Call Centers, do Americans really dislike foreign telephone support workers?
Many have claimed that US citizens simply do not like foreign support workers because of unspoken prejudice. This is unfortunately, the simpleton answer of America bashers who have no idea who they are demeaning.
The average American is no more a part of the establishment than farm animals. We’re basic people who want nothing more than to live in peace without fear. Do we care who helps us with our technical support question, or sales enquiry? Yes! They need to speak English in such a way as we can understand and they can help us! It doesn’t matter if the cost of the call is way cheaper for the business if the person on the other end cannot help us with the problem. Heck, basic Americans have never said I don’t want to take with you because you’re (fill in the blank with the nationality of your choice) regardless if that worker could help us or not. No, its more, I can’t understand you and need to speak with someone who can help me with my problem AND speak English well enough for me to understand.
Corporations buy into the price benefit without true concern about the impact to customers. There’s a reason why we don’t like to speak with the support tech de-jour. It’s not that they’re in another country but that they can’t speak to us clearly enough for understanding or are able to help fix our problem. Corporations claim to care about quality but until they start listening to customers, they will continue to buy into the call centers in other parts of the country are cheaper mentality. Stupid and short sighted. Personally, I’ve quit buying from companies that have a support model that doesn’t help me when there’s a problem. Go figure. All I want is a way to get my problem fixed.
Call Centers: Call routing and international Call Centers
Calls come into a typical call center literally at the rate of hundreds per hour. What happens to those calls determines the commitment to customer service or the company. Many companies have their own customer service call centers that field the calls directly from their own customer base.
The other alternative is the outsourcing model. Outsourcing has had a bad reputation of late but consider outsourcing as simply buying a service. Like all services purchased, from janitorial to network technology, the level of satisfaction is based on the actual service received. Many people complain about calling into call centers that end up routing the call to India or another foreign country other than the United States. The question however is why the problem with a support person in another country? Are US citizens so prejudiced that they are against people from other countries helping them with their problems? There is a much more accurate reason for the appearance of prejudice within the greater US population that simply a dislike of foreign support. In part 2, another alternative option will be offered that is much more plausible than the knee jerk accusation that the general US public dislike foreign national call center help.
Call Centers: Inbound vs Outbound Calls
Call centers live and breathe on their phone switch. These modern marvels move independent telephone calls from a single incoming number to literally hundreds of call center employees. These employees can not only handle incoming calls, that is, calls that you make to them for specific information. But they can also control the number of outgoing calls made to a list. That’s right folks, the call during dinner from telemarketers could be coming from the very same location that you just called to check on your order from a television shopping channel. Makes you feel all ward and fuzzy, doesn’t it?