Callcenter outsourcing problems
April 1, 2010
Recently, two interesting and cautionary tales involving employees of a Manila based third party call center and a client based in New Zealand has come to light. In the first incident, five New Zealand Telecom customers had complained about receiving obscene messages, including one living in Wanganui who was sent a text message that said “f*** you customer” after she had complained about delays in receiving text messages. This customer then complained to the town mayor on his Radio Live talkback show which triggered an investigation that ultimately traced the messages to four employees based in the Manila working for Sitel on the New Zealand Telecom account. These employees were suspended pending a further investigation.
After the first incident came to light, another customer complained about being a victim of harassment. According to media accounts, she received 15 prank calls in just an-hour-and-a-half which started as soon as she hung up from a terse phone conversation with a Manila based call center employee. She also found herself locked out of her internet account. The telecom responded by saying that the employee was being “spoken to with some priority.”
Now to put things in perspective: New Zealand Telecom, which has 800 customer service employees in Manila and more than 1,500 in New Zealand (a complete onshore and offshore breakdown is available on their website), is not exactly known for having the best telecom and customer service track record. In fact, the Mayor who the customer had complained to after receiving obscene messages was becoming increasingly concerned with the level of customer service being provided to his residents following network outages affecting cell phones in the area. Meanwhile, the customer complaint about the obscene messages, like other complaints about New Zealand Telecom’s deteriorating service, had gone unanswered. It was only after the mayor mentioned the incident on his radio show and a press release was issued by the town council was an investigation done about it.
At this point, the chief executive of the Telecommunications Users Association was then quoted as saying that the burden of suspicion had been lifted off of the staff at New Zealand Telecom and that the incident should lead to a review of all of the telecom’s outsourcing contracts. He also stated that this sort of incident involving a “rogue employee” who looses control while under pressure, can happen to any company.
Meanwhile, postings on the GeekZone technology forum (which had a detailed discussion of both incidents) asked whether the obscene messages were really from an employee or were from someone impersonating one by using a web-based SMS service that spoofs a sender’s number – certainly a valid concern in today’s world. However, one poster pointed out that the real issue is the fact that the telecom did nothing when a customer had complained about abusive text messages and it was only when the Mayor and the media became involved was something actually done about it.
What are the lessons here? Obviously onshore employees are just as capable of sending obscene text messages and doing prank calls to customers as offshore employees. However, and while offshore outsourcing can result in better customer service levels, it is clearly not a cure for a lousy product or service (New Zealand Telecom) and even worst management practices (the lack of follow-up about complaints until a politician and the media got involved). In other words, perhaps the sender of the “f*** you customer” message had in fact been to well versed in the policies and practices of New Zealand Telecom.
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Soon, lot of call center jobs will move back to US due to high number of unemployment. If Obama gives more tax benefits for companies creating jobs in US and taxing companies those who have operations in other countries, then US companies have no choice, they will move their operations back to US
I never had any good experience in speaking with oversees callcenter companies. For some reasons I cannot get what I need from them.
Generic callcenter outsourcing like telemarketing will be slow this year. Some of those jobs are moving back to US and UK. There will be growth in niche callcenter jobs like technical hardware support, application support or other niche vertical business domains like insurance, medical, etc.
The issue that arising from having off shore call centres can be stemmed back to management. The local people managing the off shore teams need to be very clear in their objectives and expectations. They need to be able to communicate effectively with the outsourced workers and be able to help them through the process.
I manage a support team in the Philippines and don’t have many problems. I found my support team at http://www.freelancer.com
They have a lot of highly skilled and intelligent people to choose from. It all comes down to how you manage the team and ensure their goals are aligned with yours.
Every call center had a pool of human RESOURCE IN IT .IF MANAGEMENT CAN HANDLE IT, IT WILL PRODUCE A HUGE OF NUMBER OF customer SATISFACTION
MEHAR
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BPO Process
Sure, call center outsourcing employees are capable of committing this kind of malfunction when it comes to customer service however mismanagement is the only problem. Proper personnel management never fails to contribute to motivating their employees on develop a positive state of mind. This will eradicate the onslaught of a furious call center agent.
Kyla
http://www.callboxinc.com
Having problems regarding personnel management with concern to emotional breakdown should be the responsibility of the management. While there many companies out there that trains there employees well, we cant be sure of the psychological capabilities of an agent just be sure that your call center service is doing the right job through proper management.
It all boils down to poor outsourcing due to the very rigid competition and too little area for expansion and progress.
The outsourcing problem is not something that crept on its own. In fact it is not a recent phenomena but an evolutionary one. Outsourcing has been going on since ages; first in terms of manufacturing jobs and presently in terms of IT jobs
Outsourced call centers: Is money the only motivator? read this article very insightful http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/news/955387/Outsourced-call-centers-Is-money-the-only-motivator
Very informative post on the problems with call center, it is very interesting to read, great tips as well… callcenter
Hey thanks for sharing about these issues with call centers, it is very informative and looking forward for more posts.