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Culture very difficult to replicate
I've had many experiences with India-based call centers - from PeopleSoft, IBM, Netgear, etc. The biggest difficulty in dealing with these outsourced support personnel is communication. I've seen many mentions of accents as being a chief source of frustration, and that's absolutely true, but beyond that there are many other areas of verbal skills that play important roles in how easily you communicate ideas.

Voice inflection, humor, and other components that make up the communication experience can make or break a conversation. When someone uses very formal phrasing, as would someone who is not very comfortable with English would, it creates an atmosphere that can become very tense on both sides of the exchange. Nuances of word choice, inflection, etc. can easily be misconstrued and lead to misunderstandings. I've had a phone call escalate very quickly to a shouting match with a PeopleSoft DB2 call rep based on the manner in which communication was presented to me - I wasn't the one who began the shouting.

It's those nuances that can't be taught in a 6 week training class in Bangalore. It requires a year or more of informal mixing with the American masses in order to pick that sort of thing up. Unless you can staff your call center with workers who "get it", your call center won't see a very high level of customer satisfaction.
Posted by: ejhonda   Posted on: 03/31/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
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The biggest problem with Indian tech support  Michael Kelly | 03/31/04
So, can you imagine outsourcing the Rev Falwell's job to an Ayatolah?  kd5auq | 03/31/04
HP is the same  jimmybrain | 03/31/04
to be fair  V Sanders | 03/31/04
it's total costs that matter  furl12@... | 04/01/04
Outsourcing not an answer  drichards1953 | 04/01/04
International support  AbsolutelyNot | 04/01/04
That would be great if  kiddpeat | 04/04/04
Who says executives are "UNTRAINABLE"?  kd5auq | 03/31/04
Huh...  Harvey Birdman | 03/31/04
Harvey! You understood correctly.  kd5auq | 03/31/04
This is a good sign  Squawkbox | 03/31/04
Dell Dimension calls still go to India  mistergoodman | 03/31/04
EXACTIMUNDO!  AdrianKole | 03/31/04
They did not say Dimension support was moved  wd5dbc | 04/01/04
It's not only at home  JimSatterfieldW | 04/01/04
This tells me which machines I will buy for my home.  Natalie GS | 03/31/04
not for home...  ryusen | 03/31/04
Culture very difficult to replicate  ejhonda | 03/31/04
On the nose  FilledOut | 04/01/04
makes sense...  ryusen | 03/31/04
"Support?"  doncowdrey | 03/31/04
HA-HA!  Chad_z | 03/31/04
re HA-HA!  V Sanders | 03/31/04
This applies to development, too  John Carroll ZDNet Moderator | 03/31/04
Indian support  tlymer | 03/31/04
It went the other way for me  JimSatterfieldW | 04/01/04
Do you really know what you are buying?  Sunny Jalolly | 03/31/04
After all, a few Indians never bothered us much in Texas, but...  lomamonster | 03/31/04
Angry American  Quiller | 04/01/04
Angry American, or really Ugly American? [eom]  AJSmith1000 | 04/01/04
Cute  Quiller | 04/01/04
Angry American happy yeah obviously  Stallion_z | 04/01/04
Indian call centers  dhmcguire@... | 04/01/04
Let the market decide the issue  quietLee | 04/01/04
The (non)cultural problem  niolonra | 04/01/04
our economy in shambles  jfalknor | 04/01/04
Really, they are out of India?!  onederer@... | 04/01/04
I personally had this experience!!  zak2002@... | 04/04/04
Apple  TWRX | 04/05/04
Indian "support" = no support  r7di697 | 04/13/04
India failure an understatement  arlbe | 06/30/04
Hey, this is an advertisment - story by nonjournalist  mipsv | 05/06/05

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