call centres etc debate from enaids BT thread

[Sapphire]

Re: call centres etc debate from enaids BT thread

Perhaps we should start a thread for tips on how to avoid calling the centres abroad and getting straight to the people in Britain.

ie: when you dial 000000000 (or whatever) it takes you through to wherever.

Now what shall we call the thread ?

Ideas on a postcard please to .................................................. .

Oh and on the subject of regional accents, it must be hard to people who are working in the foreign call centres to understand some of us. Blimey even I have trouble understanding some accents around this country of ours.

[enaid]

Re: call centres etc debate from enaids BT thread

Well the first line out of their mouths is a fib in my belief.
"Hello my name is Christopher" LOL don't think so.

[argentarius]

Re: enaids mums bt bill

This is becoming increasingly tedious and, since you have still failed to provide an alternative letter, increasingly pointless however, I should point out that I did not say anything was racist. You did when you decided that the comments in Sapphire's letter regarding call centre operators were racist.

I simply pointed out that, using your own measurement of what is racist, your own comments regarding the relative qualifications of Indian call centre operators versus English customers must also be racist.

Regarding your comment that it is my maths that are incorrect, I wonder how you arrive at the figure 17% for graduates in the UK?

According to the ONS the resident population of the UK was 60,975,000 during mid-2007. Given that it is unlikely that anyone under the age of 20 would be a graduate, we can safely state that your 17% is hopelessly incorrect.

Notwithstanding your straw-man attempts at playing with percentages, it is also unlikely that anyone under the age of 20 is going to be using Indian call-centres on a regular basis and so leaving behind the incorrect percentages you attempted to introduce, we have over ten million graduates in this country, being served by fewer than half a million graduates in India.

My dear Cetelco, you are being deliberately obtuse here.

You can see very well that my 17% was based on your number of graduates in the UK divided by the total population (10m/60m = 17%). You are quite right that it would have been better to have divided it by the adult population, which is say 50 million. So still, around 20% of the UK adult population (10m/50m) are graduates. And almost all Indian call centre staff are graduates.

The 500,000 figure is a complete red herring.

The relevant statistics are c.20% compared to c.100%. The call centre staff are better educated than their average UK caller.

scoobydoo - I don't see how it's relevant that this particular call was made from an Indian call centre. Presumably it was made on behalf of a UK-based company, which was illegally ignoring the TPS rules. It is quite possible that the caller didn't know the name of the BT subscriber, because they had called you using "random number dialling" which is illegal, rather than using a mailing list of some sort. Even if they had used a mailing list which had a name and number on it, it wouldn't tell them which family member was the BT subscriber.

Tanzarelli - I agree with you. Most frustration that people have with Indian call centres is because of poor scripting - and, as I've said before, lack of empowerment - and to an extent these issues are common to all call centres. What people want when they phone a supplier is someone who can sort out their problem, not someone who will pass them onto someone else, or otherwise fail to resolve the problem. Sounding bored shouldn't be allowed - calls should be getting monitored on a sample basis and staff given the boot if they don't keep the standards up.

Companies shouldn't employ staff in their call centres who can't make themselves understood, and be understood - and that applies whether they are in Birmingham or Bangalore.

sapphire - there are already things like what you describe. In general, though, I think they are a bad thing because they don't get you through to the RIGHT person to deal with your problem. Just because they are a person - rather than an automated menu - doesn't mean they will be any help. As I've said before, the automated menus exist to route each call to the most appropriately trained member of staff.

enaid - once again, it's not just overseas call centres which use "stage names". I've even heard of staff in Job Centres in the UK doing so, because they are worried about their safety or some such nonsense. Many people in oriential countries have a real name and an English name which they use to deal with English people - just to make things easier for them. I knew many people at university who did this. The call centre staff calling themselves "Christopher" aren't necessarily doing it to be dishonest - they are perhaps doing it to make it easier for the English speaker to understand their name.

[scoobydoo]

Re: call centres etc debate from enaids BT thread

Sorry but I do think it is relevant -the whole point is that I think that sometimes these call centres are annoying and a waste of time .Maybe the UK company did not train correctly - or maybe they are just pleading ignorance as an excuse. Note I did say sometimes - and also the rest of my previous post did say we should not generalise.I dont really mind who deals with any query I have as long as they deal with it in an effecient manner. Unfortunately it is obvious with our difficult regional accents and lack of knowledge about our language variations, foriegn call centres are not always the best way to deal with UK problems. As customers we are entitled to complain about that if we want to.

[Guest]

Re: enaids mums bt bill

My dear Cetelco, you are being deliberately obtuse here.

You can see very well that my 17% was based on your number of graduates in the UK divided by the total population (10m/60m = 17%). You are quite right that it would have been better to have divided it by the adult population, which is say 50 million. So still, around 20% of the UK adult population (10m/50m) are graduates. And almost all Indian call centre staff are graduates.

The 500,000 figure is a complete red herring.

The relevant statistics are c.20% compared to c.100%. The call centre staff are better educated than their average UK caller.

It's only a red herring if you choose to completely ignore the fact that one figure is over 20 times greater than the other figure.

There are fewer than 500,000 workers in India call centres, the fact that nearly all of them are educated to graduate level - if indeed this is the case - is irrelevant, they represent less than 5% of the total number of graduates in the UK.

Would you rather have 100% of £50 or 20% of £1000?

Not only that, any graduate level education that call centre staff may or may not possess does not make them any more able to deal with simple queries, as evidenced by the fact that many companies, including Dell, Powergen, Norwich Union for example, are bringing jobs back, citing customer complaints as the primary reason.

[Amethyst]

Re: call centres etc debate from enaids BT thread

I dont think it matters whos graduated in what or where they are. Common sense and decent customer service training matters much more than a bit of paper.

Personally I don't care where any one is based so long as they can understand my issue, deal with it appropriately and are polite, it really matters not one iota.

Did used to get on my nerves when my abbey phone banking account number was all 2's,3's and 5's tho. lol. Mind you my local takeaway ( about 200 yards away) make me spell WATER every ruddy time I call them. Must be my posh accent lol. Mind you Ruthie tried to teach me the local lingo but I don't get very far going about the place saying ey up duck how bigs ur bawlorks.

[Budgie]

Re: call centres etc debate from enaids BT thread

[quote=Amethyst;81632]Mind you my local takeaway ( about 200 yards away) make me spell WATER every ruddy time I call them.quote]

Blimey that is posh !

Ordering water for home delivery from your local takeaway !!!!!!!!

[argentarius]

Re: call centres etc debate from enaids BT thread

Sorry but I do think it is relevant -the whole point is that I think that sometimes these call centres are annoying and a waste of time .Maybe the UK company did not train correctly - or maybe they are just pleading ignorance as an excuse. Note I did say sometimes - and also the rest of my previous post did say we should not generalise.I dont really mind who deals with any query I have as long as they deal with it in an effecient manner. Unfortunately it is obvious with our difficult regional accents and lack of knowledge about our language variations, foriegn call centres are not always the best way to deal with UK problems. As customers we are entitled to complain about that if we want to.

Funnily enough, I recently had a phone call from Scottish Power and I really struggled with the employee's accent and had to ask him to repeat things several times. I am sure you can guess ... but he was Scottish, not Indian.

Not only that, any graduate level education that call centre staff may or may not possess does not make them any more able to deal with simple queries, as evidenced by the fact that many companies, including Dell, Powergen, Norwich Union for example, are bringing jobs back, citing customer complaints as the primary reason.

I agree that some customers are dissatisfied, and that some companies are bringing work back to the UK. I also agree with you that not all call centre staff in India do a good job - but I don't really agree that their location or nationality is particularly the issue, rather lack of training.

It's only a red herring if you choose to completely ignore the fact that one figure is over 20 times greater than the other figure.

There are fewer than 500,000 workers in India call centres, the fact that nearly all of them are educated to graduate level - if indeed this is the case - is irrelevant, they represent less than 5% of the total number of graduates in the UK.

Would you rather have 100% of £50 or 20% of £1000?

Let's try to make this simpler for you. Maybe one in 500 people in the UK is a university professor. Only one in 5 people in the UK is a graduate. If I set up a call centre staffed solely by professors, then the people in the call centre would be, on average, better educated than those phoning them up - EVERY call would be dealt with by a professor, whilst only one in 500 of those calling would be a professor (including the call centre worker on his/her day off).

That is the comparison I'm making. The fact there are 100 times as many graduates (in the UK) as professors (some of whom are in the call centres) is competely irrelevant.

Amethyst - I agree. Not much I can add to your comments.

[Sapphire]

Re: call centres etc debate from enaids BT thread

All these facts and figures are very interesting, but it still doesn't alter the fact that due to accents or lack of training or whatever, YOU STILL CAN'T UNDERSTAND THEM nor THEM US !

But I have trouble understanding people from Yorkshire or Scotland even pmsl.

[enaid]

Re: call centres etc debate from enaids BT thread

Sky are the same, mostly Scottish and very hard to understand, but also kinda sexy too lol

[Tools]

Re: call centres etc debate from enaids BT thread

All these facts and figures are very interesting, but it still doesn't alter the fact that due to accents or lack of training or whatever, YOU STILL CAN'T UNDERSTAND THEM nor THEM US !

But I have trouble understanding people from Yorkshire or Scotland even pmsl.

How very dare you!!!!!

[scottishlass]

Re: call centres etc debate from enaids BT thread

Funnily enough, I recently had a phone call from Scottish Power and I really struggled with the employee's accent and had to ask him to repeat things several times. I am sure you can guess ... but he was Scottish, not Indian.

All these facts and figures are very interesting, but it still doesn't alter the fact that due to accents or lack of training or whatever, YOU STILL CAN'T UNDERSTAND THEM nor THEM US !

But I have trouble understanding people from Yorkshire or Scotland even pmsl.

Sky are the same, mostly Scottish and very hard to understand, but also kinda sexy too lol

What is wrong with a Scottish accent:tinysmile_twink_t2: I can understand it perfectly well pmsl
I do have a telephone voice but still get asked to spell everything lol

[Jester]

Re: call centres etc debate from enaids BT thread

Some Scottish accents are easier to understand than others. When I worked in Edinburgh a few years ago, the first three days was spent with a puzzled look on my face wondering who 'ken' was that everyone kept referring to in strange scenarios. Until I finally realised that in Scotland, Ken = Know !!

These days, I am pretty good with most accents. But, the one thing I have learnt (being Welsh) is to slooowww doooowwwnn the waaaay I speeeaaaakkk !!

Seems us Welsh speak too fast (though not as fast as Fifers LOL) and most English have a real problem with that.

I think the same applies to the Indian Call Centre staff. Their grasp of the English language is usually quite good, but it is the sheer speed at which they speak, together with their Indian accents, that renders one incapable of understanding hardly anything they say !!

[argentarius]

Re: call centres etc debate from enaids BT thread

I think we're mainly of one mind, or at least most of us are.

The problem is Indian call centre staff who are poorly trained, or poorly selected.

Ideally, UK companies should only use Indian call centres if they:

- select staff who are fluent in English, and prepared to make efforts to understand those UK citizens who have more unusual accents;
- train those staff well (including in the comprehension of regional accents);
- give those staff the empowerment to deal with all queries/issues that are raised with them, or to quickly resolve those issues which they haven't dealt with before.

Significantly more than half of those points apply equally well to UK-based call centre staff.

[WendyB]

Re: call centres etc debate from enaids BT thread

Blimey Arg, I find myself agreeing with you. Wonders will never cease lol.