Why does it take businesses so long to see what we customers see as being so obvious?
A Penny Saved, a Customer Spurned
Dell (Research) tried it, then reversed course. Capital One (Research) gave up as well, and so did JPMorgan Chase (Research). All came to the same conclusion about their attempts to farm out front-line customer-service jobs to outside contractors: The hidden costs far outweighed the potential savings in labor expenses.
With consumers enjoying more choice than ever before, evidence is growing that great service is essential for long-term customer retention. To cite just one example, a recent survey of pension policyholders in the United Kingdom found that 75 percent would leave their current provider if they experienced bad customer service.
Meanwhile, the current enthusiasm for outsourcing call centers, IT support, and other “noncore” service functions isn’t delighting anyone. Two-thirds of the companies that responded to a survey by InformationWeek reported either no change or a worsening in customer satisfaction as a result of business-process outsourcing.
A 2005 Gartner study predicts that 60 percent of organizations that outsource customer-facing processes will see significant numbers of frustrated customers switching to competitors. The costs associated with these defections add up quickly, which helps explain why the same study found that 80 percent of companies that outsource customer-service functions fail to meet their cost-savings targets.
That’s because the first wave of call centers took out all the good speakers, and the next wave had to pay more for lower quality.
funny, I got a telemarketing call from Chase two days ago, and the person on the other end of the line had such a pronounced Indian accent that I had trouble understanding. I guess support is different from telemarketing …
When oh when will SBC (now AT&T) quit routing me over an under-sea line. I don’t mind the accent half as much as the frequent audio drops.
Amazing, market economics works! Who knew? ;->
Companies tried outsourcing support and decided that there was insufficient cost savings and/or quality so they switched back to using local support. Where are the people that were so aghast at outsourcing? Aren’t we taking Indian jobs away? When you provide a superior product or service people buy it over the competition and that especially includes labor. If your product or service is not sufficiently better than your competitors all things considered, people will choose the least expensive choice whether it is provided domestically or not.
I have had six telemarketing calls from Chase in the past week. Speakers have a heavy accent – I assume Indian – hard to understand. They were pitching the same sales pitch. Evidently they don’t keep track of who has been called and when. Of the six calls, one was a young lady with clear English offering me a Chase business credit card. I used to cut them off early in the call but have started instead to listen to most of their sales pitch before telling them “no thanks.” I figure if they are going to waste my time I might as well waste theirs!
My favorite is calling tech support and getting “Betty.” Or “Linda.” Or “Kristin.” And yet they all sound like Apu on the Simpsons. Magically, each time I call, I get the only women in all of India with Anglo names. Isn’t that just amazing how that works? 🙂
Lately I can’t be bothered but I used to stop them and ask them to spell out their name so I would get it correct then who they were calling for. Then I would mention that we are on the Indiana No Call List and it is a felony to call someone on the list, thank them for their time and hang up. Yes the felony part is bullcrap but they don’t know that.
Sometimes I ask them if they like Pork. Before they can reply I go off on a tangent explaining how much I like Pork and try to keep it going for at least 2 or three minutes. Finally I get around to mentioning I’m too busy to take their call.
Mr Fusion, you’re certainly lacking in sensitivity there. Plus you’re too stupid to be a bigot.
I am a man named David with an average male voice.
I just had the pleasure of calling for Dell support. At first, I was pleased that I detected no foreign accent. Then I began to notice that the guy repeatedly addressed me as “Ma’am.” I emphasize that no one has ever mistaken my voice for female.
All I could do was chuckle. I saw the futility of explaining our understanding of gender to him.
I want a junk mail folder for my phone – if you are not in my accepted call list you get routed to the junk folder – if i want to listen to your sales crap I will listen to those when I wan to.
AB CD,
Someone calls me at supper – they get all the bigotry that such an unsolicited call merits.
I’d also watch the stupid remarks. I mean are you the kettle or the pot?
This is fluff piece to mollify us. Dell has only returned corporate support to US call centers because of corporate complaints. Consumers still have to talk to India or buy somewhere else.
So you concede that he was trying to be bigoted. In that case, he is most definitely too stupid to be a good bigot.
To make it clear: Most Indians eat pork, and what I said was referring to the movie Porky’s(I’m gonna go fly a Kite).