By silicon.com, 11 March 2004 17:30
Aside from the job loss issue, one of the main arguments used by those opposed to the offshoring of call centres to places like India is that the customer service suffers.
The unions were up in arms when it was revealed that the National Rail enquiries line was being moved from the UK to India, claiming that Indian operators didn't even know where half of the places were. Here at silicon.com we've also heard of many bad experiences from readers dealing with Indian call centre staff from other online companies.
But it's a cheap shot and, when looked at in the wider context of call centres, the argument is full of holes. Or let's put it this way – how many people have had bad call centre experiences dealing with UK-based call centre staff?
Let's be honest, most of us have spent years berating the service from our utilities and banking call centre staff here in the UK. The point is that service can be bad wherever the call centre is based, as highlighted at an offshore outsourcing debate earlier this week. Solving the problem is down to training and good business processes.
Here at silicon.com over the coming weeks we will be delving deeper into the issues around all forms of offshore outsourcing, talking to the key industry players, the unions and the end users, while trying to dispel the myths and give an accurate insight into what is really happening and what the benefits – and pitfalls - are.
Comments
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1. Carl Maycock
Good comment. If you believe in the principals of globalization then you have to accept more equality between neighboring economies. We like to think that the economies of countries such as India will grow and the people prosper, just not at out expense. The quality of call centers in England has never been good so why not move them to India ? At least the Indian economy will benefit and companies will benefit from reduced costs, which in turn benefit us. If we were offering an excellent service then quality would figure in the argument but generally we don't. Anybody who's had to wait 1-2 hours for a mobile phone service operator will be aware of this!
2. Kathy
Concerning:
"Let's be honest, most of us have spent years berating the service from our utilities and banking call centre staff here in the UK. The point is that service can be bad wherever the call centre is based"
Well - In India you are paying an equivalent of $100,000 a year with their cost of living. Domestic salaries have been at best $20,000
i.e. I would expect to buy good service
3. anonymous
So... silicon.com is on the bosses side.
Let's throw all the techies out of work and put our future in the middle of a war zone just so any savings (inevitably disappointing) can be used to ramp up the Director's bonuses to an even more obscene level.
And you wonder why the cream of the next generation want to become media stars, doctors, dentists or work in the public sector...
The bosses are shooting themselves in the foot here and are too greedy to see it. Silicon.com seems to be too concerned about losing their advertising to state the truth.
I fear the anger of computer graduates leaving college with £20,000 debts only to find out that the only jobs available are £12,000 customer services jobs...
Shame on you.
4. M. Prabhakar Rao
During the process of Globalization, due to arbitrage factor - on account of the latest Tech-Convergence, certain sectors of a nation becomes incompetitive, hence go out of business. Thus the employees of those sectors become unemployed. This phenomenon is not unique only to Americans. This has happened in every country - including India - that has started globalization. Once the stabilization process is complete all economies will be happy sticking to their core-sectors of economic activity allowing others to attend to those sectors where they are efficient.
However, the ruckus that's being created about the job-exports by certain vested interests in US is called "Manufactured Outrage", whereas we here in India call it "Bubbledom".
5. anonymous
I have had a couple of reasonably good off shore call centre experiences and yes some of the British call centre experiences have not been so great. At least with the UK based call centre you have half a chance of relating the situation to the person on the other end. On the other hand some of the callers from India appear to have a script to read and anything beyond that causes great problems for them.
Then there are the telesales callers that you cannot hear because the line is so bad yet they call you at all hours of the day and night. This is the area that really gets my blood pressure going.
Training may solve the Call Centre problems but what are we to do about these creepy telesales callers.
6. anonymous
Globalisation shmobilisation .... Its all about finding somewhere cheaper. 10 years ago we moved IT work to Ireland, then they got expensive and we moved it to Spain, now the next level of economy comes along that according to one of my customers 'can screw up 5 times and still be cheaper'. Soon enoungh the costs of best shoring to India will rise and another 'best' shore will step into the forefront ... and so the cycle will continue.
The challenge comes with quality assurance and ensuring no discontinuity between the requirements and what gets delivered ... otherwise there may well be 5...er...iterations!
7. anonymous
But at least with the bad service the person you talked to at least has conversational English
The nation of India has one up on me, like other countrys the citizens can speak 2 languages (probably more with the diversity in the country) but in all my dealings with the Indian operators I have to dumb down what and how I say things as the operator is always asking me to repeat things or me not understanding them.
8. Vijay
Viability of Outsourcing decision on Call centers depends on Economic, technical & emotional (now political) factors. All said and done, businesses have faced outsourcing for centuries and societies have adjusted to that fact. If a company shifts from internal make process to a subcontractor based for cist reduction has been acceptable. Only change here is that now outsourcing has added complexity of offshoring which is actually a higher responsibility for the delivery system.There will be defects in the process. like anywhere else but how well you manage to minimise defects is what will decide the sustainence of this model.
It is proven that 1$ spent on outsourcing creates a benefit 1.42$ in the country from where job is outsourced. The receiving country gains anly by 0.33$.
9. Steven Gordon-Saker
OK, so call centre experiences can be bad from those based in the UK, however my personal experience has shown that customer service is far worse with the offshore based call centres.
I have had major issues both with my insurance company and bank. I have now moved to providers that do not use offshore services. Two reasons for this are better customer services and supporting UK industry.
10. anonymous
Its all about money! reducing cost and increasing margins. For a organization (for that sake shareholders) nothing is more important than making money out of business. As long as organizations are getting benifits of reduced cost and better services, I don't see any end to outsourcing. For outsourcing to end it has to fail on either of the fronts.