Or can we? Maybe we can. Or at least affect it in some small way by being vocal about the quality of customer service we are receiving. If you have had to call Dell lately, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
My personal experience with outsourcing has been with regard to call center contact. Aside from the obvious issues of moving employment opportunities off of American soil, I am not a fan of outsourcing for many reasons. The biggest current reason is that when I call a company with whom I do business and I have the privilege of speaking with someone whose first language is clearly not English, I get a little grumpy. Call me insensitive to diversity issues. Go ahead. I don't care. I have the right to speak with someone who is understandable and who understands what I am saying. I have the right to speak with someone who understands our culture and the way American citizens expect to be served.
So...yesterday, I called my credit card company to inform them that they should do something nice for me like change my card to a rewards card since I use it so much. After a few difficult exchanges, I asked to speak with a manager. I said to the manager, "I don’t know whether you outsource overseas or not, but every time I call I get to speak with someone whose first language is not English and with whom I have a difficult time communicating. As your customer, I have a right to be picky about the quality of service you provide to me…..blah blah….” She validated my feelings, acknowledged that they outsource overseas, and then gave me a toll-free stateside customer service number to use in the future.
How about that? So...maybe we can start a revolution. Okay, maybe not. At least now I (and you) know that this may be an option with other companies.
So, did I get my rewards card status? No, because I was so excited by the result of my complaint that I forgot why I'd called.
Friday, March 23, 2007
We Can Stop Outsourcing!
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5 comments:
You are my hero! You may indeed be "insensitive to diversity issues" but that is the beauty of living in america, we have the right to be insensitve about whatever we want. The current preoccupation with political correctness has many of us fooled into thinking otherwise. I am glad that there are others who, like me, can still say what they believe whether others like it or not. Good job!
The Editor
You're funny.. I could imagine exactly how you were talking to them too because I've heard it so much!! :) The customer service for the credit card at work is overseas as well. I got frustrated with a woman the other day and told her that I wanted to speak with her supervisor. She put me on hold and never came back. Jerk. I can sympathize!
Love!
Hi, Keri!
I agree whole heartedly with you. It is amazing to me how we are not just outsourcing customer service type services, manufacturing, but now some our scientific technologies. We need to be concerned about lots of this because we are just becoming more of a society of consumerism, but it puts a wider gap between the haves and have nots. Not good overall for our economy.
On another note, I had a huge argument with a supervisor in Customer Service regarding a mistake they made. Long story short, she was a real witch and I, for once, kept my cool. I couldn't believe she was a supervisor, anyway, I asked for her supervisor and she almost didn't tell me the lady's name. Eventually she did and I made a complaint. My issue was an easy fix and what she told me was basically, tough luck. All is good now and I have been a great customer...sometimes that matters to people, sometimes it doesn't. So, question for me is...does GOOD customer service even exist?
When are you going to blog again??
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