Moving Customer Service to Asia is a Dumb Idea
A recent New York Times article reports that “Americans calling the customer service lines of their airlines, phone companies and banks are now more
likely to speak to Mark in Manila than Bharat in Bangalore.”
Well, this week I spent nearly four hours on the phone with a Dell customer service call center. I don’t know if I was talking with either Mark in the Philippines or Bharat in Banalore, but whoever it was, the call was a disaster.
I made several attempts to alert Dell that they were sending multiple computers as well as multiple monitors to my home address.
My message was simple, “Stop it.”
The New York Times article makes the point that the Philippines was a former United States colony that has a large population of young people who speak lightly accented English and, unlike many Indians, are steeped in American culture.
I’m not sure I agree with that assessment at all. No country in the world is better at customer service than America itself.
The whole idea of outsourcing customer service to Asia is not new. This concept has been kicked around in the board rooms of corporate executives looking for ways to cuts costs for more than twenty years.
It was a dumb idea back then and it is a dumb idea today. Think about it. corporations spend billions developing products and services, but when it comes to managing the direct phone contact with their most important customers, those who actually purchase something, these companies outsource all customer contact to some foreign person.
How is possible for a person born, raised and residing in a culture so different from America, that they could possibly know how to handle a customer service issue better than Americans? The answer is obvious–they can’t.
Now back to my conversation with the Dell call center. Here’s the short version of a four hour conversation.
Me: Hello, my name is Doug Wallace.
Call Center: May I have your customer order number sir?
Me: Yes, but first there is something I need to tell you.
Call Center: Sir, I need your customer order number to call up the account. May I have the customer order number please?
Me: “Okay.” (So I gave the customer order number)
Call Center: I see you ordered a computer and monitor from Dell. Thank you sir for your business.
Me: The order was cancelled by Dell. But that is not my problem.
Call center: I’m sorry you are having problems sir. Please tell me the problem.
Me: Well, after Dell cancelled my order due to some confusion on my credit card number, I have been receiving either a new monitor or a new computer every day for the past week. I’m calling to ask you to stop sending computers that I have not ordered.
Call Center: Sir I will need to connect you to someone in the fraud department. You say someone is using your credit card to purchase computers you did not order?
Me: No, that is not what I said. I’m telling you that Dell is sending multiple computers to me, computers that I did not order, and now I have boxes of computers and monitors stacked in my kitchen, in my foyer, and in my office that I want you to pick up.
Call Center: Okay sir. Hold on while I connect you to the fraud department. At this point the call center disconnected my call during the attempted transfer. I’m assuming the disconnect was unintentional.
I immediately called back and again the Call Center and I went through the same conversation, which takes a lot of time precisely because the communications are difficult.
The accents are not easily understood. The customer service representatives lacked an understanding of the nature of the problem, and the call center insisted upon collecting all the required data before they would allow a discussion regarding the reasons for my call in the first place, resulting in a duplication of information exchange.
Anyway, the second call was also disconnected by the call center before a resolution could be reached. Again, I believe the disconnect was unintentional.
At this point I gave up trying to call the Dell call center and called my credit card carrier to inform them I was unable to resolve a disputed charge with Dell. The credit card carrier issued a refund on my credit card and assured me they would handle all communications with Dell from this point forward. It is important to note that the call center for the credit card carrier was located in Phoenix.
The New York Times article makes the point that American customers find [Filipinos] easier to understand than they do Indian agents, who speak British-style English and use unfamiliar idioms. Indians, for example, might say, “I will revert on the same,” rather than, “I will follow up on that.”
Americans are very good at using patience with Asian call centers in order to get their issue resolved. So, the primary problem isn’t the accent or the language per se, but rather the training, and most definitely the culture of the people working in the call center itself. They live and work in a society with a different attitude about customer service than America.
The call center is unable to deal with a unique problem, like Dell sending multiple computers without authorization. An American customer service agent would have been able to get straight to the heart of the issue and take possession of the excess computers.
Customer service is key component of the American way of doing business–it is part of our culture. No one does it better than Americans.
It’s been two weeks since the computers started arriving. Fed Ex left another ticket on my door yesterday for me to sign–I’m assuming that will be another computer. The credit card company made the comment that Dell has made no effort to respond to their inquiry regarding my dispute.
Dell has not made any inquiry as to why they have not been paid.
But, Dell did send a customer satisfaction survey via email yesterday. I took the time to answer a long list of questions. I gave them the lowest grade possible on every single question. I don’t expect to get any response from Dell.
Meanwhile the boxes are still in my home, unopened, and no one from Dell has contacted me about payment or about picking up the computers.
To put it in simpler terms: the model customer service representative must be a person who can comprehend the American way of doing business. If American companies want to permanently lose repeat customer, then the surest way to make that happen is to employ a company from Asia that is incapable of understanding that it is not normal for American companies to do make stupid mistakes that cost outrageous amounts of money.
But more to the point, outsourcing customer service lends support to the idea that it is solely the desire to cut costs and export American jobs, that American companies are pushing call centers to Asia.
The unsettling thing about the New York Times article is that it gives legitimacy to a very bad idea–it impacts the culture of customer service in America. It lowers the standards of excellence that have made American companies better and faster than anyone else in the world. It downgrades customer service to an unacceptable and destructive level in America.
UPDATE: Dell finally issued a RMA number for eight boxes, to be returned at my expense. The total cost of returning the computers and the many monitors exceeded $500. My credit card carrier graciously volunteered to reimburse fully all return shipment charges. The American customer service representative at my credit card company remained in constant contact with me during this nightmare. Dell has made no effort to contact me.
