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Dell Moves Call Center Back to US

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the americans-hate-accents dept.

alphakappa writes "Fox reports that Dell is moving its call center operations for the Latitude and Optiplex computers back to the US from Bangalore, India after an onslaught of complaints from dissatisfied customers who couldn't cope with the differing accents and scripted responses. Is this the beginning of a trend where companies recognize that the quality offered by relocation to cheaper centers around the world doesn't result in customer appreciation and better quality?"

12 of 961 comments (clear)

  1. Coming back? No. by grub · · Score: 5, Insightful


    Is this the beginning of a trend where companies recognize that the quality offered by relocation to cheaper centers around the world doesn't result in customer appreciation and better quality?

    For call centers, perhaps, but I wouldn't bank on having the IT jobs return from cheaper lands. If the IT geek doesn't have to deal with the end user then the language barrier is virtually nonexistent, at least as far as the masses are concerned.

    Does the primary language of the person who programs your dialog boxes really matter?

    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:Coming back? No. by Covener · · Score: 5, Insightful

      For call centers, perhaps, but I wouldn't bank on having the IT jobs return from cheaper lands. If the IT geek doesn't have to deal with the end user then the language barrier is virtually nonexistent, at least as far as the masses are concerned.
      Does the primary language of the person who programs your dialog boxes really matter?

      IT jobs require significant interaction from a Software Engineering standpoint. Having your architects/sales/management on one side of the world and ppl doing the "grunt" work on the other side can be very frustrating and impede progress.

    2. Re:Coming back? No. by ThrasherTT · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Have you ever worked in software engineering? "We want software that does x" is NEVER that simple. There will always be lots of back and forth between those who want the software written, and those who are writing it.

      --

      All Your Memory Are Belong To Java
    3. Re:Coming back? No. by weave · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Another thing I've always wondered about is confidentiality. Say I farm out the programming of my next big internet thang to some foreign company. What's to say that company could resell (or at least reuse) some of that code when they do the same coding for my competitor when they want in on the next big thang too?

      If not that, what about the programmers bleeding out code?

      Imagine you're running a programmer sweat shop and you get two companies wanting the same sort of thing. Why write it twice. Reuse code, profit. And if it's closed source, each company will never know they helped subsidise the code for their competitor and visa-versa.

    4. Re:Coming back? No. by Tenebrious1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Let's see: "Are you sure you want to delete this file?" Or: "Sure are you would enjoy this file to remove?" Yes. Yes it does matter.

      No, it doesn't. Users are going to click "YES" anyway, without reading the warning, then call you later to say they're missing a file and need it restored from tape.

      --
      -- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.
    5. Re:Coming back? No. by murdocj · · Score: 5, Insightful

      #2 (Management doesn't know what they want) has ALWAYS been the dominant problem during the 20+ years I've been programming. They are always willing to TELL programmers what to build, but usually there needs to be back and forth because it's obvious to the programmers that no one would want what product management has specified. Have grunts 12,000 miles away build exactly what has been specified cheaply isn't going to improve the situation.

    6. Re:Coming back? No. by pesky25 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Imagine what would happen if you host any data overseas. If some big financial institution wants to move some/all of their data overseas, what recourse with that host gov't will they have if someone locally steals it? Are the host countries going to go after one of there own and help out a Chase bank, I think not.

    7. Re:Coming back? No. by Zeinfeld · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Yeah, but how long until you have companies with only sales and execs in North America simply ordering their software from "Development to go" companies in India?

      Oh that happened long ago. And it was actually much more common during the dotcom boom than today. The results were not always too good, my company bought the assets out of bankruptcy of the main competitor to one of our divisions, despite having had a dominant position and a three year head start they failled because their software quality was crud and the customers knew it.

      I don't expect the outsourcing binge to continue forever. Labor is cheaper in India but not cheap. If you want a trained programmer they are expensive. The living standard that that programmer will enjoy in India is vastly better than that of most dotcom millionaires. They will have a large house, several servants, western quality education, health care etc.

      The only reason that outsourcing is cheaper is that the exchange rates reflect trade balances rather than parity of living standards. India's trade balance is going to grow as outsourcing becomes more popular. The rupee will strengthen against the industrialized currencies. This is inevitable in any case, it is chronically undervalued and the economy is growing rapidly.

      This is the way free trade and the free market works. Outsourcing is an abitrage play and over time abitrage eliminates the price differentials it exploits.

      --
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    8. Re:Coming back? No. by ksheff · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Even if management supplied a very detailed set of requirements, this still happens because the business problem changes. What was a perfect design a few months ago doesn't quite fit anymore. That's why businesses hire programmers in the first place. Otherwise, everything would be shrinkwrapped software.

      --
      the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
  2. Educational differences... by slykens · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I worked for one of the first companies to open a call center in India, ours was in Chennai. We started doing it in 1993.

    We hired a guy with a PhD in education to teach us how to work with the Indians and to help the Indians understand us. I've got a copy of one of his papers and it makes good reading.

    The largest problem is the difference in education systems. In the US we stress problem solving above all else, in India and other parts of Asia memorization is king. Our problem with our Indian employees became that if we gave them a procedure they could follow it easily but they couldn't develop the procedure on their own, thus everything must be scripted because the typical call center agent can't think on their feet.

    As far as communication differences we employed an American accent program to help smooth out the Indian accent. For the guys we put on the phone in outbound situations it worked great and they were easily understood. Some of the other folks needed a lot more help.

    It all comes down to how much you're willing to pay for good equipment and good training, both for the Indian employees and the Americans responsible for supervising the overseas call center.

  3. Re:Not good enough by Shaleh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Every few support calls I get an email from Dell asking me to fill out a survey. On a recent one I complained about the poor quality of support I had received. After dealing mainly with the people from the server support division the complete lack of clue and ability was very, very obvious. Good to know companies still listen to their consumers. Seems obvious, but many don't.

    I was talking with a woman yesterday who said she was getting very bad service from HP's support system. But she never complained to anyone. We as consumers must remember that if we just idly accept whatever the corporates throw at us this is the kind of treatment to expect. I can't speak for the rest of the world but here in America the desire for the absolute cheapest solution possible is slowly killing us. We complain about poor service, no help, etc. but then we go shop at the Super Mega Mart because their product is 5 cents cheaper.

    Sorry for the vent. My point is, we need to vote with our money and complain to the management when things are not how we want them.

  4. Re:Been there...fixed that by wideBlueSkies · · Score: 5, Insightful

    >> 'face time' can be a Western concept.

    Face time is not a 'western' concept. Since when is human interaction and body language 'western'?

    Since when is grabbing a sheet of copy paper and a pencil to draw a diagram 'western'?

    I don't think that these concepts keep me in a box. As a matter of fact, the teams of people that I'm working with in India and Japan agree that the lack of face time is a serious problem with the offshore model.

    How to reduce the problem? We're spending more time up front making VERY precise functional requirements documents. Now that we're into tech design, this has helped. Now we're looking for precise technical specs. Trying to replace body language and "you know what I'm trying to say right?" with precise english.

    And even though it's hell for my personal life (my wife is a saint), talking to these guys every day at midnight and 7:00AM keeps the communication flowing.

    Personally I hate the offshore model. But I have to learn to work with it, somehow. Either the model will stay, and I'll know how to package work and manage it. Or it will fail horribly(my preference) and I'll still have better management and requirements gathering skills to continue my career.

    wbs.

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