I was just reading the UK’s The Register about the British electricity supply company, Powergen, having actually listened to their customers and pulled the plug on outsourcing their call center to India.
In the article the managing director of Powergen was quoted as saying: “When customers contact us they need to be confident that their query will be fully resolved quickly. Although the cost of overseas outsourcing can be low, we’re simply not prepared to achieve savings at the risk or expense of customer satisfaction.” This is astounding for two reasons; first, it will cost Powergen more to run their call center on-shore, and second, they actually listened to their customer base. The last time I wound up at an Indian call center it was a joke: I couldn’t understand what the CSR was saying, he kept thanking me for my responses after he laboriously confirmed everything I said, and it ultimately transpired that he couldn’t actually help me. I finally had had enough and demanded to be transferred to their second level support back in the US. Now I know I’m not alone in this. We’ve all wound up at those Indian call centers at one time or another and many of us have complained long and loudly. If only other companies would follow Powergen’s example and listen to their customers and act accordingly and get rid of these awful shams that pretend to be call centers, they would wind up with happier and more committed customers.
