TV3's report on India's call centres

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Posted Wed 15 April 2009 @ 10:55 a.m. by Megan Lacy

If you missed it last night, Campbell live did a segment on the secret world of call centres in India.  I watched it this morning trying to work out what they were trying to achieve. And I don’t mean the Campbell live report; no I’m talking about Infosys. They showed the wonderful outside grounds or cosmetic things for their call centre business but didn’t show the heart or inside the buildings.

I am wondering why Campbell Live wasn’t allowed in the buildings? Giving no access does not help change the perception of ordinary Kiwis about call centres; it even makes me nervous. If anything it's given people more ammunition to reject offshore call centres. If you have never worked in a centre what would you think? Battery hen would be one thought and it’s taken us years to change that perception in New Zealand.

I must say from the outside the building and employee benefits looked fabulous. Any company or employee would love a small village-like environment with gyms and food outlets everywhere. However the tight security gives me the heebees and again can give the wrong impression. 

Surprisingly, I learnt they have 19,000 people employed - wow! And the average age is 22 to 25. They all have a degree or higher in English, which is nice, but the beef I have with offshore outsourcing is it’s not Kiwis talking to Kiwis giving Kiwi service. 

I think once again call centre work has got a bad rap by this offshore outsourcing carry on. If you haven’t noticed I’m not a big supporter of full offshore outsourcing. Ok, I accept there is a need for peak call management - I just don’t support full offshore and taking the jobs from New Zealand workers.

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5 comments

• Jack Mead says:

  Although is Kiwi to kiwi service really delivered at stellar levels to which other countries can only aspire? Find some qualified 22-25 year olds, weed out those that aren't "just doing this till I can pay for my OE" and are not too self-obsessed to care about, and take responsibility for their conduct vis a vis overall brand value and put them to work for my ISP and Cellular telco. Call centre work in NZ receives a bad rap because (outwardly, it would appear that) NZ agents that take pride in their work are in the vast minority - too many of us are simply far too important to sit on a phone listening to other peoples problems. Do we deserve to not have these jobs awarded to those that want to do them?

  Added: 17 April 2009, 11:07 a.m. Flag as Spam  |  Flag as Offensive

• ariki gell says:

  Message to Jack, reward people who perform, and employ managers who have some form of post secondary school management training ie they know how to motivate staff continuely, and thats their number one priority(not sitting at their desks reading KPI reports) and you will have the level of service you seek. Ive worked in a call centre environment so I know what Im talking about, Ill always do a better job than an outsourced solution, because right now companies should be thinking about how to make money, as they will run out of ideas to cut costs. Why would want to talk to?

  Added: 17 April 2009, 1:45 p.m. Flag as Spam  |  Flag as Offensive

• Michael Maryan says:

  There has been a trend recently to bring call centres back to the country they service and the reasons are local knowledge and the ability of call centre agents to build relationships with the customers.
  
  It’s not a matter of how well overseas call centre agents speak English – the TV3 piece showed the efforts Indian call centres make to ensure their staff speak good English. It’s a matter of culture and geography.
  
  For example a while ago a client was outsourcing their call centre to an Asian city using local staff. They brought the Asian staff to New Zealand to train them in the processes, and our role was to teach them about the New Zealand culture and use of language.
  
  What became apparent very quickly was that, although their command of spoken English was very good, they were flummoxed by how New Zealanders use words (consider a Kiwi who says he’s “a bit crook” for example). We had to teach them common colloquial phrases and even these continued to baffle them.
  
  And because their cultural norms and values are very different from ours they had difficulty with how we treat each other over the ‘phone – politeness, building rapport and so on. Even their way of handling conflict (upset or angry callers) was very different and likely to cause misunderstandings.
  
  Then there were Maori place names, which completely bamboozled them because how they pronounce groups of letters is very different. We spent a lot of time with them trying to teach them how they are pronounced and I’m still unsure of how well they fared.
  
  Some customer functions, such as tech support, can be successfully exported, but when it comes to building relationships and using place names, it’s more risky.
  

  Added: 17 April 2009, 3:33 p.m. Flag as Spam  |  Flag as Offensive

• Hoane Doe says:

  The "local" service is a myth. I remeber when Telecom closed its call centre in Lower Hutt. "How will a call centre rep in Auckland know where Alicetown or Aro Valley is?" was the cry. Seems like we have coped quite well for the last 10 years. Now that a call centre rep is in Asia instead, what's the difference?
  
  I remember when the curse of the IT world was the software development "sweatshops" based in India. It was only a matter of time before corporates would be coming back to local code-cutting shops to get "local" service.
  
  Look at the world 20 years later, TechMahindra & Satayam (ignoring the recent naughtiness of their former CEO) are world leaders. They providing staff for assignments in NZ who are motivated, capable & deliver on time.
  
  Anyone who believes that "local" call centres can ever hope to compete with the scale & cost advantage of the Asian industry needs to take some medication. Just as we have had to let our textile & clothing manufacture go to Asian factories, so too will the 21st century labour-intensive jobs (like call centres) go off-shore. (Remember when we used to build our own Radios, Televisions, Cars, Shoes etc etc).
  
  New Zealanders need to stop trying to rail against the change - we need to develop jobs in enterprises that can't be scaled up - otherwise we will always watch those jobs go somewhere where they can aggregate the demand from NZ, Australia, Canada, USA, UK and satisfy the need with an equal or better customer experience at a much cheaper price.
  
  

  Added: 17 April 2009, 3:54 p.m. Flag as Spam  |  Flag as Offensive

• Ariki Gell says:

  When telecom closed their Lower Hutt Call Centre, I doubt the company went anywhere in New Zealand that had a lower lease cost or, for that matter a lower staff rate. Has Telecom coped 'quite well?' Have a look at the share price. It was all an egotistical approach that big company executives have, that result in mega call centres like the one they are proposing for upper Willis Street, or what BNZ are doing on the waterfront. 1000 seat environments in the CBD. That would mean someone in Wainuiomata will have to travel into town at increased costs to themselves and reduced family time. Ive done a comprehensive study that shows Wainuiomata is a far more feasible place to build a call centre than the Wellington CBD.
  
  Local call centres can compete, just like local clothing manufacturers can, because in the market place you supply what the customer wants. In the U.S more call centres are going back because the customers demand it. Also, have the prices from Telecom gone down because they have shifted call centre staff to Asia? If they arent going to go down significantly, why not have better service?

  Added: 20 April 2009, 10:13 p.m. Flag as Spam  |  Flag as Offensive

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