Cable Forum - View Single Post - NTL Indian support centres

andygrif · 12-07-2005, 09:56

I'm starting to get a clearer picture of the biggest problems regarding Indian call centres.

There are two key issues that I can see; The first and most common is that the call cantres are hiring people with a less than perfect knowledge of English. That's not the fault of the person on the phone of course, and in a country where about 10% of the population speak English, I imagine that many of those speak it as well as I speak my A Level French (i.e. I couldn't work in a French call centre).

The second problem is that none of these operations appear to allow deviation from what is printed on their screen. I've had the displeasure of getting through to Dell, Powergen, NTL and Norwich Union's Indian call centres - and they are all as inflexible as the next. I would add that ntl's were at least polite, spoke English well and friendly - if still utterly unhelpful. Powergen's on the other end of the scale, were useless in all respects.

I don't object to Indian call centres per se, but when I phone I company I expect to speak to someone who is an expert on the product, has the autonomy to resolve my issue and who understands my extremely middle-England accent perfectly, and me theirs.

It does and had backfire on companies though. Powergen have just had a cancellation letter after I spent five hours over two days trying to sort a minor acount query out.

What I still fail to understand is why any company in the UK thinks it's OK to put my calls through to India for handling - but somehow don't think it's right for their sales lines to be there. Isn't that odd?

12-07-2005, 09:56	#5
andygrif Inactive Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 2,820	Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL I'm starting to get a clearer picture of the biggest problems regarding Indian call centres. There are two key issues that I can see; The first and most common is that the call cantres are hiring people with a less than perfect knowledge of English. That's not the fault of the person on the phone of course, and in a country where about 10% of the population speak English, I imagine that many of those speak it as well as I speak my A Level French (i.e. I couldn't work in a French call centre). The second problem is that none of these operations appear to allow deviation from what is printed on their screen. I've had the displeasure of getting through to Dell, Powergen, NTL and Norwich Union's Indian call centres - and they are all as inflexible as the next. I would add that ntl's were at least polite, spoke English well and friendly - if still utterly unhelpful. Powergen's on the other end of the scale, were useless in all respects. I don't object to Indian call centres per se, but when I phone I company I expect to speak to someone who is an expert on the product, has the autonomy to resolve my issue and who understands my extremely middle-England accent perfectly, and me theirs. It does and had backfire on companies though. Powergen have just had a cancellation letter after I spent five hours over two days trying to sort a minor acount query out. What I still fail to understand is why any company in the UK thinks it's OK to put my calls through to India for handling - but somehow don't think it's right for their sales lines to be there. Isn't that odd?