Would you pay more for better service?

I used to think customer service and technical support were givens: you either did it well or failed in business. After all, if you don't support your customers, what have you got?

Now I'm not so sure. The multiyear trend of outsourcing service calls--primarily to India--seems to have consumers endlessly frustrated. The big question is: does it matter?

Conventional wisdom says we're frustrated because American jobs are being outsourced. But anecdotal evidence from my own personal focus group suggests that we may have gotten over the outsourcing thing, only to hit a snag on the support itself not being up to snuff.

I've personally had shockingly horrible experiences with offshore technical support from HughesNet and Symantec. I canceled my service with both as a result. On the other hand, a recent experience with Dell was quite satisfactory.

I'm really not sure why overseas support should be inferior to onshore support. Isn't everybody working from training manuals? Are we really better trained than our friends in India, or is it just a time zone thing? It can't be language; India has a huge English-speaking population.

Looking at it from a corporate perspective, the savings of outsourcing service calls are enormous. But is it worth it? The answer to that question lies with consumers. Are you willing to pay more for better service from representatives that live on your soil?

If so, then for the first time in decades there's potential for electronics companies to differentiate based on service. But does that potential really exist, or are American consumers unwilling to put their money where their mouth is?

Here's the million-dollar question: would you be willing to pay more for a product or service, say 10 percent to 20 percent more, if you knew the service calls would be fielded by American workers?

Put another way: how do you rank customer service and technical support versus factors like performance, features, and price when making a buying decision? I'm talking about all kinds of electronic products and services. And I'd love to hear from small businesses and enterprise customers, as well as consumers.

[bhennon]

I would pay more for US support. Not 10-20% but i would pay more. I used to recommend Dell to all my customers and friends without question. It was because their support was awsome. You always spoke to someone that could help you. They may not have known the answer but they had the tools they needed to help. It also felt like they cared! That goes a logn way with me.

When speaking to people offshore there are two issues that bother me.

1. They have scripts that are designed to make you fell like they care but you can tell that they could care less!.

2. They are unable to help with the serious problems. An example: I ordered a PC part and it did not ship because of some snafu. I called because i had paid for express shipping and i needed it soon. They were unable to help me no matter who i spoke with and there is not provision for me to speak with someone that could help. They had to "queue" up my issue for someone to call me back within 48 hours. Anyway, i got my part but only by calling and pretending i was a business customer (business customers get North American Support). I spoke with a person in the US and my part was at my house the next day.

the bottom line is that i no longer recomend any specific brand because you are going to talk to India for help no matter what company you choose, so it doesnt really matter.

[Len Bullard]

It's not the culture. It is the distance of the help desk from the development shops. No, we don't all work from training manuals and we can't. Large knowledge gaps open up as versions churn forward. Immediacy of access to current and often deep information is the key at every step in support. I've worked in companies since the 1980s that outsource support. In every case, support quality declined proportional to costs saved.

Regarding Dell and support: I bought a new Dell several years ago. The disk drive failed in the first 24 hours. I called support and told them the drive failed. They insisted on tests that ran on through three shifts (about 24 hours). When the last support personnel came on (in a different city and without the right information), I finally put the phone next to the machine so he could hear the revealing clickclickclick of a dead drive. That was the clue. I had a new drive a day later.

Again, it is all about immediacy of access to information.

[jgt10]

As a LONG time technical support professional (I'm the guy the help desk guys call!) I had two cases where my engineering support was in India. Couple with my consumer experience with American and non-American support centers I think I have some insight into what works and what doesn't work.

As you noted, the problem doesn't appear to be language as India (and many other nations) have English as their second or third (or fourth) language.

The first problem can be a problem of vocabulary, particularly in technical consumer products. A lot of time (and frustration) can occur if the customer and technician aren't on the same page of technical definitions. This can be compounded by the next problem of accents.


I don't have a problem with accents. I seem to be able to adjust to them fairly quickly. I have seen people who are slow to adjust or unable to adjust to accents, both listening and speaking. Thus, the combination of a heavy accent and an inability to adjust to an accent leads to a very frustrating situation. Mind you, it is frustrating for BOTH sides!

The last problem is a culture difference. Americans, generally , don't understand how different our culture from the rest of the world. We are used to thinking of cultural differences between East and West Coast, North and South, and so forth. Compared to the rest of the world, these are minor variations! How does this affect a support call?

When any part of the US talks to a support center in any other part of the US, the culture is similar enough to not make a difference. The accent may still be noticeable and may still cause problems, as may vocabulary, but the sameness of culture reduces, if not eliminates, the frustration. When the call goes to a non-US center, even if accent and vocabulary aren't a problem, the cultural differences can cause major problems.

Americans are generally aggressive and impatient. They also aren't very respectful of authority, tradition or custom. This conflicts with the cultures of other countries where respect, honor, tradition and custom are held much higher.

This conflict in cultural values leads to the most frustrating and aggravating fits and starts of support calls. The two parties step on each other because they aren't on the same cultural page. Even if vocabulary and accent aren't a problem, a cultural mismatch can make a support call a total failure. Worse, neither side may understand why there was a problem!

Now, to your question, would I pay more for US based support? Maybe. But I'm not a good sample, I do support and understand the difficulties. A friend of mine would. At the mention of Dell support (which he has had a series of bad experiences) he launches into a tirade that I won't repeat here. I suspect (and I'll see if I can get his opinion) he would pay more and pay it gladly.

Oh, how does engineering support work into this? When dealing engineer to engineer, the issues are reduced. There is frustration with accent and culture, but vocabulary and culture issues are restrained by the company culture and the focus on the product.

JGT

[mr3vil]

I really don't think the problem is with the outsourcing either. If companies didn't outsource to poorer countries where unemployment is higher you'd have to wait on hold ten times longer to get somebody on the other end that's just as tech illiterate as the guy in India. Considering there are meat packing plants in the US that are begging for workers, I don't think you're going to have very short hold-times at all.

And again, the American consumer has brought this upon themselves. They hate outsourced tech support, but they'll be damned if they have to pay for it. bhennon proves my point "I would pay more for US support. Not 10-20% but i would pay more." With an attitude like that its no wonder American companies are looking to cheap foreign labor to keep the price down. American's on the whole keep spouting that they'd pay more for better service, but at the end of the day they're merely concerned about the price-tag and nothing more.

[NJM_in_Tacoma]

I'm a senior Support Analyst and have watched our organization outsource its Help Desk services to India. It has failed miserably but not for the obvious reasons. The Service Desk personnel are courteous and knowledgeable but yet do not seem to satisfy their customers. The problem is that the Service Desk agents follow exactly the instructions they are given by state-side personnel through our knowledge base. Unfortunately, this knowledge base is poorly maintained because the maintainance work flow is thoroughly process bound and not tied to their incentives. We like so many other companies don't understand that a well maintained knowledge base can cure a variety of ills. Outsourcing will continually fail if the off shore component has poor connection to the information specific to the environment and the on shore teams are not motivated or don't have the tools to put knowledge into the information store.

[mdsudan]

There were some good points on cultural differences that were pointed out. This does not seem real until we step outside the western world into the other world and spend sometime there.

In market that goes from Qtr to Qtr - the drive to reduce cost results in a partner half way across the globe, many a companies pick the lowest cost bidder on their outsourcing deal...you get what you pay for. Remember just because a customer is going to pay extra does not mean the company is going to choose the second or third bidder from bottom, they will still go with the lowest and expect them to show 5-10% cost reduction year after year.

BTW - how many electronics companies are really american today ? Even for consumer PC, IBM has sold off its business to Lenovo, we have HP, DELL and a few other left atleast from a branding standpoint. With markets like China, India hungry for electronics and huge consumer demand (2 billion people), it pays to consolidate the support centres, it takes time to get them right, some get it early and some get it late.

Here is a thought - just because i am going to pay 10% more does not mean i am going to get better service. It only translates to higher profits, easier money, poorer management nett result, poor service next year. Yes i will pay 10% more but one year down, if they serviced me well. Similar to a cash back coupon except on the reverse direction.

[deckerjc]

Here's a few disjointed thoughts:

- I would say that at least 75% of the time that I have trouble with tech support, it has to do with the language barrier. Sure, India is the largest English-speaking country in the world, but that most certainly doesn't mean that they all speak it clearly enough for me to understand them. When I can speak to someone I understand well, the issues are minimized. (SPEAKING ENGLISH WELL SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO GET THE JOB)

- Years ago, an Oracle DBA told me that, whenever he had a problem, he waited until late at night to call. At that time of the day, the US-based support staff was gone, and the India-based staff fielded calls. He said the Indian staff was CONSIDERABLY more helpful. (A PROPERLY TRAINED SUPPORT STAFF CAN OVERCOME LANGUAGE ISSUES)

- Just a thought: Instead of paying more for US-based support, how about paying 10% LESS for offshore support? Even though I'd rather talk to someone US-based, so that I can understand them, shouldn't the quality of support be the same? (HOW ABOUT PAYING MORE TO GET ANY SUPPORT AT ALL? i BET MOST COMPANIES WOULD ABSOLUTELY LOVE THAT!)

[bilyara]

All good comments and points made.

As a former long-time manager of customer service organizations, both domestically and overseas, many of these issues arose over my many years in the business. Now that I'm back in the States, I find myself dealing with many of the same issues as a customer.

I had a similar experience to bhennon in dealing with HP. I finally had to call another number to get someone in the States to help me with my problem, which was satisfied in a matter of minutes, and the part that *I* needed was on my doorstep the next day.

In my experiences, the issue boils down to the fact that I believe U.S. companies who oursource customer service call centers focus too much on PROCESS, and not enough on PROBLEM SOLUTION. This is a where huge cultural differences come into play, 'cause the good folks overseas don't have a good understanding, unfortunately, of the expectations of the user. I'm not sure how to bridge this gap, which has less to do with language skills and more to do with asking the right questions (NOT from a script) in order to satisfy the customer.

And would I personally pay more for better customer service. It ain't worth the frustration. It reflects POORLY on the company overall, and hopefully U.S. companies who DO have overseas C/S call centers will realize this...and not nickel and dime the most important aspect of any company: Service.

[kaethy]

Your question is wrong. It should be "Are we willing to pay the same rates we have been paying for poorer service?" My answer is no.

I had a car insurance company I could call 24 hours a day and make changes, ask questions, or pay my bill, all while speaking to someone in the USA.

Then they outsourced to India. I called, got someone with a VERY HEAVY accent who had trouble understanding me too. I tried & gave up with him, and asked to speak to someone else. The next guy was understandable. The first customer support guy said his name was Gabriel, the second said he was Jonathan. They were both in India.

Of course the insurance company did not reduce my rates at all in exchange for outsourcing customer service. I switched insurance companies. What pisses me off is the names! Jonathan and Gabriel ??? Hardly likely. Clearly a ploy to try & mask the outsourcing.

[ruminator]

Dudes and dudettes, it looks like xenophobia reigns supreme. How about paying LESS for no support--US based or otherwise? I bought a Dell (325N) way back when Dell was relatively young and eager to please; once it became big, it couldn't care less about its customers. I contacted their US based support back then and their "solution" was always to replace it with refurbished parts. Don't kid yourselves, Texans, Carolinians, Bostonians, Chicagoans, New Yawkers, all have pretty awful accents too--it's just a matter of getting used to. There have been many Bostonians who I simply could not understand. Where the support is based has little to do with the quality of the support; in fact, Ireland was (at one time anyway) providing much PC support and I found it no better than US or India based support. If I paid less with no support, and I absolutely had to get service/support, then I could use the savings to go to a local PC shop and hire a party RESPONSIBLE for support. Part of the problem with tel or online support is not having a person in front of you who will accept responsibility for that specific support problem. When you go to the shop you can communicate face to face, make your problem and urgency understood, and assign resonsibility. Save the bucks for nonexistent support from anywhere and buy it at a place of your own choosing. New business model, no charge.