Wednesday, January 6, 2010

The business of bad business

Question: How many outsourced call centres does it to take to help me with a billing problem?

Answer: Zero. It's apparently impossible.

Companies in North America seem to be under the assumption that outsourcing their customer support to other nations, (cough)India(cough), will cut costs while still providing satisfactory service! Call me stupid, but here is how i see it...

Step 1. I buy a product/use a service of a company.
Step 2. I have problems with the said product/service, and contact customer service/billing support.
Step 3. The agent that is 'assisting' me is having problems understanding me, and i them.
Step 4. The words i pick up from our conversation are "it is impossible sir", "please hold", and "policies and procedures."
Step 5. I clearly get nowhere with the first agent, and then wait on hold for 30 minutes to speak to a "Supervisor".
Step 6. Rinse and repeat.
Step 7. Never will i again buy from/use this company. They have H1N1 as far as i am concerned. Stay away, don't breathe on me.. Don't even CALL me.

Now... Is it just me, or did that company just lose a customer? Holy moly they DID! Yep, definitely saving money there. Idiots...

Anyways, my point is that companies should better evaluate the cost of outsourcing their customer support, because i am pretty sure the cost of one dissatisfied customer is that they will tell eight to sixteen people about their dissatisfaction.
Statistically speaking of course.

2 comments:

  1. &-EE, dear friend.
    i DO follow your blog!
    this rant made me laugh.
    especially the "rinse & repeat" part.
    you witty, witty man.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Racist,
    Maybe it's being outsourced to Vancouver. But really, you live in Edmonton. Does it matter whether you call a hotline or go to dairy queen and speak to an english speaking person? You're going to get the same crappy service, at least the Indian in the call center is polite. That B at Dairy Queen is SO rude.
    Sincerely,
    Cynical

    ReplyDelete