| Topic: | Re:Call centres outside Chiswick ... and the UK! | |
| Posted by: | David Noades | |
| Date/Time: | 28/04/05 09:25:00 |
| Interesting experiences. I have recently had a lot of involovement with outsourcing as the company I work for (business telecommunications) moves most IT development and support and running the network out to India. Interestingly, the company has stopped short of outsourcing its Customer call centre to India. The reason - the Customers (who typically spend much larger sums of money than you or I would with BT etc.) would feel they were being given a service 'on the cheap' and to be quite frank, call centres in India simply do not work. Having worked with a number of the IT guys in India I can say that they are extremely well trained (many have post-graduate qualifications), very keen and probably more able to do the job than many over here - the whole structured, logical environment around IT suits their culture / training well. However, difficulties with accents, inability to handle 'Western-style' conflict situations and the general lack of any local context (as in the example of 'Richmond in Yorkshire') mean that basing call centres there invariably does not work. The day my 'telephone' bank moves its call centres (and its refreshingly friendly & helpful staff) from Yorkshire / Scotland to India is the day I leave! |