Foreign call centres

[Newbie]

When i first finished Uni i worked for a local bank call centre, they set up an alternative call centre in Delhi and policy was that all staff had to chose themselves an "English Sounding" name for their job - the guy sent there to train them all had to try and explain to numerous lady staff that Anne Summers was NOT a common English name!

However another policy in said call cantre was that staff were not allowed any paper, pens etc of any description in the building with them and anything which meant having to look into account specific things meant the call had to be dealt with in the UK, this was to stop the rife account theft/fraud. It is pretty disgusting that numerous UK call centre staff lost their jobs to this call centre.

[piskieinboots]

....that Anne Summers was NOT a common English name!

it's not

[Cutecumber]

Moving call centres is about economics - unless you are prepared to pay more, or stop using the companies, nothing will change.

Anyway, for me, the issue that should be raised with all companies is fundamentally about the requirements of the job.

If a post involves communicating on the telephone, then people need to be employed who can be understood by the majority of those with whom they are to be communicating - who cares what accent it is, the speaker just needs to enunciate clearly. There should also be procedures in place for customers who have hearing difficulties - and this is a requirement in general, not just because of problems with accents.

Let's face it, it's a p*ss poor recruitment team that employ someone who can only be understood by their peers when their job is to speak to a very wide range of customers. It doesn't matter whether it's a first or second language, that's just the bottom line.

Personally I haven't had any significant problems - perhaps that's because I am happy to ask someone to speak more clearly, irrespective of where I perceive they might be sitting!

[pigletwillie]

My banks call centre is in the Indian sub continent somewhere. Normally its not an issue but with id fraud and the like I dont feel comfortable giving out info about my banking.

To get round this I phone the "lost card" number on my debit card which comes through to a British based centre and say terribly sorry but....

Apparently I am not alone in using that tactic.

[valmarg]

Then change your ISP, it ain't the fault of the people they employ!

The trouble these days is you don't know the company you are dealing with there are so many mergers/takeovers. For example Tiscali is now part of the Carphone Warehouse empire.

valmarg

[valmarg]

There is no reason why you should be rude to somebody who is just doing their job, yes, they may not speak your language as well as a native speaker or be able to pronounce your name correctly but they are still trying to do a job. On occaision I have to ring people through my job and I would be extreemly disappointed if any of them were as rude as you are suggesting.

They may well "only be doing their job", but it has been at the expense of British jobs.

The call centre employees in India are paid a fraction, salary-wise, what it would cost to employ someone in the UK. The cost of living is much higher here in the UK, but I think it is diabolical that my personal banking details can be bandied about 'somewhere halfway up the Hindu Kush' rather than my being able to pick up the 'phone and speak to someone in the branch that holds my accounts, less than 25 miles away.

I am totally anti Indian call centres.

To be able to access personal private details so easily leaves me with a sense of disquiet.

valmarg

[Snadger]

It must be quite hard for someone from Bangladesh to master how to speak Queens English (yeah right!!).........but to then be confronted with a Geordie dialect!
Wey eye man pet, nee bovva at aall, get yesell ower ere and tek a plodge in the clarts we is, dinnet leave your bag lying tho else some boogger'el waark wint!!!

[piskieinboots]

wey eye hinney

[fleursotheforest]

We're a' Jock Tamson's bairns! It's not the people of India's fault that jobs have landed on their doorstep and neither will they be responsible for all identity theft or fraud, there's plenty of crime and criminals here. I'm not disagreeing that it is frustrating when you can't make yourself understood or understand the person speaking but it must be just as hard for them...and they are probably being paid less than this countries minimum wage to do the job. We shouldn't take it out on the person it is the company at fault.

[HeyWayne]

At no point have I ever blamed the individual, I have never been rude or abusive - I may well have been short with them, (no pun intended) but I never swear at people who are just doing their jobs, English or not.

I too ask if they can repeat themselves, but where do you draw the line when you just cannot understand (I have, before now asked to speak to a manager and they have refused stating that they are able to deal with the call). It's not a perception thing, it's reality. I grew up with lots of Asian friends, mostly Pakistani and Indian, and although many had strong accents (particularly parents) they understood the nuances of the local language and vice versa, thus conversations were not strained and difficult as they often are with foreign call centres.

I have had a couple of good experiences with foreign call centres - one in particular was with Linksys. Their team were based in the Far East (the American twang gave them away), and they were well trained, easy to understand and easily understood me - I don't have a particularly strong accent (some colleagues in Belgium even thought I sounded like "BBC English" when I met them a while ago).

At a recent meeting with all my European colleagues the subject of call centres came up during conversation and it would appear that we (UK) are not alone in the frustrations with foreign call centres - particularly Indian. They experience the exact same problems as we do.

I used the Indian accent as an example purely as it is the most common foreign call centre, but I am in no way lambasting the Indian people - I for one cannot speak any other language fluently, so I can hardly criticise their skills. As I stated in my original post companies that have foreign call centres are not customer focussed in my opinion and my beef is with them, not the people.

The fact that more and more companies here are advertising the fact that they have "UK based call centres" indicates to me that it's a considerable consumer problem where customer care is concerned.

[Alison]

They may well "only be doing their job", but it has been at the expense of British jobs.

At no point did I comment on whether call centres should be here, India or Mars. The point I was making is that the individuals you are speaking to are real people with feelings. They did not personally make any UK based people redundant and are trying to earn the best wage they can to support their families. I was simply making the point that the abusive response recommended on some of these posts was quite simply not acceptable and downright rude. Such behaviour is just as symptomatic of the yob culture that is all over the news as hoodies hanging around on corners and terrorising a neighbourhood!

At no point have I ever blamed the individual, I have never been rude or abusive - I may well have been short with them, (no pun intended) but I never swear at people who are just doing their jobs, English or not.

Good on you Wayne, that was basically the point I was trying to make!

[Shelle]

Five years ago I lost my job in a bank thanks to the move to overseas call centres. Of course, they claimed my job redundancy was not as a result of call centres - what they did was move our admin work from our office to another centre, and moved their work overseas!!

Being deaf, call centres are the bane of my life, as I have insufficient hearing to make calls myself and rely on my hearing parents, colleagues etc. The trouble I have getting staff to talk to my third party is unbelievable! Yes I appreciate the Data Protection Act (was very aware of it as a bank employee), but where does that leave deaf people? Dad often gets abuse and general stick from agents when trying to make calls for me. Many companies do not have any procedures in place for deaf customers to make calls via a relative (other than typetalk which I choose not to use) which makes it very difficult in this phone age.

Add foreign call agents to the mix - utter confusion and no customer service!

[dexterdoglancashire]

Don't know why I haven't seen this thread before - just don't get me started! I'm not even going there! The mods would ban me, because (apart from car parking charges) this is my next best pet hate!
Going to have a lie down.......Bernie

[borage]

Being deaf, call centres are the bane of my life, as I have insufficient hearing to make calls myself and rely on my hearing parents, colleagues etc. The trouble I have getting staff to talk to my third party is unbelievable! Yes I appreciate the Data Protection Act (was very aware of it as a bank employee), but where does that leave deaf people? Dad often gets abuse and general stick from agents when trying to make calls for me. Many companies do not have any procedures in place for deaf customers to make calls via a relative (other than typetalk which I choose not to use) which makes it very difficult in this phone age.

From experience if you write a letter to the company stating that you are happy for them to discuss matters with .................? they will. As long as they have your authority to do so then there is no issue.My husband has written various letters to companies to tell them he is happy for them to discuss financial matters with his wife (me being named in the letter). I now have authority to deal with all his financial matters, bank, credit card, utility bills etc.