rather than glibbly refering to them as our coloured friends in india, I believe it is worth considering a few issues as to why the service is poor that have little to do with colour or race.
Firstly, I do accept that there are likely to be increased issues when it comes to accent. Often after all people in the same country with different accents find it hard to understand each other. This is in my opinion not the only barrier to understanding. Often the quality of line is terrible. Voices have a hissy indistinct quality that make them difficult to understand.
I think the issue of working to a script is a problem though. It's hard for anyone to work with people from a different country without having been there. 1 or 2 day cultural training programs delivered in the office just don't do it. It's not that one country is better than another but they are different. I always find it better to just get straight on with the meat of the call in these situations rather than trying to make small talk. teaching people manufactured small talk about the weather or fish and chips does not help!
lastly and importantly to offer good technical support on something the person you are dealing with really needs to have personal experience of the service including the types of equipment used. if the problem is complex or unusual and the person is working from a script this quickly shows. This is shown even more clearly when you start talking about being visually impaired. Sometimes you get a person in these call centres who does use the internet at home and then you can start to get somewhere as you have something in common.
You never know when you may need technical support and the last thing you want is someone pretending to offer you technical support who has no knowledge of the product apart from what they can read in front of them on pieces of paper or the screen.
While for many services like Tiscali are very good, it is often only when problems occur that you can really start to sepparate the good services from the bad ones. I think offering this tokenistic level of customer service says something about how little companies do actually value their customers as does writing Dear Valued Customer at the beginning of a message rather than using mail merge to find the person's name. These things did have a hand in my decision to go with PlusNet. A couple of years ago technical support quality did start to slip and so did the company rating. Steps have been taken to remedy this and ratings have recovered somewhat.
Regards Graham Graham Page Home Phone: 0207 265 9493 Mobile: 07753 607980 Fax: 0870 706 2773 Email: gpage@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx MSN: gabriel_mcbird@xxxxxxxxxxx Skype: gabriel_mcbird----- Original Message ----- From: "phil stephenson" <phil@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 4:49 PM Subject: [access-uk] Re: Bt total broadband - was ISP providers
Hmm, Dave, I'm guessing you feel quite strongly about this then! I do note that the new o2 service does have an 0800 number for support and/or it's free from o2 pay-monthly mobile users like myself. Thanks for your comments though. Cheers, Phil -----Original Message-----From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf OfAnkers, Dave (UK) Sent: 31 January 2008 15:14 To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [access-uk] Re: Bt total broadband - was ISP providers Phil, BT Broadband technical help, ha that's not an 0800 number! and do you like waiting ages to get through? plus can you understand our coloured friends in India, working to a script and searching for answers on their databases ! They go round and round, keeping you on the line, why because you're paying for it! and you'll be damn lucky if they actually fix it! Get the gallium ready! If I had access to the big red button, I'd have blasted them to hell many times over! it was good bye and good riddance when I switched to SKY. If I'd had access to cable, I'd have switched to them, just so I could completely rid myself of any dealings with BT. To sum up the quality of BT in one word, and this is true of many other people I know, it's CRAP! I hope I've made my feelings about BT clear enough. I still get hot underthe collar when I remember all the hours spent on the phone being past fromone department to another, because none of them knew what they were doing, or did they?....running up my phone bill! Dave Hi me again!Ok think I'm closing in on my search for a new ISP provider! I have decidednot to carry on with Tiscali as I've had real trouble with them over the past few days trying to speak to someone and getting some straight answers from them, the worst of which being this morning when I waited a good 10 mins to get through and just as I was being put t through got cut off, Ithen retried and got through but was told "due to a systems failure I wouldhave to ring back tomorrow"...I was not happy!so of the others I have looked at I am still thinking of the new o2 service or the Bt total broadband top range option...of all the people I've tired tospeak to today Bt were the most helpful and it was an 0800 number! so here's the question, what's people's experiences of using Bt broadband and receiving customer support from them, in particular does anyone out there use the Broadband talk option and if so how good is it and how accessible is the phone you get? I know I know there will be no doubt those of you who love Bt and those ofyou who will have thrown a fit at the mere mention of them but would be goodto hear your recommendations positive or negative! thanks as ever, Phil ******************************************************************** This email and any attachments are confidential to the intended recipient and may also be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient please delete it from your system and notify the sender.You should not copy it or use it for any purpose nor disclose or distributeits contents to any other person. ******************************************************************** ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq __________ NOD32 2840 (20080131) Information __________ This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. http://www.eset.com ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq __________ NOD32 2842 (20080201) Information __________ This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. http://www.eset.com
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