NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL

[Russ]

Originally Posted by BarFly

Russ i have to say your wrong, ive worked in tech support in swansea for over 3 years, & have never seen a script for teching calls, in use, or even offered to people to use, all this talk of scripts does get a bit boring after a while...

Things have changed - there was a 'script' back then.

[BarFly]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

Then why do you disagree with him, I believe russ has confirmed that this isnt a problem with swansea it is with india and you have just said you cant comment on that. I back Russ up on this one, when getting the india call centre there is obvious scripting and if the problem isnt with your own pc then the tech usually gets stuck on what to do, not promising at all. It also gets frustrating when they dont learn how to log your call and pass on feedback to higher level tech's, I have had the odd occasion one or 2 times where the tech has some intelligence and tries to work out the problem himself but unfortenatly this is a minority.

I stand corrected then, you believe Russ is right, & You believe they use one in the India call center , then it must be true, after all those hours you spent working for Daksh in india & IBM, i bow to your superior knowledge......

personally i think they dont use one, & im in a far better postion to "guess" than you are, i speak to them every day, unlike you.....

[Russ]

Originally Posted by BarFly

I stand corrected then, you believe Russ is right, & You believe they use one in the India call center , then it must be true, after all those hours you spent working for Daksh in india & IBM, i bow to your superior knowledge......

personally i think they dont use one, & im in a far better postion to "guess" than you are, i speak to them every day, unlike you.....

No need to be petulent - what I'm saying is with the Indian callcentre they give the impression of script reading far more than the guys in Swansea do. I'm not saying they all use it because I've not spoken to them all, but there is a definate difference in call style between the two.

[BarFly]

im sorry you get the impression that people are using a script but can tell you now that, not one person in tech support ( swansea ) uses a script for tech'ing calls . As ive said im not 100% sure on india, personally i dont think they do, theres a possiblity, but i doubt it, as there are to many variables to consider when it comes to calls/pc's/customers/Ntl.... for a script to work or be anywhere near accurate......

[Russ]

Originally Posted by BarFly

im sorry you get the impression that people are using a script but can tell you now that, not one person in tech support ( swansea ) uses a script for tech'ing calls

OK but I'm not saying they definately are - I'm saying they used to. Either way, when you call and get through to Swansea, there is little or nothing in their manner to suggest or give the impression that they do.

[nffc]

Could the difference merely be due to the Swansea being more used to lifestyle differences etc so they feel more accustomed on the phone than the India call centre? Whether or not the scripts are used or not is a moot point, and I wouldn't suggest the indian operators are more or less technically aware (in general) than those in Wales. There is evidently a difference though, I'm sure it's just that the call centre isn't in Britain, you can pick up things in conversation or subconsciously speaking to people in your own country than people in a completely different continent in a different lifestyle.

We have scripts :o but
- no-one knows/can remember where they are or even cares
- it's rubbish service to use them or at least convey the impression of using them
- yes there are things to check but the skill is using appropriate questions to find out what the problem is not following a script
- you can normally tell a customer's capability after talking to them for a while, obviously you can't overlook simple things but obviously "no power script for dummies" would not be suitable for "no power script for people who know about PCs but just want the repair service" even though a lot of the actual ground covered may be the same!

That and most people would know the steps to solve common problems after about a week or two, from memory, so they're not really needed.

Personally I'd say scripts in TS were a bad idea, because all you need is a bit of skill trying to pinpoint the problem, which obviously would vary on who you're talking to, plus it implies zero initiative if the impression's there one's reading from a script. The closest I have to a script is a notepad file of things to check, assorted clippings I've picked up, and a load of bookmarks to useful sites/intranet pages to find quickly...

[ian@huth]

Are scripts any use?

What do you think the pilot of the plane flying you to your holiday destination uses prior to take off? Would you feel more comfortable flying with a pilot who ignored the pre-flight script and decided to just rely on experience?

[BarFly]

Originally Posted by ian@huth

What do you think the pilot of the plane flying you to your holiday destination uses prior to take off? Would you feel more comfortable flying with a pilot who ignored the pre-flight script and decided to just rely on experience?

that would be a check list or a flow chart, not a script, you'l find these are used in all varying mannors in any problem solving enviroment where you get repeat problems/situations.

Whilst I hate to agree with Russ the Indian call centre staff member I spoke to doid sound like she was following a script. However, this purely seemed to be used to diagnose an issue and therefore seems pretty sensible if perhaps a little impersonal. Once my issue was diagnosed, the solution and then the explanation of the solution were clearly not scripted.

But scripted or not, I was happy with the service, which is the main point surely.

[Chrysalis]

Barfly did it not occur to you when you communicate to india you are probably not talking to TS agents but possibly management or people in other parts of the building who are not customer facing?

[Derek]

I'm just off the phone to them. The last two times I've called them I've thought scripts were being followed but this time it sounded natural.

There were some gaps in the conversation (probably trying to decipher my accent) but it seemed to get resolved fairly quickly.

Now all I need is for someone to actually phone me back to arrange an engineer to replace the one that went AWOL last weekend and sort the dropouts and I'll be happy.

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by BarFly

that would be a check list or a flow chart, not a script, you'l find these are used in all varying mannors in any problem solving enviroment where you get repeat problems/situations.

There is very little, if any difference between a check list and a script. As you rightly say they are used in problem solving situations to ensure best practice is followed and nothing essential is missed. In the UK you are likely to get the individuals own wording of what is on the script but in India with English not being their first language you are more likely to get the wording exactly as in the script with slight hesitation because it is not their natural language.

[Derek]

Originally Posted by dezzo

Now all I need is for someone to actually phone me back to arrange an engineer to replace the one that went AWOL last weekend and sort the dropouts and I'll be happy.

And guess what didn't happen

Phoned again this morning and now have another engineer booked for Monday. The guy I spoke to was pretty clueless and said Monday morning was the only option I had.

Now hopefully this one will actually arrive.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by ian@huth

In the UK you are likely to get the individuals own wording of what is on the script but in India with English not being their first language you are more likely to get the wording exactly as in the script with slight hesitation because it is not their natural language.

And this is one of my pet annoyances caused by out-sourcing any kind of customer-facing departments: I want to speak to someone who I know can understand my concerns, my language, my tone and can empathise with my situation. When all the responses I get are almost robotic due to my first language not being theirs, it feels very impersonal and faceless.

[BarFly]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

Barfly did it not occur to you when you communicate to india you are probably not talking to TS agents but possibly management or people in other parts of the building who are not customer facing?

Yes i do speak to tech support agents & very rarely do i speak to mangers or people in a non customer facing role, probably 90% are customer facing of the ones i speak to, so they would be the same people you speak to...

Did not occur to you i work for the company, i deal with them every day, on this subjuct im going to have a slightly better level of understanding & knowledge, so please believe me......

---------- added 26-11-2005 at 16:30 ----------

Originally Posted by ian@huth

There is very little, if any difference between a check list and a script. As you rightly say they are used in problem solving situations to ensure best practice is followed and nothing essential is missed. In the UK you are likely to get the individuals own wording of what is on the script but in India with English not being their first language you are more likely to get the wording exactly as in the script with slight hesitation because it is not their natural language.

Have to disagree here, there is a very large difference between a script & a checklist, if i was told to use a script to do my Job, i would quit, as it would become too mundane & difficult to fix issues... I have a mental checklist for every type of problem i have ever come across & this is nothing like a script as even that checklist has to charge depending on the circusmtances & doesnt tell me what words to use or how to say things to customers....

A script is... " hello my name is xxxx... Can i take your account details, thankyou... what seems to be the problem blah blah" very robotic & something you have to follow rigoursly,.

A checklist or flowchart, is a list of the best fixes for certain issues, that should be used as reminded for an agent to make sure they have covered anything, nothing should ever be so rigorous that it cannot be changed or altered according to the sitaution.....