Life Musings

Speaking of laptop woes, what about this story? Customer service in the computer industry can be pretty darned sucky. Appalling, even.

I think that offshoring has a lot to do with this. I don't mind the offshoring of services, and I'm wary of those who insist on keeping jobs in the USA. (That is a short-sighted view, at best. Their desire to protect US jobs can severely jeopardize a company's survival, thus weakening the economy even further. But I digress.)

One problem is that when call center jobs are farmed out to India, there are sizeable language and culture barriers to overcome. While a lot of Indians can speak English well, the call center guys that I've spoken to tend to have a spotty understanding of the language. Additionally, their grasp of technical matters appears to be spotty as well.

I also suspect that they don't have the same understanding of customer service. This should come as no surprise. In the USA, the quality of customer service is highly valued. In Third World nations, the same isn't true. They don't have the same culture of serving the customer and keeping his loyalty. Thus, a customer service rep from the Third World might not understand why it's so important to notify a cusotomer if a shipment is going to be delayed. If so, then that's just shameful.