have had fantastic support from Linksys (from Pune, India).

There is not one solution that fits all... East Europe (near shore to us in the UK) is rapidly becoming a favoured option for agile projects (due to the short flight times and lower costs).

Oh really?

And yet they sent out an email to a huge number of staff recently telling us all what a good job India is doing and how great it is....

I'm sure that Protectionism is a dirty word,

but the Government should implement some sort of subsidy so that such roles can be staffed as cost effectively in the UK as outside the UK! There are probably so many other things that just can't be done in the UK because they are just too expensive.

From the Viz letters page...

"My company have just told me they're moving my job to India.

Fantastic ! I've always wanted to work abroad, and with the wage they pay me I'll be able to live like a Maharaja !"

About time too

I am actually an ex-BT man and I'm appalled at the direction the firm has been taking of late. I have had first-hand experience of their off-shore call centre mentality when I moved house and there was a "slight" problem with line and broadband. I am certainly not racist but if the person on the other end of the phone is useless, that is a matter of fact and, believe you me, they (for there was more than one) were about as much use as an ashtray on a motorcycle. I couldn't understand them and they sure as hell couldn't understand me, together with a line that sounded so bad, I've heard better audio from the moon shots! I eventually ended up being re-directed back to English staff back in the UK.

Re: AC 'why not buy an RM.'

Because they're crap just like Dell.

I know because I use one every day at work, my home system was built by Mesh Computers, a good British company that sadly offshores its tech support.

Corporate sheep

It's pretty annoying how some of these giant companies pay their top brass so much when all they do is copy what others do.

If another company moves their call centres abroad then they all follow suit as it is seen as staying competitive.

Did they not realise that poor customer service and data security would suffer? so much for the "talent" that needs so much pay to be attracted to these management jobs.

Problem I had recently..

well, not me but my friend.. this was not an Indian call center, I'd guess it was somewhere in South America. He has a prepaid phone he was having trouble with, having to enter in codes manually to add minutes to it. The accents were not too bad, but the call quality was AWFUL! If I were to guess, they were using VOIP with an inadequate internet connection. It sounded underwater and burbly, and even worse DROPOUTS! "Please enter the following code in the phone code entry screen... 5-3-blurp-(silence). " "Can you repeat that?" Ad nauseum. He was using my cell phone, I thought I was having call quality problems -- but the last time he called (when they -- finally! -- figured out what was REALLY wrong and fixed his phone so he won't have to call in to add minutes) it was from a landline and the call still sounded just as bad!

Too late

Last bill was over 50 quid and I hadn't even made any calls.

On VOIP PAYG over cable broadband now (proper geographic number and everything). Don't think I've spent more than half that all year.

I've never come across such a combination of arrogance and incompetence than when I was with BT.

Service quality depends on the number of customers

Example corporation, turnover 2 billion...

: #customers 10... annoy any one of them at your peril.

: #customers 100,000 ... annoy any of them at your leisure.

Michael O'Leary is the unwitting frontman of all current corporate mandates - when competition rips the heart out of your profit margin, inclusive services become aggressive profit-centres. The result is a competitive lower(-ish) overall price, but a lower standard. Basically if you want an easy ride, you pay more.

In call centre terms, some 'features' that rankle are: price gouging with 087 numbers, interminable wait for a call centre operator, telephonic abyss with auto-attendant and multi-layered selection menus, hard sell of associated but unwanted optional extras...

India has done well on the back of offshoring, but service quality has certainly deteriorated re: incapability to understand nuances of English, among other issues (read others comments on that). Not enough UK customers switch suppliers because of offshoring, so it'll always be there. Question: who do you then change to who doesn't offshore?

Barclays customer NON-service

I recently spent almost 2 hours on the phone, 1st to Dehli & then Mombai when all I wanted to do was ring my local bank! It was only because I eventually got the Mombai man to transfer me to someone in the UK that I got an apponiment ! The last person I spoke to,in Sunderlans was also unable to contact my branch and sent them a fax !. When I eventually got to her the local manager was charming and obviously embarrassed at the failure of their system. It was also clear that I was but one of many ! Staff @ Barclays are not allowed to use email !