Overseas Call Centres

EdBrown

Grex: If the cap fits Lighthouse Keeper.

star1_2

I've found this thread rather interesting. I've worked as a project manager for a major Blue Chip company creating call centres across the globe for over 5 years, with my main focus on creating offices & CC's in India.

My personal experiences from India are mixed .... there are things that can be done well and there are others that are not so good. As a whole - the staff are hard working and very personable (I made some good friends working overseas), but the quality of output can differ and how work is handled locally in India can vary significantly - these issues are the common ones that UK callers complain about, such as :-

a) failure to understand UK regional accents (an often underestimated problem, where staff are trained and used to hearing South East UK and London accents, often from TV programmes and films etc.)
b) in-ability to "think outside procedure's" that are laid down in training processes (this is oftern a fault of the employer - who wishes to retain control of overseas processes)
c) General issue with lack of cultural understanding of the clients that India staff are serving
d) problems with the business concerned where overseas call centre staff are not integrated procedurally with UK staff, can lead to noticeable "barriers" that customers can detect.

I'm not claiming to the the expert on overseas call centres, (I'm neither an overt fan or critic) - but if I can help with any questions - please feel free to fire away ! :cool:

daveboy

ariba10 wrote:

I understand that NTL call centers are going overseas.

Their customer service standards are one of the most shocking in the UK - they'll soon find themselves in big trouble with this.

Personally, I'd love to see them go under, but that'll never happen.

Turning_into_scrooge

grex9101 wrote:

Soured, or enlightened?
I was actually paid ok, by all accounts. And the work was crap. It is for everyone who works in one, they only deny it because if their embarassment at working in one.

And, yes, they can do "our dirty work", and as far as i'm aware, they do! Let the people of this country work in an environment that is more year 2000 than 1900 by all accounts.

By the by, if you really think call centres are that great - PM me, I can get you a job in one starting monday.

Why be embarrassed at working in a call centre? At the end of the day it is a job that brings in money that pays bills and some people actually enjoy talking to people on the phone. No i don't work in a call centre, unfortunately i am too disabled to work but i wouldn't complain if i could.

I was once put through to a call centre in Thailand which absolutely knocked me for six. Now bearing in mind that English is not their second language the lady i spoke to had impeccable English and politeness as well but when i Had to phone NTL the other day after being asked why i was phoning 4 times i put the phone down on him, he couldn't understand a word i was saying nor could i understand him.

gregg1

grex9101 wrote:

Devils advocate here (HI!) ....

I know it's annoying for consumers, but I, for one am glad to see call centres going abroad.
It may encourage the government to develop REAL work opportunities for people instead of these call centres who provid poorly-paid, highly stressful sweatshop environments whereby the more mercenary you can be the better.
Indeed, it might even encourage all the graduates who work in them to actually DO something with their degree instead of competing with those less qualified for the bottom of the barrel jobs..

Before you flame me, YES i have worked in a call centre (2 in fact), and YES, i HATED every single bloody minute of it. I also realise there are "better" employers than others in the sector, but I still stand by my comments.

sorry grex but I am on the other side here as well.

We have been plagued for two weeks now with phone calls from an Indian call centre because of a dispute over a £5 payment on a credit card (it had actually been paid). They have phoned at 6am on a Sunday morning, and up to five or six calls EVERY day trying to get hold of my OH. I persistently asked them to call in the evenings (I told one guy this at 8am yesterday morning only for him to phone back half an hour later asking to speak to OH - aaarrgghhh!). Every single sentence had to be repeated by me three or four times until he understood. He even repeatedly asked me to phone my OH and get her out of her class (teacher not pupil!) so he could speak to her urgently - FOR A £5 QUERY?????????????????

Now I know not all call centres are this bad and I can see your point on some of the issues and I accept that accents and helpfulness (or lack of it) can be a problem in UK call centres as well but generally speaking I have had far more problems with overseas call centres than UK ones - this is just my experience.

jordylass

I hate getting through to a foreign call centre. With my gordie accent there can be misunderstandings speaking to CS in this country (especially spelling anything with and A or E in it) but not on anything like the scale of a foreign centre.
My daughter aged 11 needed a new pin sent out for her cash card, she banks with HSBC (that will change soonest). I went into a branch and asked if they could arrange to send out a pin, and was directed to the red telephone, got through gave them all details, and they needed to speak to my daughter. My daughter could not understand hardly anything that was said to her and I told her to authorise the operative to deal with me, no chance "the account is hers we have to speak with her". So we ended up with the CS asking DD the question, her passing the phone to me to interpret it for her then giving the phone back to her to answer the question.

It was a very frustrating and after 15 minutes found we could not have a new pin as we did not have the card with us to verify the number.
I was walking out of the bank when I decided to express my disatissfaction at their foreign call centre, so went back to the cashier, who asked if we changed address and when we hadn't ordered the pin in less than a minute.....why couldn't she have done that in the first place??

In the above instance I could understand most of what the CS was saying, but for a child who's experience of listening to other accents is not so great, it was impossible. For my own dealings, if I have to repeat or ask for anything to be repeated more than twice I ask to be transferred to an operative who speaks/understands better English.

I used to feel embarrassed about doing this, and having worked in a call centre i feel for the operative but it's my time and money that is being wasted on these calls.

looby75

jordylass wrote:

My daughter aged 11 needed a new pin sent out for her cash card, she banks with HSBC (that will change soonest). I went into a branch and asked if they could arrange to send out a pin, and was directed to the red telephone, got through gave them all details, and they needed to speak to my daughter. My daughter could not understand hardly anything that was said to her and I told her to authorise the operative to deal with me, no chance "the account is hers we have to speak with her". So we ended up with the CS asking DD the question, her passing the phone to me to interpret it for her then giving the phone back to her to answer the question.

I had exactly the same problem with my daughters account at HSBC. She got a letter saying her new card was at the branch for her to collect but she needed to take photo id and a recent utilities bill in her name as proof of identity. She's 13 she doesn't have utilities bills!

I called the help line and explained the situation but they wouldn't speak to me, only my dd. I had problems understanding the Indian ladys very strong accent so my poor dd had no chance. Eventually, after 40 mins on the phone, at least 10 of which was spent trying to explain why my dd didn't have a driving licence (the cs woman insisted this was the only form of photo id they would accept) or utilites bills, I was told that I could go and pick up my dd's card for her as long as I took proof of my id and address. I went into the branch the next day and was told that was a load of rubbish and dd would need to come herself, with proof of id (talk about going round in circles!) to collect the card.

I lost it, I know I shouldn't have but I really did get mad. I wasn't abusive or violent but I did raise my voice and did refuse to leave until something was sorted. In the end the branch manager said they would send the card out in the post! WHY THE HELL couldn't they just do that in the first place? :mad:

My dd is now opening a Halifax account LOL

hollydays

I dont think there is ever anything wrong in saying we cant understand what someone is saying because of their accent,I do think its wrong to condemn ALL foreign call centres,thats not a well-rounded arguament-and i am sure some people have suffered very great frustration,but really bad customer service can make you just as mad in this country-when you can understand exactly what they are saying,but they **** you about!

nelly_2

as it happens I was just on the phone to NTL to ask who I needed to speak to, to say if they outsource their call centre Ill be getting shut of them completly, the lad on the phone said its not true its just a rumour....... as air india turned up to take his pc away

Turning_into_scrooge

nelly wrote:

as it happens I was just on the phone to NTL to ask who I needed to speak to, to say if they outsource their call centre Ill be getting shut of them completly, the lad on the phone said its not true its just a rumour....... as air india turned up to take his pc away

Are you saying that NTL haven't yet moved to overseas call centres? If so that means that the guy i spoke to on the phone last Friday that i gave up on and put the phone down on was in this country, not a good advertisement.:shocked: