By silicon.com, 21 June 2004 16:15
NEWS An article published on silicon.com last week entitled 'UK call centres are rubbish: Official' has sparked angry debate among readers.
Many have leaped to defend the UK call centre industry against the sweeping statement, while others have dived into the ensuing ruck to land a few blows of their own. Here are a selection of the comments we've received.
"I'm sick of people bashing UK call centres. Indian call centres are frequently no better than UK call centres and often worse. It's always much easier to criticise than to praise, but what an insult this article is to all those call centres in the UK who work hard and provide great service and are justifiably proud of their record in customer satisfaction." Melanie Denyer
"As a person who has worked in two major call centres, I feel I must point out just how dismal it actually is. It's a hard, stressful job and one in which you receive little reward or incentive and next to no investment as an employee. The customers are often angry and frustrated, so that you end up taking a lot of abuse, some of it very distressing, from the moment you arrive to the moment you leave. Who the hell wants to take that kind of shit for £4.00 an hour?
"I have no doubt that Call Centres would drastically improve with proper investment in staff, providing them with decent conditions and a clear infrastructure to work within. If they provided a good working environment with fair pay, call centres may actually be able to hold onto skilled, enthusiastic people who have a sense of pride in their work because they are respected as the essential core of their organisation, rather than being treated like battery hens." Faye
"In my experience almost all call centres are pretty poor. Simply because they are goaled on only three things:
1 - Answering mainstream, often-asked questions and problems. Heaven help you if you have an unusual question or problem.
2 - The call agents themselves are goaled and rewarded on how many calls they can close per day - thus, it is in their interest to fob you off with a half-answer.
3 - Being "nice" to you to the exclusion of almost everything else (including answering your question)."Anonymous
"Working in a call centre whose jobs have just gone to India - I object to how this article has tarred all call centre staff with the same brush.
I have been within the same call centre for close on four years take issue with the comments regarding it not being a long-term option. The standard of my customer service has always been as high as I can possibly make it under the constraints given out not only by the company I work for but also by the customer and what they are prepared to do to help me help them. "Anonymous
"My experience has been that the quality of service offshore is worse." Andrew Rice
"This is symptomatic of any call centre - not just UK." Mike Spragg
Have your say on this matter by posting a reader comment below.
Comments
There are 40 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
the problem is symptomatic of underinvestment in people vs profit points greed - an all too common practice in todays consumer driven society....
2. Justin Wanstall
English call centres might not be brilliant but at least they understand what you're asking. I recently bought a PC from Dell via their website. Their call centre is in India and when I spoke to someone about a query they didn't understand what I meant. It was hard to get a satisfactory answer, I spoke to about 4 different indian people before I managed to get diverted to an Irish member of staff from their finance dept who I had to beg for help!!
3. Robert Evans
I usually find UK call centre staff helpful and charming.
But it's annoying to have to hang on because they haven't got enough staff. It doesn't help when I keep getting a recorded message telling me how important my call is to them.
4. Linette Smith
I think that UK call centres are going one of two ways. They either go for the 'battery hen' approach ond offer a cheap, often unsatisfactory standard of service with little investment on in the staff or they focus on quality service and quality staff investment.
The difficulty for businesses offering contact centre services is that the client generally wants the work done as cheap and quickly as possible.
The only way to improve things is to educate companies to realise how important investment in customer service is and that sometimes the cheapest option is not the best in the long run.
Only then will standards improve and that is what the public is demanding.
5. John Wilson
Bad call centres in the UK often reflect the mentality of the parent company. If the company doesn't care about you as a customer, then their call centre will be geared to treating you as a nuisance. However, on the whole I have found most UK call centre staff to be helpful and friendly. I believe if you remember that the operator at the other end is human and show them a little bit of basic respect, you are far more likely to get the help you desire. Far too many people just want to scream down the phone line, before the poor person at the other end even has a chance to see if they can help.
Personally my experience of offshore call centres has been dire to date. Despite all the training we hear about them having to understand English culture, etc., it all too often becomes obvious very quickly that it is all an illusion and they are orientated toward heavily procedurised "conveyor belt" call handling.
Whereas with UK staff it is often possible to discuss and explain your issue with the operator, I have often found that with staff based in India you are restricted to answering the questions in their procedure and no deviation is allowed. In fact on one occasion, the Indian gentleman I spoke to even broke with his own procedure to apologise and explain that he wasn't allowed to provide the help that he would have liked to!!
6. Peter Scargill
Not too long ago, call centres were hailed as a solution to unemployment in the Northeast. Anyone with half a brain realised that this would only ever be a short-term answer until the companies figured out how to make use of cheaper labour from overseas where they don't have things like the minimum wage and other employment issues to worry about. We should be concentrating on educating our people so they can get jobs much further up the food chain.
7. anonymous
I think it is down to the companys training and reward type schemes. Yet most have niether. I am sure that most of us would rather talk to someone who at least know's what company they work for, has no 5 second delay in communication and who we can understand.....
Company's are to interested in selling the product and then not providing the proper after-care the consumer deserves. It's all about the profit!
Suprisingly...
8. anonymous
Think about how many people are typically employed in call centers. Then remember that this government have hiked National insurance - just think how much more it costs a company to employ that many people. It's no wonder that companies are looking to cut running costs. The call center industry like the software development industry has been dealt the mortal blow by this government.
9. Simon
I'm a huge fan of everything online and that means i end up calling many different call centres when there are problems. I have to praise my bank in particular, they dont have any high street branches are are purely Internet and phone based 24x7x365. They are superb and always do exactly what they say they will do, they are never in a rush to get rid of you and are always pleasant. They are currently UK based but may be under threat of being sent overseas.
On the contrary i do deal with several call centres that are based outside of UK and on the whole they are pretty dire. If you manage to get past the language barrier you are always left feeling like you've been palmed off. The very fact they are based overseas removes confidience in the company they represent and even the ability of the operators to actually do anything for you.
I have and will continue to change company as they move their operations overseas. I believe we should support British 100% even if it means paying a litle bit more.
10. Steve
Tarring with the same brush works both ways.
My customer experience with Capital One's overseas call centre was appalling on all four occasions I rang. Such was my disappointment and annoyance with their attitude that I've now pulled the plug on all my business with that company.
Suppliers should remember that "value for money" is as much about customer service as it is about price.
11. Kev Hill
I would much rather get through to somebody whose first language is the same as mine, as then at least they would understand what I'm trying to tell them. The problem with offshore call centres is that if the problem isnt on the script in front of them, then they generally dont have a clue what to do/say.
12. Gupta
You people (the British) have taken so much trouble to rule us for 200 long years & teach us English. Now it's from gratitude that we are compelled to payback.
13. anonymous
I remember reading an article about a guy who took over running a company. He looked at salaries and noticed that customer service personnel were payed less than anyone else in the company, had high staff turnover and the most sickness. He asked why some of the most important members of staff (i.e. people who were the public face of the company) were paid the least and bumped their salary levels up quite a bit. The Customer Service Department then went to become one of the most productive in the company.
The problem with Call Centres seems to be that most Management see them as cost centres, not customer retention departments. Any customer you retain due to sucessfully fulfilling customer service requirements means more turnover and (hopefully) higher profit. If your staff are happy, then this is sensed by the customer, who is more likely to continue using your products and services.
14. Neil Postlethwaite
All call centres are rubbish as per
recent BBC Brassed off Britain.
1/ No one knows anything about you
2/ No details of previous calls or
problem history
3/ No-one has any authority to do anything
4/ No-one ever calls back, esp. supervisors and people you have previously spoken to
5/ No response to e-mails
6/ No commitment to dates, for resolution or even for the issue to be looked at
7/ Systems that do not talk to each other
8/ No dates for stock availability
9/ Only systems that seem to work properly are the ones that take your money.
etc.....
15. Alex Maaliw
Please look at the other side of the equation. Sometimes callers may have not fully understood product documentation or may not have the ability to follow the steps in the software or hardware to make it operational. Probably it will help if callers have a basic understanding of the product or software and not to try to learn everything from scratch via the call center.
16. anonymous
As someone who has used call centres, I find that most are badly organised and run. Firstly they need to reduce the amount of automation of menu options, Secondly to advise callers of where they are in the queue, so that they can decide whether they continue to wait to talk to a human being and finally have the call centre staff competenlty trained in all aspects of the business.
P.S IMHO the 192 replacements are total rubbish and the sooner the foreign based ones close, the better.
17. anonymous
From my experience of a foreign call centre for a well-known department store who recently introduced their new credit card, I have found their weekend service exceptionally poor.
I asked for an additional card on my account with a different name and it took them finally three times to get the name right, despite me spelling it out on the phone and asking them to confirm the spelling after I had done so.
In all three times, they never repeated my spelling to confirm that details were correct.
I have also had experience of a call centre for a big UK clearing bank- who has recently 'outsourced' their services offshore and I have had no problems in this scenario, and my requests were dealt with promptly.
18. Jonathan McCormack
I've found regional accents really bugger things up when speaking to Indian Call centers. They seem to be taught the Queen's English, and they're very good at it. However, once someone with a thick Irish or Scottish accent comes on the phone, the poor devils havn't a bloody clue what you're saying.
Works both ways though, have you English ever phoned Sky's call centre in Scotland? ;)
Jonathan
19. gaurang bookseller
The very trend of trashing Call Centers whether in India or UK, is amusing. Let us recognise that the industry is here to stay. The nature of the business is such that there are bound be some Support Professionals who go wrong and for which there is constant training provided. Unfortunately certain customers who are abusive do not realise that working graveyard shifts is very stressful.
Give them a chance.
20. Karl Buckland
"Let us recognise that the industry is here to stay." Call centres are not a new phenomenon. They have had plenty of time to develop, no one thinks they are going away we just want better service.
Everyone makes a mistake now and then and that is acceptable. But for that to be the norm, the usual recourse, is just not acceptable.
I understand that being abusive from the start will not solve anything but after trying time and again to get through to a human then trying repeatedly to be understood and have your problem solved the anger will well up no matter how reasonable you are.
"working graveyard shifts is very stressful." It's not just the late night or weekend staff that give bad service.
Yes employers should be doing something about the stress of the job...like providing a good service so customers aren't angry when they phone up!
"Give them a chance." they've had it and several more besides.
21. Matt
Call centres may not be perfect and in no way am I saying that they are. I myself work in one of the largest call centres in the UK and I can tell everyone a few things from experience.
For instance if I call your house withholding my number and start complaining or asking questions to which the information you haven’t got of course your going to have to ask the person on the other end for personal details how else are they going to know who Mr X from London is? How many other people share the same name in the same location? So in order for the operator to help the customer, the customer is going to have to help the operator bring up their details.
Call centres are harsh working environments and have a high turn over and a high burn out rate. There is only so much a person can talk before they snap. Everyone has a bad day but the customer doesn’t know who was on the phone before there call is answered? I myself have been threatened many times by customers who do nothing but phone to give abuse to operators. One would think that surly if there problem was so important to them the least they could do would be to have the common courtesy and to watch their mouths. Racists and abusive customer should and more than likely do have the service removed.
Yes it is a service the business supplies. With business they are bound to have call and sales targets. How else do you expect them to justify the cost of having a call centre?
I wonder would people be complaining if all the call centres where closed. Surely all this complaining is aiming at this?
22. anonymous
Without doubt Indian call centres are much worse. Recent experience for myself and friends has proved that they do not understand what you are saying to the point where you have to spell the products you are complaining about and they are equally difficult to understand. Their responses are purely from the script and are made regardless of what is being said to them. Naming names Dell and BT have proved impossible and have definitely lost custom as a consequence.
23. Carl Jenson
I have had the misfortune to deal with DELL call centres in India. Yes, they are very polite and curteous and their English is very good but they are just following lists of questions and answers without any real apparent knowledge of the products. £20 in phone bills and several hours on the phone has shown that. The Indian call centres would do well to have a reasonable geographic knowledge of England and understanding of colloquial English and idiosyncrasies. I am fed up with me having to spell every word and having every single word spelt out phonetically back to me. It didn't stop a delivery having half of my address and half someone else's on it (I'm still waiting for the delivery).
Surely everyone knows you don't spell Berkshire as Barkshire!!
Just one example - my sister had a new Dell computer and the floppy drive didn't work. After 60 minutes of all sorts of tests and her having to strip the case off and remove the floppy drive, do more tests and put it back again, the call centre said that the drive was faulty and that a new one would be sent. (don't forget that this was a next day ON SITE technical support contract). The floppy arrived and she changed it over but it still didn't work. Extreme frustration - she called me and I suggested she went into the BIOS and check that the floppy was shown as installed - it wasn't. Well, you can all guess what happened next.
24. John C.
I work in the Corporate side of my (Financial) company and have banked with the Consumer side for six years. Up until a couple of years ago, the service was excellent and the telephone only ever used to ring three times. Now, you have to go through multiple leveles of menu before you can actually speak yo someone and can often end up waiting several minutes. I no longer recommend my friends to bank with us. Surprise, surprise, we outsourced our call centres to Imdia two years ago!
25. Dave Manford
I recently had a problem with a Netgear Router, rang the published helpdesk number which, clearly got me through to India. After 3 calls totalling over 60mins, including listening to music, the operator admitted that he had no idea what to suggest- apart from that I should ring the Netgear UK helpline (but didnt know the number). I found the number, rang and got a fix within 10 mins.
26. Alex Scattergood
"Let us recognise that the industry is here to stay." - Are they? with attractive cost reductions and hungry offshore suppliers its no wonder Gartner predict 20% of the service sector (not just call centres) will end up overseas in the next few years.
We pay our call centre staff less than our burger flippers, India pays its call centre staff more than their doctors. They are catching up, their quality is going up.
As to moving up the food chain how many UK companies have built thousands of square metres of offices last year to offer outsourced services to international quality standards? Their services are up 40% off UK prices thanks to low taxation etc and have the full backing of their government & education system.
Will the last UK Employee still working please pay my pension?
27. Alfred Reading
Call centres are an unnecessary nuisance. What is needed are products that work properly and instruction manuals which are written so that a naive customer can understand them. No item should be sold until a person who has never seen the product before can open the package and get it working without any outside assistance. Then a few trained people in the company's own premises could use their intimate knowledge of the product to answer the few remaining queries
Simple examples - a complex new camcorder with no instruction anywhere to tell the new owner that it must be switched on before the DV tape can be inserted or even where it fits.
Software which comes with a slip of paper which says insert the CD and follow the instructions on the screen. The onscreen instructions ask the user to make choices with no explanation of the consequences of the choices.
28. anonymous
Call Centre culture is a reflection on the organisation it represents.
Call Centre offshoring is a reflection on the short sightedness of bureaucrats and profit centres alike.
Call Centre effectiveness is rarely that if the service has already been paid for. The Customer Interface is programmed to minimise loss and in operation is synonymous with the used car sales mentality – legislation, consumer protection and trading standards is virtually meaningless and has been shown time after time that it does not deliver.
29. anonymous
Call centres are rubbish. Probably because they are ageist and do not employ older people with life experience. I am amazed at how thick and unhelpful these customer service (joke) people can be. Sound angry do I? That is because I have spent half the day calling these places up and it does me 'ed in!
30. anonymous
I am having a problem with both IT and a Call Centre, down to the Data Protection Act. Also, Royal Mail not delivering post has made the problem even more unsolvable. I am receiving important mail for someone who apparently thinks they live at my address (yeah, right) and I am powerless to do anything about it as I have to write in (my letters do not arrive) and to phone is a nightmare and I get told just to ignore the mail! Meanwhile, someone is not getting his important post... but hey, don't blame me, I am just the victim of all the above. We live in a mad crazy world where no-one wants to take responsibility for ANYTHING!
31. Alistair Thomas
Facinating read.
Financial officers have far too much power when it comes to company management. There views are often short sighted. Job satisfaction and Customer service are two of the hardest things to put a $ value on.
I loved reading the enlightened comments of some of your readers that said that they considered the after care an important part of the overall product/service they buy, and that having been bitten by one of its suppliers offshoring their support, would happily withdraw their patronage or be willing to pay more to suppliers who take after care seriously.
Unfortunately I fear these folk are in the minority. How many people when offered basically the same product from twoo different suppliers but one is £20 more expensive will choose the expensive one? They buying public are as guilty as the suppliers in ubdervaluing good support. Unfortunately the market usually gets what it deserves even if it diddn't actually want it.
I'm sad to hear that Dell are offshoring (or at least outside Ireland). I love their products and normally they don't go wrong, but when my power supply failed on a very new model (lacks component support via the web until at least 6 months from release of a new product), the help I received from the Irish call centre was exemplary. I don't want to ditch Dell but I'll have to give it some serious thought.
That brings me to my next point, which companies actually market their commitment to after care service so that users can make an informed choice. Your daft to invest in service if you don't tell the customers about it.
Nobody wants to denigrate our foreign bretheren, but just think for a moment what they are being asked to do. All the evangelism and hype is loaded at the front end of the buying process. By definition, people call the call centre when the system has broken down or the promises have been broken. The customers' own cutural (possibly even racial) 'features' are at their most prominent, and they are at their least able to "see the other guy's point of view". They may talk quickly or shout when they get agitated. Why would anybody think it is a good idea to ask anybody who only has the customers own language as a second tongue or who isn't up on the antics of the swiss referee who single handedly got us kicked out of the Euro finals, to deal with the problem? Have these guys ever used the product/service? Can they get this model over there? Do they know what a 3-pin mains plug looks like? Dealing with customer problems/objections is one of the hardest human interactions in my view. It takes a highly trained and empathitic person. The helpers need to be able to relate before they can begin to help.
One solution might be for suppliers to sell service as an option up front. Buy the 5* package and you get an ID and a freephone number to call. Decline the option and you get (and deserve) the most cost effective service solution the company thinks it can provide and get away with.
32. anonymous
Name: Neil Postlethwaite Comments.
Dear Neil,
I note from your comments you don't appear to be a big fan of Contact Centre's (We handle more than just calls, e-mail, faxes, Text messages etc.)
But may I just point out.
Country: Milton Keynes
Occupation: Systems Analyst
Comments: All call centres are rubbish as per
recent BBC Brassed off Britain.
1/ No one knows anything about you
I would if the systems didn't fail - and the people who's job is to stop that happening (Systems Analysts)
Or The customer does not have the information required to confirm details under the data protection act.
2/ No details of previous calls or
problem history
I would if the systems didn't fail - and the people who's job is to stop that happening (Systems Analysts)
Or if the the agent can't be bother to log it. (Sure that can Happen).
3/ No-one has any authority to do anything
I have plenty of Authority but if restrictions have been put on options on the system (Applied by system Analysts)
4/ No-one ever calls back, esp. supervisors and people you have previously spoken to
My job used to be All call backs, Retention Calls for a Leading ISP.
Sometimes this would require two or three calls after allowing customer to test (Good old Narrowband).
5/ No response to e-mails
Any e-mails I got A replied with as much information as possible -
Ref to help files with full instructions.
6/ No commitment to dates, for resolution or even for the issue to be looked at
Average call duration 3 mins 40 seconds to resolve problems Max duration 20 mins although on call backs unlimited.
7/ Systems that do not talk to each other
Good old systems Analyst
8/ No dates for stock availability
If it's not put in by the Warehouse how is the contact centre to know.
(Down to Systems Analyst & Warehouse Management)
9/ Only systems that seem to work properly are the ones that take your money.
I totally disagree, and on the subject of money It's Nice to
to know that if a mistake was made in your favour you would send a email or phone to let Company know allong with a cheque attached drawn on you Salary as a (You Guessed it - A Systems Analyst)
** On a serious note - Having TRAINED AS SYSTEMS ANALYST ** I do appreciated the constraints you operate under, but I would not say "ALL SYSTEMS ARE RUBBISH"
33. Debasish Sen
The REAL point in all this is that there is a clear Market for a well-run call centre in the U.K. AND there is a mrket for a well run call cente in India.
The KEY ingedient is TRAINING.
Off course motivation, incentives, recruitment practices, etc. etc. have a role to play.
TRAINING is not just about the campaign, it is also about how an Agent can add value to the campaign AND be rewarded for that.
Idealistic ????
If you don't invest in the training your call cente will not survive!
34. anonymous
What is all this talk of English call centres - aren't we forgetting about Scotland and Wales? Very parochial!!!
35. anonymous
As Gupta so rightly highlights in his carefully worded posting(?), English is not Indias first language and as such, is yet another compelling reason for companies earning revenue in the UK to be loyal to the UK labour force! Thanks Gupta
36. anonymous
As Gupta so rightly highlights in his carefully worded posting, English is not India's first language and as such, is yet another compelling reason for companies earning revenue in the UK to be loyal to the UK labour force!
Thanks Gupta
37. Bob Coates
It all depends on the agent you get! That's my conclusion. For example, while having a problem with BT Broadband I resorted to ringing up, asking a few questions that tested the competancy of the agent I was connected to, then if necessary hanging up and dialling again! Eventually I would get an agent who actually listened to what I was saying and didn't just read a script from a screen.
Second example O2. Phone was stolen, new phone and SIM purchased. Told that after 14 days I could request to revert to old number. New phone had WAP, not had that on old phone. When number was changed to old one, WAP stopped working. Now the average human would probably connect the two events! Not O2 call centre agents, they just insisted on telling me to check my WAP settings, and also that my handset didn't support WAP "because that's what their screens said". It took several weeks to find an agent who concluded "maybe GPRS isn't turned on on the old number" Correct! Problem solved, but why is it that only 1 in 10 agents seems to be able to think and make rational decisions, rather than read from screens!
In case I've been negative 10 out of 10 to Cooperative Insurance Society from whom I had to make an insurance claim last week. Named people who knew there business and could actually discuss a problem. Seems to be rare these days.
38. Jeff Smith
At least you can understand UK call centre staff, and they can understand what you are talking about. I can't understand what benefits apart from costs these companies think they gain, by putting them offshore. I have had so many bad experiences that I no longer use these guys and find someone with staff I can understand.
I also hate waiting on line to speak to someone on the end of the line, after waiting for 30+ minutes, who wouldn't be angry and frustrated. I feel sorry for the poor call centre person who has to take the end result of this.
39. Toria
I work within one of the uks well known call centres.
Its alrite for customers to come through saying 'at last ive been waiting ages' and 'i think you need more staff' these people dont understand the amount of customers companies have and that the amount of calls coming through change from month to month so employing more people would be a waste of money.
If call centres weren't around especially for the company i work for millions of people would be lost and have no where to go, people should think about what we actually do for them and were they would go without call centres before rubbishing them and understand the pressure that we are under.
40. anonymous
Help lines, call centres etc are by definition jobs for the brain damaged. The most bizzare thing is that in India a call centre operator earns more than a doctor. Apply the same logic in the UK and call centre operators would be earning 60K plus!