BT promises to bring back customer service to UK contact centres
 

About time to!

http://home.bt.com/news/bt-life/bt-p...11364005181931

Re: BT promises to bring back customer service to UK contact centres
 

On the face of it this is a good move, but staffing costs in the UK are higher and if they offset that with reduced cover or poorer training, things could go very pear shaped.

Let us not forget, when this site was founded, NTL was providing shocking CS from exclusively UK-based offices ...

Re: BT promises to bring back customer service to UK contact centres
 

Unfortunately foreign call centers have been the norm for ISP`s, dont think offers a good customer service at all, the language barrier and accent make a terrible customer experience.

Not to mention the economics for the country with outsourcing all these jobs abroad, think UK call centers is a major selling point and a false economy for the companies who are outsourcing.

Re: BT promises to bring back customer service to UK contact centres
 

Except that it's completely irrelevant where a call centre is. Some companies with offshore service get rated the best in customer service, some companies with UK call centres manage to be the worst.

Re: BT promises to bring back customer service to UK contact centres
 

This is true however when I worked for NTL I was also a customer too, and regardless of how bad it could be it was never as bad as a standard Indian call centre. At least with those in the UK there's accountability, if you manage to get a name of someone you can report them. With Indian and Filipino call centres they know they can give you any word in their language and you'll have a tough time getting a complaint raised.

Also we tend to understand our own laws and customs too: a few years back when I was with HSBC I called them to report some fraudulent transactions on my account and the Indian agent said there was only so much he could do as he was "not familiar with UK laws".

I'm extremely against foreign call centre for many reasons, in India it's considered rude and almost a 'failure' for someone in a service role to not know the answer to things so often rather than say "I don't know" they'll simply ignore the question or answer a question that you didn't actually ask. Also many dont like to say 'no' so when you ask something to which they need to respond in the negative instead they'll simply give you a very vague answer and hope you pick up on the hint. I'm sorry but if I'm paying them my hard-earned money then I expect straightforward and up-front answers.

As such I have no problem paying extra for a service if it ensures I only get UK customer service.

Re: BT promises to bring back customer service to UK contact centres
 

Depends how they rate the call centres, virgin use NPS, which basically means the customer rates on the whole experience, you can have a good product and amazing technicians and an awful call centre staff but the figures get blurred by other factors