VM's Indian callcentre

[Russ]

Originally Posted by General Maximus

I am glad you said that because there are 2 ways to looks at this. I was going to ask that one of the cable forum team posts the results to somebody they know at VM just so that they had the feedback as I do believe it is an alarmingly high % of us who do believe the indian call centers are useless.

Showing that to our contacts is unlikely to make much difference as companies like VM and many other will only take direction from focus groups, and not directly from their customers. It might seem counter-productive but companies have been working that way for years.

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by General Maximus

I am glad you said that because there are 2 ways to looks at this. I was going to ask that one of the cable forum team posts the results to somebody they know at VM just so that they have the feedback as I do believe it is an alarmingly high % of us who do believe the indian call centers are useless.

Money talks and while it continues to be cheaper to use Off shore call centres and the customer base does not leave in droves or complain, then we will continue to have these call centres unless it becomes a brilliant marketing ploy to bring all call centres home to be UK based.

[General Maximus]

Originally Posted by Moldova

unless it becomes a brilliant marketing ploy to bring all call centres home to be UK based.

funny you should say that because I have noticed an increasingly large amount of adverts on TV now advertising UK based call centers to the point that I don't actually know what is being advertised (Coca Cola or car insurance?) and what is good about that brand/company apart from the fact that they have UK call centers. And just to prove a point, on Sky it is insurance adverts/sue/claim adverts galore to the point that it just becomes a blur but the one that has stood out to me which I noticed this morning was LVE car insurance and that was because they were primarily advertising UK call centers and that is it, and I must admit that as a selling feature (which it even shouldn't be considered as one) it is something which appeals to me now because of the poor experience I have had with indian call centers (albeit from a a different business sector). I don't know what proportion of businessed or types of businesses use foreign call centers but I am fortunate in that all the people i need to ring for my mobile phone (car phone warehouse) and car insurance (priviledge) are all UK. As stupid as it sounds, if i was looking for another provider for something and I found out they didn't use UK call centers, I wouldn't go with them out of principal. The french wouldn't like using UK call centers so why should UK peops tolerate non-UK call centers?

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by General Maximus

funny you should say that because I have noticed an increasingly large amount of adverts on TV now advertising UK based call centers to the point that I don't actually know what is being advertised (Coca Cola or car insurance?) and what is good about that brand/company apart from the fact that they have UK call centers. And just to prove a point, on Sky it is insurance adverts/sue/claim adverts galore to the point that it just becomes a blur but the one that has stood out to me which I noticed this morning was LVE car insurance and that was because they were primarily advertising UK call centers and that is it, and I must admit that as a selling feature (which it even shouldn't be considered as one) it is something which appeals to me now because of the poor experience I have had with indian call centers (albeit from a a different business sector). I don't know what proportion of businessed or types of businesses use foreign call centers but I am fortunate in that all the people i need to ring for my mobile phone (car phone warehouse) and car insurance (priviledge) are all UK. As stupid as it sounds, if i was looking for another provider for something and I found out they didn't use UK call centers, I wouldn't go with them out of principal. The french wouldn't like using UK call centers so why should UK peops tolerate non-UK call centers?

The french equivalent would probably be algeria or morroco and I wonder how they would react to that.

If it becomes a commercial reason then they will return to the UK but while they can get away with it then they will continue to give us poor service.

But bringing the call centres back may not make the problem go away, as to cut costs they may just bring in minimum wage staff with the same scripts and not staff with an interest in computers that are also trained as they cost more, which is the present situation in Virgin UK call centres for Tech Support.

[Retrovertigo]

I know someone who went for a job at pipex I believe it was, about 12 months ago. She was going for a job doing phone support and as part of the interview was given various scenarios where things may have gone wrong and how she might go about giving advice to customers. No crib sheets, no scripts, just tested on her knowledge of P.C's and general network setup. It's a shame VM don't follow that same philosophy.

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by Retrovertigo

I know someone who went for a job at pipex I believe it was, about 12 months ago. She was going for a job doing phone support and as part of the interview was given various scenarios where things may have gone wrong and how she might go about giving advice to customers. No crib sheets, no scripts, just tested on her knowledge of P.C's and general network setup. It's a shame VM don't follow that same philosophy.

We do that in the UK and then have full training and support for the first few weeks on the phones.

[General Maximus]

it is a shame they dont apply the same standards across all VM then

[Russ]

Looks like things are about to get worse....

http://www.contact-centres.com/0309.virgin.htm

The contact centre which handles calls and enquiries from Virgin Mobiles customers is thought to be considering outsourcing overseas as part of a cost cutting exercise.