[gui-talk] Call Centers Return to U.S.

Fri Dec 12 19:10:13 UTC 2008

LE,

Same goes for me. I'm really curious and outgoing in these phone calls, for 
the same reasons as you. And whatever frustrations may arise in the course 
of one call or another, I get something nice out of the experience that 
expands my knowledge about people and helps to humanize these remote, 
basically anonymous  exchanges. Faceless exchanges, is how I'd once have put 
it until it got to where I can't see someone's face properly in person, 
anymore. But that's the ordinary expression for what I mean.

Ah, for peace and harmony world-wide. The globalization of good will. I must 
be catching the holiday spirit. Pass that eggnog!

globaoFac3el,my----- Original Message ----- 
From: "tribble" <lauraeaves at yahoo.com>
To: "NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, December 12, 2008 10:34 AM
Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Call Centers Return to U.S.

now that's interesting.  I typically ask where a person is located, not out
of prejudice or frustration, but out of interest -- I enjoy meeting people
from different parts of the world -- get to ask them about the weather there
and such.  It's interesting that most all tech support people I have called
are willing to share their location, except for AT&T, who have -- at least
up until recently -- had a policy not to give out that information.  Now
that I find to be frustrating.  What are they trying to hide?
Happy holidays.
--le

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don Moore" <don.moore48 at comcast.net>
To: "Multiple recipients of NFBnet GUI-TALK Mailing List"
<gui-talk at NFBnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2008 11:26 AM
Subject: [gui-talk] Call Centers Return to U.S.

The Bangalore Backlash:
Call Centers Return to U.S.
Some Firms See Value in Familiar Voices

By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, December 11, 2008;

If you prefer a customer service agent who speaks "American," then computer
maker Dell has a deal for you.

Catering to consumers put off by the accents of Bangalore, Manila and other
call-center hubs around the globe, Dell will guarantee -- for a price --
that the person who picks up the phone on a support call will be, as company
ads mention in bold text, "based in North America."

The Your Tech Team service, with agents in the United States, costs $12.95 a
month for customers with a Dell account, or $99 a year for people who buy a
new computer. It also promises that wait times will average two minutes or
less. Without the upgrade, a customer is likely to get technical help from
someone in India, the Philippines or the other places where Dell has
operators.

By charging customers extra for a North American voice, Dell's program
represents a novel strategy for easing the strains of globalization while
maintaining profit, industry officials said.

Occasionally, "we've heard from customers that it's hard to understand a
particular accent and that they couldn't understand the instructions they
were getting," said Dell spokesman Bob Kaufman. "This illustrates Dell's
commitment to customer choice."

Complaints about customer service agents based in other countries are an
everyday phenomenon across several industries. For many U.S. consumers, the
diverse accents that come across customer service lines constitute one of
the most pervasive reminders of globalization and the offshoring of jobs.
That can make personnel in the call center targets for American anger.

Companies can save 50 to 75 percent on their call centers by putting them
overseas, according to industry analysts.

But getting a customer service agent with whom it is easy to communicate
ought to be a service that is provided gratis, some industry analysts said.

"Most people in the customer service world believe that if you have sold me
a product, then support for that product should be free," said Lyn Kramer,
managing director of Kramer and Associates, a call-center consultancy.

Jitterbug, a cellphone company that markets to older Americans, similarly
boasts in ads that its operators are in the United States, but it does not
charge extra to speak to them. The company's television spots advertise
"U.S. based customer service" and show a headset draped in an American flag.

"You'd be amazed how many customers ask, 'Where are you based?' " said David
Inns, Jitterbug's chief executive. "The response we get when we say, 'We're
in Auburn Hills, Michigan, ma'am,' -- well, they love it."

Although airlines, banks and some retailers have overseas call centers,
computer makers have been particularly apt to put call centers in foreign
countries. According to an online survey conducted by CFI Group, more than a
third of respondents who recently made a call for computer support reported
that the person they reached was outside the United States.

The customer satisfaction score for overseas PC call centers was 23 percent
lower than for U.S. call centers, CFI Group reported.

"The customers say, 'The agent just doesn't understand what I'm trying to
do,' " Kramer said. "The customer explains his or her request three or four
times, and then they get a rote answer back."

Many companies, she said, have "escalation procedures" to use when callers
struggle to communicate; eventually, many such calls are routed back to the
United States.

Though some have suggested that the friction between U.S. consumers and
foreign operators arises from prejudice, some observers see it differently.

"I hear people say all the time that people who complain about call centers
in India are being racist or nativist -- but it's not as simple as that,"
said Sharmila Rudrappa, a sociology professor at University of Texas at
Austin and native of Bangalore, India. "If you need tech support, it already
shows you're having a crazy time getting your Dell computer to work. And
when things go haywire, you want assurance, you want familiarity, you want
someone to hold your hand and say it's okay. What you don't want is to have
to work at understanding the person on the other end of the line."

Deepak Desai, chief executive of GlobalEnglish, a company that sells a
program to improve the business-English skills of overseas workers,
attributed at least some of the problem to the fact that call center
industry has grown so fast in India that the companies have had trouble
recruiting employees who have mastered the language.

"There's a large chunk of people who can communicate in English somewhat,
but if you put them on a call interacting with an angry American -- that's
hard," he said.

Though the job puts them in contact with people halfway around the world who
are often upset about something -- a missed reservation, a technical
problem, an accounting snafu -- many in developing countries consider such a
spot in a call center "a good job," Desai said. They try to learn American
slang, to say "zee" instead of "zed," and they take on American-sounding
nicknames such as Jimmy.

"People in the developing countries are hungry for any material that will
improve their skills," Desai said. "There's a real hunger to improve. It's
not that we want these people to be speaking with an American accent. We
want them to be intelligible."

Enough Americans are frustrated by them, however, that companies such as
Jitterbug have concluded that keeping their call centers in the United
States is the best option.

Inns said the company briefly considered putting call center overseas -- he,
too, had heard that costs could be radically cut.

But he said those estimates leave out the cost of frustrating customers.

"What's missing from those estimates is what the impact is on customer
satisfaction and what is the impact on first-call resolution" -- that is,
resolving the issue in one try.

"This is not a protectionist philosophy," he said. "At the end of the day,
my data and experience say that Americans are better at providing customer
service to Americans -- that's all."

Dell declined to release numbers on how many people had signed up for the
Your Tech Team service, but Kaufman said officials have been pleased by the
response.

"That part of the business -- the Your Tech Team -- has grown, and we think
that customers will continue to value it," Kaufman said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/10/AR2008121003574.html

_______________________________________________
gui-talk mailing list
gui-talk at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gui-talk_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
gui-talk:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/gui-talk_nfbnet.org/lauraeaves%40yahoo.com

_______________________________________________
gui-talk mailing list
gui-talk at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gui-talk_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
gui-talk:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/gui-talk_nfbnet.org/jdeutsch%40dslextreme.com 