Sponge listening
Dell Inc. has re-routed corporate support calls from a center in India back to the US after a high level of dissatisfaction with Indian technical-support representatives. Customers say the operators are difficult to communicate with due to "thick accents and scripted responses".
There has been an increasing trend for large Telcos and IT corporations, among others, to shed their social responsibility to their local workforce by replacing them with cheaper overseas counterparts, largely in India. The bottom line is the prime imperative.
Even here in Australia this is now common, with calls to Telstra's call centers now being sent to India in a lot of instances. Even direct marketing calls for local products are being handled offshore, as I can testify myself (Nice try, Ravi, but please don't call again).
TV footage here has shown Indian call center workers being schooled in the finer points of Australian culture, (eg; prawns on the barbie, koalas, all the usual cliches), which unfortunately does nothing for the Indian worker's ability to actually understand the needs of aussie customers.
Dell's response has been to assuage the corporate clients, while leaving average consumers with the same dissatisfaction to continue dealing with Bangalore. According to CNN, among the Dell customers dissatisfied with the company's use of overseas labor is one Ronald Kronk, Presbyterian minister, who has spent the last four months trying to solve a technical problem. His main problem now, apparently, is that the Dell call center is in India: "They're extremely polite, but I call it sponge listening -- they just soak it in and say, 'I can understand why you're angry,' but nothing happens."
"Sponge listening" accurately describes the experience - a kind of passive soothing of the customer without actually understanding the issue or resolution. It's more about Dell, for example, apparently being seen to be responsive without actually having to spend the bucks dealing with hard issues like faulty consumer goods. And there are plenty of anecdotal stories from within the IT sector about quality issues with some Dell equipment.
Unless, as with Dell's corporate clients, counter-pressure is brought to bear on companies like Telstra and Dell, we may all have to get used to a lot more sponging and a lot less service.
Item posted by AutoEditor at 11:55 am ::
