Why they should have more English based call centres

There's a big Virgin Media call centre in Swansea, I guess you just got unlucky :p
 
EVH said:
There's a big Virgin Media call centre in Swansea, I guess you just got unlucky :p
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Oh wow, I genuinely didn't know that. Been with NTL since 2002. Since the Virgin changeover, I have raised tech support tickets twice in 2006 and once in 2010 and it was always an Indian call centre, as back in the NTL days. The only time I did speak to a UK person was when I phoned their marketing dept in 2002 to enrol as a customer.
 
Angilion said:
Yes, yes, yes, no.

Accent is very relevant. A fairly large proportion of the calls I've had to or from call centres (either me phoning for service or them phoning me to try to deceive me into buying something) have been made worse by communication problems caused by accents. Communication is diminished on both sides as we both have some difficulty understanding each other - how can that not have an effect?

Also...who on earth expects "a good experience" from a phone call with someone at a call centre? It's a call to resolve a problem or to buy something, not entertainment.
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You can still have a good experience trying to buy something or get something resolved i didn't say it was entertainment. E.g. was the problem fixed, what it fairly quick, were they helpful etc.

Sorry i completely disagree i really don't think accent is that big a deal if you need to ask someone to repeat what they said ask them to repeat it! i've had to do that face to face as well as over the phone i really don't see why people bitch and moan about foreign call centres. It seems the only way to please people would be to automate these services and then people would complain about speaking to a robot.

If people hate speaking to call centres why not see if the company you are trying to deal with has a chat function on there website most companies now have this is some form or other as the cost to serve is cheaper via chat than it is over the phone.
 
freak2002 said:
I understand the need saving to be had by going overseas, and coming from Luton the indian accent does not really phase me. Funnily enough I struggle more with the Scotish call centres! Tesco use some in Scotland, and I really cant understand what they are saying sometimes.
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Provided the line quality is decent I don't really understand why so many people seem to struggle with accents, I appreciate that they do but maybe I'm just lucky in that I generally find it quite easy to comprehend what people are saying almost irrespective of their accent.

The reason you find so many Scottish call centres (and to an extent also Welsh call centres I believe) is apart from normally being cheaper to operate and having a good pool of labour available is the prevailing belief that many people find the accent pleasant to listen to.
 
semi-pro waster said:
Provided the line quality is decent I don't really understand why so many people seem to struggle with accents
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My personal feeling is that it's not the accent, so much as the speed people in call centres talk. If they've got 2000 people in the queue and they're providing a standard response to a standard question, call centre operators seem to speak a lot quicker (as it's the speed of delivery rather than thinking time that's holding them up), which sometimes makes it harder to understand them.
 
I always find speaking to females easier than speaking to guys. I think the females I have spoken to have always sounded like they actually want to speak with you, whereas the guys sound like they are just there to do a job.
 
Newm0 said:
Raising the stakes is entirely different to: foul and abusive language, personal threats and racism which happens very frequently. I have experienced this from an advisor point of view and manager, if a customer is a abusive warn them once if they do it again hang up.

We've also blocked customers from having an account with our company for this behaviour, even if you are given the run around advisor unless by some miraculous reason you end up back at the same guys desk it's not the current advisors fault, by all accounts raise your grievence but don't resort to foul and abusive language
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What are you meant to do when they are lying scum?

It's one of the issues that irks me the most.

Take Dell for example. Trying to get a non standard problem fixed is next to impossible. They barely ever deviate off the path, are very hard to understand, are cunning enough to thicken their voice or pretend not to understand you when it suits them, and are quite happy to spin you round for hours and basically make things up.

One even called a liar.

I mean wtf?


Absolute no accountability. Ask to speak to a manager and he's just the same again. Can't get higher than him without being referred to the "legal department" who again has the thickest indian accent going and fobs you off.
 
Lloyds credit card services were all foreign based call centres iirc. It was always a pain in the backside dealing with the one track scripted response at the other end. I'm pretty good with accents, but some of them were very difficult. Add to that the agents didn't seem to understand your question so you had to repeat yourself.
However, the last time I had to contact lloyds for my current account services regarding a problem I had, I got through to a UK call centre who passed me through to the appropriate department, with competent staff, who not only resolved my issue within 10 minutes, but also refunded me £10 charges and £5 for the phone call.
I guess they are learning, or maybe they cannot afford to annoy their current account users in the same way as their credit card services?

As far as UK based call centres go, the occasional heavy regional accent, like northern irish or some of the thicker scotts accents I have had to ask them to repeat what they just said, but that's more down to my unfamiliarity with the inflection than any incompetence of their part.

I do make a habit of ****** and blinding when the automated machine is attempting to handle my call, especially when it says 'your call will be recorded for security and training purposes' - "Oh, really? You ******* piece of ****, why can't I talk to a ******* **** ******* person, you dumb **** machine ****!?".
I'd much rather wait a little and then speak to a person. :p
 
BoS is a UK based call centre, it bestows a certain sort of trust with the company that you're speaking to some-one in the same company, as such you're most likely to use them.
I was once put through to a heavy accented welsh lass* and we both struggled with understanding each other. I honestly can't remember who or what I was calling about.


*well came to the conclusion they were welsh, you know when someone does a Welsh accent and cycles between welsh, georgie and indian...this was her.
 
I work in a call centre and it's just as bad when the people who are calling into you have a really heavy accent (Indian/Scottish are the ones I have most trouble understanding), especially since a lot of people have really terrible quality phone connections, calling from mobiles etc.

The worst thing about call centres (foreign and at home) is the scripted responses. That annoys me far more than the accent of the person I'm calling.
 
Monserrat said:
A question kinda related to this topic - I'm registered partially hearing (and partially sighted), category moderate-severe deaf. I have great difficulty understanding foreign accents. I know in the ideal world that out-sourcing should be completely stopped. However, if that's unrealistic, do you think that those registered partially hearing (upon valid proof) should be allowed to talk to a UK call centre agent? You would dial the normal call centre number followed by a PIN. Think about it: for the partially sighted like me, most companies will issue documents in large print, Braille or on tapes/CDs upon request, so on a similar vein, there should be communication leway for the partially hearing.
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The only thing i'm aware of for something like this is a service where someone acts as a go between yourself and the advisor so we'd ask them the questions they'd then relay exactly what was said to you etc. not sure what it's called though it may be touch type or something like that,
 
My favourite overseas call centre was Xerox (when I used to have to ring them a lot in an old job), lovely Irish accents mmmMMmMmmm :p
 
When I hear their voice I just hang up and redial and pray to Allah they are english
 
The Rainforest's call centre is in Ireland. They were rubbish. Mind you, not as bad as some of the other nationality call centres, but they were shocking...

Tend to find BTs (Scotland) are quite good.

kd
 
I don't think the solution lies in better call centres, i think it lies in more text based support. Everything i've needed to contact my bank about i've managed to do perfectly well through their messaging system. There are a few situations where this wouldn't work, obviously, but if we didn't need to have these disposable jobs then it would be the preferable solution in most cases.
 
HAz said:
When I hear their voice I just hang up and redial and pray to Allah they are english
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One of my tech support staff is from India. He's got a strong accent but he also has a masters degree in computer science and can solve pretty much any problem you're likely to have. He works in our office in Maidenhead. If you call with a web hosting related query, there's a good chance you'll come through to him. Would you hang up, just because of his accent?

I echo what others have said in that the reason Indian call centres are rubbish is because of the training. The staff aren't empowered with either knowledge or the authority to do anything but follow the predefined script and escalate if necessary.

You've got to bear in mind that a lot of these companies outsource tech support because they run on tight margins. They have to cut costs to remain competitive. If they had their call centres in the UK, you would be paying more for the service.
 
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