Talking to people from India when you ring the bank!

[Jimmy Little]

Man this is terrible please don’t get me wrong I’m in no way having a pop at foreign people but when I as an English man ring my bank to do a few transfers I get someone from a India who I cannot understand… this is crazy HSBC are sooooo rich it’s unbelievable yet they save pennies by having loads of there call centres in India. The chap I spoke to was very polite but I could not really understand what he was saying it was just hard work! He had trouble understanding me and I did not have a clue what he was saying! This is getting stupid now! And as I understand HSBC have only secured all the call centres until 2006 with a few to moving them all to India….

[Atomic]

Hello thanks for calling BANK-X my name is ramadeshi-dindan-dobe-watsit... um I mean Will.

It'd be fine if they spoke english to our standard, but they have such an acent its just getting silly.

[Jimmy Little]

yeah it is...crazy! they should invest some of the money they are saving in english training

[TiG]

Bobby - the banks don't care about you, they can't they have to care about there shareholders, that means making as much money as possible, which means moving there call centres to india on the whole.

I bet their English is better than your Punjabi.

TiG

[Moby-Dick]

try phoning "3" customer services - they are even worse

I make a personal point of avoiding companies who outsource to india

[Jimmy Little]

outsource should be banned!

[Atomic]

I bet their English is better than your Punjabi.

And I bet they'd complain if they phoned an Indian company and I answered speaking punjabi with my strong english accent

[Jimmy Little]

^

to right

[Moby-Dick]

outsource should be banned!

outsourcing per se isn't a bad thing, its when the outsourcing is done that reduces the quality of service, its bad

note: I work for an IT outsourcing firm providing support to a wide range of small/medium firms and a genuinly belive they get a good service at a reasonable cost

[Jimmy Little]

there is a HSBC call centre that my lady works at until she leaves at the end of the month, 100's of people work there, but the rumor is the call center will move to India in 2006... that can't be good for anyone, that means 100's of people aorund where i live looking for work

[Blub2k]

Some companies are already moving back as people are unhappy with the drop in service since the companies moved to India.

[malfunction]

outsourcing per se isn't a bad thing, its when the outsourcing is done that reduces the quality of service, its bad

note: I work for an IT outsourcing firm providing support to a wide range of small/medium firms and a genuinly belive they get a good service at a reasonable cost

Difficult one IMO. Yes you can offer good savings to companies and in global terms I believe it's a good thing. It just worries me in local terms - and in personal terms - I need to be able to jusitfy my high salary (compared to the equivalent off-shore wage) so that I can pay the bills!

[DaBeeeenster]

If you dont like it, you are free to take your business elsewhere.

Personally I think outsourcing to India is superb. Good for them. The only reason English is so prominent in India is due to the acts of the British in the 19th Century. What goes around comes around, eh?

[MD]

Natwest were the first, they came back and boy did they make a big thing of it. I work for a company who has outsourced and I cannot comment on that, but I will tell you, a simple call center her works in India, something that is very specific and requires attention to detail does not.

India = good at simple business.
Britain = good at specific business needs.

m@

[Moby-Dick]

Difficult one IMO. Yes you can offer good savings to companies and in global terms I believe it's a good thing. It just worries me in local terms - and in personal terms - I need to be able to jusitfy my high salary (compared to the equivalent off-shore wage) so that I can pay the bills!

I'm not a fan of outsourcing on a global scale (unless its for a skill that you cannot get locally )

Beeny I do take my business elsewhere - the offshore call centres are fine it you stick to their script , but they are screwed if you try and ask for something that isn't on "the script"

In theory most inhouse call centres have a logical escallatin path that can deal with such issues.

I'll take an example of my favorite ISP, ZEN.

when you phone them up, you get stright through to a guy who seems to be good at gauging your technical level and wonty ask daft questions.

if he can't solve it , he will transfer you to someone who can , the chance that that someon is in the same office and willl have the details you have given so wont have to give them again is why I continue to pimp them.

to me , thats good customer service , not taking 3 hours ( I kid you not ) to be able to ask some numpty at 3 a question because my name wasn't the MD's name ( company phones , I just had a tech query )

[tiggerai]

^ I second that...

Zen's customer service is second to none in my opinion... I've had problems with everything and they're always around to help.

Other companies should take heed! (Is there a customer service watchdog?)