Call centres

[ashleyn]

I had the experience today to call a number of call centres. QF, AMEX, Citibank and 28 degrees so I got a good feel for how they operate. Now please don't turn this into some sort of racist post BUT I talked to a "local" operator (twice) at QF and AMEX and clearly an "offshore" operator for the other 2. I have to say that whilst my call was resolved to my satisfaction on each call, I noticed a significant difference in the way the call was handled.

I know the way the world of call centres is going but do other members have a preference ? Mine is certainly to talk to a "local" call centre.

 

[Must...Fly!]

I don't really care who answers my call, or where. As long as my concern is dealt with prompty and professionally.

Example A: Calling Virgin, overseas. Took me 5 minutes to just explain what I wanted to do (split a booking).
Example B: Calling Jetstar, overseas again - didn't even understand what I was saying when I wanted to do a price-beat booking. And then it took half an hour because they were so inept.
Example C: Calling Jetstar, Australian operator answers. Price beat done and dusted in minutes..
Example D: Calling Jetstar, overseas, and receiving an operator who knew exactly what I wanted (price beat, again) and I was off the phone in 5 minutes.
Example E: Calling Emirates, overseas, sorting out an STPC request in about 3 minutes flat with no problems at all (although I did have to ask the operator to repeat himself once or twice because of his heavy accent - but that is neither here nor there for me).

Although I've never had anything short of an excellent experience when calling QF to make a booking or sorting out a stuffed-up (weather, tech) itinerary.

 

[whatmeworry]

It alls depends if you get someone who knows their product or rather someone who is blindly reading off the script.

 

[harvyk]

Now please don't turn this into some sort of racist post BUT

Actually often the companies will do it on your behalf.

A few years ago I used to call the DELL service desk almost on a daily basis (we where a big customer of theirs). The service desk was based in Malaysia. After a while they decided we where an important customer so they upgraded us to their premium desk. The difference between their regular desk and their premium desk was their regular desk was based somewhere in Malaysia (although they did pretend they where in Sydney except they didn't seem to know the first thing about the place not even what the weather was doing) and their premium desk was in fact based in Sydney.

The people manning the premium desk had the same scripts, had the same level of authority, everything was the same, except English was in fact their first language.

Since that experience, yes I see some real advantages in speaking to someone with the same native tongue as your own, and obviously so do the various companies, otherwise the premium desks would not be located here in AU.

 

[docjames]

Location is irrelevant to me provided:

- the operator understands my request
- is able to repsond to my request
- resolves the issue appropriately

and ideally
- I dont have to be on hold forever to make the above happen

 

[A330]

I used to prefer an Australian call centre, but a well selected offshore call centre can be even better.

The Citibank call centre in the Philippines can be good to average, depending on who answers. BUT when I call I rarely have to wait on hold to speak with someone. Contrast this with NAB who typically take over 10 minutes to answer, and are also patchy service wise despite (or because of) their call centre being in Australia.

Amex used to have an Indian call centre but enough complaints meant that it came back to Sydney. If you call at a particularly busy time and the wait is too long, you sometimes end up with someone in their American call centre, who are much better at service than Australians.

At work, HP provide our IT support from an Indian call centre, and not only is the service bad, the knowledge is shocking, and they have poor English skills.

 

[drewbles]

The people manning the premium desk had the same scripts, had the same level of authority, everything was the same, except English was in fact their first language.

Since that experience, yes I see some real advantages in speaking to someone with the same native tongue as your own, and obviously so do the various companies, otherwise the premium desks would not be located here in AU.

Did you have any better success with problem resolution with the on-shore script followers?

My biggest complain about any call centre, regardless of where they are (it just seems more prevalent in Asia) is that they will basically be blind about your problem and only read from a script. There is no willingness to think outside the defined parameters of the script (also known as 'outside the box') in order to assist a customer.

In a previous life when I worked in a call centre for what is now a particularly large AU based ISP, I was always willing to do whatever it took to help. If it was beyond my scope of authority or knowledge, I escalated willingly.

I guess the contracts with outsourced call centres are done to such a fine budget, they can't afford to employ staff that think like this, so it's the old adage 'pay peanuts, get monkeys'.

 

[ButFli]

Well I guess my only comparison is between Expedia's non-Australian call centre and the Qantas premium call centre.

I have a flight out of Berlin booked in the next couple of weeks. As some of you would know, the new Berlin Brandenburg airport was supposed to open on 3 June this year but has been pushed back to March 2013. Anyways, this screwed up my booking a little bit. I got an email from expedia asking me to call them urgently because my flight had been cancelled. I knew what the deal was and checked my itinerary online. Everything was good, the flight had been changed from Berlin Brandenburg to Berlin Tegel. But I thought I would call them anyway just to make sure it was all good. Anyway, I got on the phone the expedia bloke and he was all like "Yes sir, your flight from Brandenburg is showing on the <date>." And I was all like, nah mate, Berlin Brandenburg won't be open by then. It's been changed to the old airport, Berlin Tegel. Can I just get this warning message cleared from my booking? And he's all like "Yes sir. Your flight from Berlin Brandenburg has been cancelled. You will have to find your own way to London Heathrow. We can sell you a new flight from Berlin to London that departs at 7:05AM (compared to a 4:10PM departure already booked. The new flight would have given me a 12 hour layover at LHR). And I was like zzz wtf is this ****, don't touch my booking I will work this out myself with Qantas.

So then I call the Qantas premium desk, and I'm all like "I have a booking out of Berlin Brandenburg but that airport doesn't open in time so my flight has been shifted to Berlin Tegel" and the guy on the phone is all like "Yes I see that your flight has changed from Berlin Brandenburg to Berlin Tegel, I'm going to clear this error message for you and send you an updated itinerary." And I was like "Thanks man" and he was like "No worries, is there anything else I can help with?"

I have nothing against people from other countries, nothing at all. It just seems like companies are prepared to fully brief their Australian-based staff and give them the power to make all sorts of changes to meet customer needs, whereas the companies give overseas-based staff no information and no power to make any changes and just let them do whatever. Basically the overseas staff don't know wtf they are doing and screw **** up. Which is not to say the overseas staff are at fault at all, they aren't. It's just that the Aussie staff have at least been trained in what they can do and have the power to do stuff that helps the customer. This is especially apparent when the customer knows exactly what is wrong and what to do to fix it. The local Aussie staff are one step ahead and know what to do, but the overseas staff play dumb and just do something completely different because they have been trained to follow a script.

Really I think when the unions complain about foreign staff being inferior, this is actually what they are complaining about. It's not that foreigners aren't as smart as Aussies, it's just that companies are unwilling to train them in what is going on. The poor fellas overseas are just left to figure it out themselves and follow the script even in situations it clearly doesn't apply. I seriously feel sorry for them. What would an Indian bloke know the difference between a Berlin Tegel and a Berlin Brandenburg? Just like I don't know anything about Indian airports. Give a foreigner callcentre bloke the right training and tools and he can be just as good as any Aussie. Same applies to engineers, flight attendants, pilots etc. It's almost like airlines want us to be racist by giving us badly trained foreigner fellas. But I ain't no be racist just because an airline said so.

 

[harvyk]

Did you have any better success with problem resolution with the on-shore script followers?

My biggest complain about any call centre, regardless of where they are (it just seems more prevalent in Asia) is that they will basically be blind about your problem and only read from a script. There is no willingness to think outside the defined parameters of the script (also known as 'outside the box') in order to assist a customer.

In a previous life when I worked in a call centre for what is now a particularly large AU based ISP, I was always willing to do whatever it took to help. If it was beyond my scope of authority or knowledge, I escalated willingly.

I guess the contracts with outsourced call centres are done to such a fine budget, they can't afford to employ staff that think like this, so it's the old adage 'pay peanuts, get monkeys'.

The big thing was the on shore guys where more willing to leave the script, so when I said part xyz was broken, they would simy send out a replacement without going through the 10 page script. They used the script as a fall back, rather than the guiding star.

 

[drewbles]

The big thing was the on shore guys where more willing to leave the script, so when I said part xyz was broken, they would simy send out a replacement without going through the 10 page script. They used the script as a fall back, rather than the guiding star.

I think you summed that up nicely. It annoys me that call centres are so inflexible with the script, and they care only about ACL and other stupid metrics that please management (and piss customers off).

 

[amaroo]

Bigpond - there is no script written that is to long for these jokers
BA - have had good & bad experiences with their Indian based centre....found the ladies to be really helpful, take the time to listen & convey a genuine empathy if they can't fix the problem The males are a very different story:evil: