NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL - Page 3

Chrysalis · 14-07-2005, 19:43

I had to ring my bank today concerning a matter, and the guy was indian and struggled to understand me, however he was very good at his job repeating everything I said and was efficient. To me if the india guys that work for NTL are trained better and are tech minded people there would be much less of an issue.

jkthorp · 30-07-2005, 16:51

re: indian people working in call centres in the UK - a lot of people do assume that if they are speaking to an indian person in a call centre, that the call centre is indian and its not an indian person in a british call centre. when working in a call centre i was listening in to a call with an asian colleague (1st generation immigrant) and heard the caller comment to a friend in the background "they've put us through to f**ing india, f***ing useless" which was charming, but possibly understandable. The caller had a strong scottish accent and there were obvious communication problems between them!

At the end of the day thats the basic purpose of a call centre - communication - and if that can't happen efficiently its failing! its fair enough if an indian person can understand every accent in this country, and respond correctly to what is being said, but if you've never lived here, understood the culture and encountered many british people, i don't think you can possibly do that.

Plus, afaik, india doesnt have an ntl network, if they've never used it, how can they know how to sort problems out with it!?!

Scripts, IMO, are a big no-no. Any muppet can read scripts, they need to be employing people with the ability to converse, not just read! But as usual, with anything, pay peanuts, get monkeys

nffc · 30-07-2005, 17:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by ian@huth

If you were a NTL technical support agent and a customer called and told you that they couldn't get to any internet sites, what is the first thing you would ask them to check / do?

Check the modem is on, of course...

Chrysalis · 30-07-2005, 22:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by jkthorp

re: indian people working in call centres in the UK - a lot of people do assume that if they are speaking to an indian person in a call centre, that the call centre is indian and its not an indian person in a british call centre. when working in a call centre i was listening in to a call with an asian colleague (1st generation immigrant) and heard the caller comment to a friend in the background "they've put us through to f**ing india, f***ing useless" which was charming, but possibly understandable. The caller had a strong scottish accent and there were obvious communication problems between them!

At the end of the day thats the basic purpose of a call centre - communication - and if that can't happen efficiently its failing! its fair enough if an indian person can understand every accent in this country, and respond correctly to what is being said, but if you've never lived here, understood the culture and encountered many british people, i don't think you can possibly do that.

Plus, afaik, india doesnt have an ntl network, if they've never used it, how can they know how to sort problems out with it!?!

Scripts, IMO, are a big no-no. Any muppet can read scripts, they need to be employing people with the ability to converse, not just read! But as usual, with anything, pay peanuts, get monkeys

Well I dont usually judge a company after one phone call, if eg. I ring up 5+ times and each time I speak to someone with an indian accent it is usually an indication of an indian call centre, the same goes on judging how good their support is I wont judge just after 1 experience.

Chris W · 31-07-2005, 20:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by nffc

Check the modem is on, of course...

bad bad bad idea!

reponse to that question: "of course it's on, i'm not stupid." customer immediately annoyed....

better question: "which lights are lit on the modem?" -> tells you whether the modem is on or not, and also tells you whether the modem is locked onto it's signal/ is on usb or ethernet/ is connected to pc properly etc etc.

anyway, back on topic....

Quote:

Plus, afaik, india doesnt have an ntl network, if they've never used it, how can they know how to sort problems out with it!?!

I had never used ntl when i started working for them! having used a product isn't a requirement for supporting it, or knowing about it.

jkthorp · 02-08-2005, 13:29

Quote:

I had never used ntl when i started working for them! having used a product isn't a requirement for supporting it, or knowing about it.

but you had probably seen it in someone elses house, or used another digital tv or broadband service. the point was is that it might be quite an alien thing in india (could be wrong, maybe they do have digital!)

huxleypiguk · 06-08-2005, 08:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by jkthorp

re: indian people working in call centres in the UK - a lot of people do assume that if they are speaking to an indian person in a call centre, that the call centre is indian and its not an indian person in a british call centre. when working in a call centre i was listening in to a call with an asian colleague (1st generation immigrant) and heard the caller comment to a friend in the background "they've put us through to f**ing india, f***ing useless" which was charming, but possibly understandable. The caller had a strong scottish accent and there were obvious communication problems between them!

1. People regulary think that they are speaking to India when the person has a strong WELSH accent !
2. Britian has a huge diversity of accents. Vistors to our CC from USA, France and Italy all commented on the huge range of accents and marvelled as to how our agents handled certain calls from Scotland, Northern ireland and Tyen and Wear where the accent was strong and they couldn't understand a word.

Florence · 06-08-2005, 09:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

Well I dont usually judge a company after one phone call, if eg. I ring up 5+ times and each time I speak to someone with an indian accent it is usually an indication of an indian call centre, the same goes on judging how good their support is I wont judge just after 1 experience.

Or you can ask them where they are based it normally brings the correct answer, also ask what the weather is like in India as its raining here also brings the correct response. I had to explain where Manchester was once and when I commented they just said they didn't know as they had never been to the UK.

We can only hope they will improve but the ideal world would be to keep help call centres in the country the help is required. I do not have any problems with Scottish accents to the surprise of Ayrshire friends, I also have no problems with he welsh accent but the Indian accent is the hardest one to understand and this coupled with being in need of help to sort out the connection for the internet does seem to cause more problems than needed for all concerned. The help is the main priority and if its open to misinterpretation this can create more problems and anger when the customers patience gives way with constantly repeating whatÃƒÆ’Ã†â€™Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â¢ÃƒÆ’Ã‚Â¢ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…Â¡Ãƒâ€š Ã‚Â¬ÃƒÆ’Ã‚Â¢ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…Â¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â¢s wrong.

ian@huth · 06-08-2005, 09:51

Communication is a two way thing and at times it can be difficult to decide which end is the poor communicator. It is very easy to blame the Indian you are talking to if you are having difficulty communicating but it could just as easy be yourself at fault. You have only to look at some of the posts in the forums to see that the poster cannot communicate properly.

jonbr · 06-08-2005, 20:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonbr

please allow the Indian call centres to be flexible and DON'T make them stick rigidly to a script provided by your selves. The UK call centres do it and so can the Indian call centres. I've worked with enough Indian IT staff before to know they are very capable people if allowed to be!

I would like to remind every one of some thing I said in starting this thread (see above)!

Indian IT staff are very good technically, but it was obvious from my dealing with the Indian call centre, that NTL have provided a script and will not allow them deviate from it. They are just as good as we are, so let them be as good.

neo123 · 17-08-2005, 06:42

Im not a racist, but i really get frustrated when i cant understand a word they say. I have had this numerous times, and had to bite my tounge and hang up the phone

wsf86 · 17-08-2005, 09:51

Maybe I'm just cynical but isn't it interesting that ntl's new Chief Operating officer was responsible for off-shoring his previous company's Customer Service to India. I think you know where I'm going with this....

Florence · 17-08-2005, 10:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by wsf86

Maybe I'm just cynical but isn't it interesting that ntl's new Chief Operating officer was responsible for off-shoring his previous company's Customer Service to India. I think you know where I'm going with this....

Wonder if he can offshore his job to India and save the company more money in one job than they ever could save with the call centre.

Raistlin · 17-08-2005, 10:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by wsf86

I think you know where I'm going with this....

India?

Raistlin · 17-08-2005, 12:14

Well.....

In an oddly ironic twist I found out something about myself, my preconceptions, and (more importantly) learned to not judge based on first impressions today.

I called a company, fully expecting to get an Indian call center and get the run-around.

The person on the other end of the phone answered, and sounded Indian. I instantly went into despair mode.

My problem was resolved quickly and efficiently.

So, what did I learn?

Was it not to base my judgements of Indian call centers on my previous bad experiences with one or two?

No.

It was that I can't tell the difference between an Indian accent and a broad Northern accent when the phone line is bad. The person (and the call center) was based in this country!