Warning: Tech Support Rant

[dr.walrus]

I never specify which country I want someone to come from. I just want them to truly speak English. There are plenty of places where English is spoken.

I was agreeing with you!

[Technochicken]

You prove the point of this comic:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/customer_service

[Twigsoffury]

wish they would start going by amperage required, and not total peak watts



There are premium 550W power supplies that put out more amps then a flimsy 650/750W does.


Oh the answer to speaking to someone with a really bad accent? Bust out your craziest american accent.

yankee accents work extremely well.

They know what a hot dog is, But not a Hawot Daowg

[Luthien]

I was agreeing with you!

Sorry, I know you were; I just wanted to point out that English is spoken in a lot of places.

[dr.walrus]

Sorry, I know you were; I just wanted to point out that English is spoken in a lot of places.

That was what annoyed me most - our international outsourcing amounted to Australia > NZ, and the language is spoken as the first language in both countries!

I once had a customer ask to speak to someone in the same country, and I asked that if I got on a plane to Aus and I called him back from there, whether that would be better. He wasn't happy at that suggestion!

[Luthien]

That's a pretty good one. What did the customer say?


Personally, I wouldn't care what country the person was from as long as we could understand each other. HughesNet is one of the worst about people who "speak English." I don't believe I've ever been able to get anywhere with them. In fact, I need to call them and have been putting it off because I know how bad it'll be.

[slaveofconvention]

Foreign tech support is often a problem, and one that isn't going to go away anytime soon - not while the savings are as substantial as they are. It's notable that some UK companies are now starting to make a point of having "UK Based call centres" as a selling point.

I'm now long past the point where, if I call in for any kind of help that isn't utterly essential, I'll hang up within 30 seconds of being put onto a foreign call centre. 30 seconds, in my opinion, is more than long enough for any vaguely competent person to convince me that they know what they're doing as opposed to reading a script off of a screen.

[dr.walrus]

That's a pretty good one. What did the customer say?

They called me a smart arse and asked to speak to a supervisor. I was supervising that shift so I had the pleasure of telling them that.

[dr.walrus]

Thing is, generally 'good call centre staff ' is an oxymoron. Staff turnover rates are so high, the industry is so competitive, and technical staff are normally there as a stopgap before they move to a non-call-centre environment. That's not saying there aren't good and bad agents, or that there aren't good or bad call centres, but it's a very, very difficult job in a very competitive market place, and near-impossible to do well.

Outsourcing is another big issue. Don't outsource, you get better knowledge, better communication, better training resources. You also get very, very limited capacity for variations in call volume, so when something major happens - a production flaw; a safety issue; maybe just a stupidly busy day, those people sit on hold for a long time. That just happens, no matter how much you stand up and shout at all your agents to finish their calls and clear their lines. Outsources are actually more accountable and more likely to work hard to reach targets (like queue time), because there's a greater incentive.

Thing is, the service everyone wants is pretty much impossible to deliver. A local call centre, non-outsourced, with expert staff and plenty of overhead in capacity isn't just very expensive - there are major logistical problems too. Having that extra capacity means having lots of people just waiting to take calls - what;s referred to as a low 'occupancy' rate. The lower your occupancy rate, the slower you learn, so your staff quality lessons. And when you need someone to call you back when something is done? They're tying up an incoming line (their own), so blending calls (more industry jargon) statistically increases queue time as well.

Knowledge bases, scripted responses, that sort of thing are essential tools. You simply can't do the job without them. However, all too often they are used wildly inappropriately or as an excuse for improper staff training.

I hope this little rant helps explain that the frustrations you feel. Nothing I have just said doesn't mean that there are serious issues with outsourcing - there are massive problems, but frankly the biggest one is simply staff turnover. Typically, you'll be talking to someone who's been working on that project for under a year - and it's simply not good enough.

As for the language barrier, I'm in total agreement. My boss once turned down someone thirty seconds into a job interview when it was clear they didn't have good english skills. The candidate was apparently gobsmacked, the recruiter got an earful, and we all had a joke later that the guy's english was so bad he couldn't read the job advert properly!

</rant>

[Luthien]

Nice...
I used to manage a movie theater. I had a customer come up and ask to speak to the manager. I said I was the manager and asked how I could help. He asked me if I was the only manager there or if there was a male manager available...nope, sorry dude...stuck w/a female...What did he want? to know if it was okay to leave his car in the parking lot while he and a friend went to go eat. I had the pleasure of saying it was fine if he did but the theater was not responsible for anything that happened to the car...and no, I didn't do anything to his car.
(Note: I didn't actually say "sorry dude, you're stuck with a female" I believe it was something along the lines of "I'm sorry sir, but I am the manager on duty tonight. Can I help you?")
I may have been a mere female...but at least I speak English.