The Homa Files

Excerpted from Wash. Post,”The Bangalore Backlash: Call Centers Return to U.S.; Some Firms See Value in Familiar Voices”, December 11, 2008

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If you prefer a customer service agent who speaks “American,” then computer maker Dell has a deal for you.

Catering to consumers put off by the accents of Bangalore, Manila and other call-center hubs around the globe, Dell will guarantee — for a price — that the person who picks up the phone on a support call will speak “American”.

The Your Tech Team service, with agents in the United States, costs $12.95 a month.  It also promises that wait times will average two minutes or less. Without the upgrade, a customer is likely to get technical help from someone in India, the Philippines or the other places where Dell has operators.

Occasionally, “we’ve heard from customers that it’s hard to understand a particular accent and that they couldn’t understand the instructions they were getting,” said Dell. “This illustrates Dell’s commitment to customer choice.”

“Most people in the customer service world believe that if you have sold me a product, then support for that product should be free,” the managing director of  a call-center consultancy.

Full article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/10/AR2008121003574.html 

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This entry was posted on December 15, 2008 at 6:45 am and is filed under Customer Service. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.