Poor Call-Center Service Angers Indians, Too

With better-paid, better-trained operators working for foreign call centers, Indian consumers are often frustrated by the service they get.
By Mehul Srivastava.
From: businessweek.com, April 24, 2009

This article interestingly points out the quality of service a customer may expect when calling a “call-center” that is outsourced to India. Article describes how, many telecommunication customers are unsatisfied from the quality of services when they are connected to an Indian service center. The issue has reached to the point that some American companies like Delta (DAL) has pooled its call center from India. Similarly Indians are speaking out too, Indian customers are unsatisfied with the service they get from the service centers in India. They complain from poor quality of service and untrained technicians. They also know that employees of call-centers who work in ‘Noida’ (a town 20 kilometers outside New Delhi) for internal Indian customers get paid less, use outdated equipments and get less training compared to their counterparts who work for a western company in the same town. “It makes economic sense, of course; foreign clients pay more than Indian clients do, sometimes by as much as 50% for total contracts, which are often decided by the number of ‘seats’ that an operator has to fill to service a contract.”(1)

Even though broadband Internet, fast and cost effective telecommunication technology has paved the way for globalization and resource utilization from distance, it still has quality issues. The human factor and local skills still plays a great role in success of many aspect of a business, and cannot be ignored.

I recall contacting a service center for resolving a connection issue I had with my XYZ internet router. I was connected to a customer service rep which I Initially thought was a robot-computer, but then I noticed that it was a live person. I noticed he had ‘an electronically altered accent’ that I had hard time understand! He refused to say where he was located and was distressed that I could not understand his robotic accent!
Then I thought, if I would hear his Indian or Malaysian … accent, I would understand him much better, with less frustration (maybe because I have an accent too)…
In my opinion technology is useful but lets not over do it!

Sources:
(1) http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2009/gb20090424_777061.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_news+%2B+analysis